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Quotes of the Day for 29 April 2004 - Conductors

On the birthday list today we find two symphony conductors, men who led others to make music. Thomas Beecham was born at St. Helens, Lancashire, England on this day in 1879. Zubin Mehta was born at Bombay, India on this day in 1936. Even though my father was a conductor, I didn't have much in the database and had to go digging for these gems.

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer.
     - Leonard Bernstein, 1918 - 1990

To the sound itself ... the conductor adds the italics and punctuation of gesture, of strained arms, of startling tautness of the shoulders, of brisk nod, of hands flung apart in some wild appeal to the universe.
     - Christopher Andreae

I use my hands like a sculptor, to mold and shape the sound I want, to clarify.
     - Leonard Slatkin

If anyone has conducted a Beethoven performance, and then doesn't have to go to an osteopath, then there's something wrong.
     - Simon Rattle

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.
     - Thomas Beecham, 1879 - 1961

The conductor has the advantage of not seeing the audience.
     - André Kostelanetz

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