Music as Alchemy - Journeys with Great Conductors and their Orchestras

How are conductors' silent gestures magicked into sound by a group of more than a hundred brilliant but belligerent musicians? The mute choreography of great conductors has fascinated and frustrated musicians and music-lovers for centuries. Orchestras can be inspired to the heights of musical and expressive possibility by their maestros, or flabbergasted that someone who doesn't even make a sound should be elevated to demigod-like status by the public. This is the first book to go inside the rehearsal rooms of some of the most inspirational orchestral partnerships in the world - how Simon Rattle works at the Berlin Philharmonic, how Mariss Jansons deals with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, and how Claudio Abbado creates the world's most luxurious pick-up band every year with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. From London to Budapest, Bamberg to Vienna, great orchestral concerts are recreated as a collection of countless human and musical stories.

About the author

Tom Service

Summary

How are conductors' silent gestures magicked into sound by a group of more than a hundred brilliant but belligerent musicians? From London to Budapest, Bamberg to Vienna, this title recreates great orchestral concerts as a collection of countless human and musical stories.

Product details

• Authors: Tom Service, Tom (Music reviewer) Service
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 04.09.2014
• EAN: 9780571240487
• ISBN: 978-0-571-24048-7
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 128 mm x 198 mm x 18 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, Classical Music (C 1750 To C 1830), Art music, orchestral & formal music, Conductors, Romantic Music (C 1830 To C 1900)