To whom should we show high fidelity
when making music, the conductor’s choice
or intention of composer? Melody
in making this decision has no voice.
Anne Midgette writes about a performance of “Cavalleria Rusticana” which Lorin Maazel conducted using a baton that used to belong to Toscanini ('The Virtuoso and the Star: A Study in Contrasts,' NY Times, January 18, 2007):
Mr. Maazel proved that a baton itself ahs little mojo, by using it to conduct the Italian orchestra in the Intermezzo from “Cavalleria Rusticana” a glacial pace. The baton had probably not been used like that by its previous owner. An even clearer comparison of the two conductors’ styles came from a video, shown after intermission, of Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1951. His emphasis, conventional wisdom has it, was fidelity to the composers' intentions; Maestro Maazel’s is fidelity to the conductor's.
1/18/07
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem