G.P.

At 0:40 in the above clip Willi Boskovsky, the long-time concertmaster of Wiener Philharmoniker, speaks about working with the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler and how difficult it was to start a piece with him. Furtwängler was renowned for his unconventional (at that time) style of conducting, which in fact was the result of a long and consciouss process. Furtwängler writes:

"Many spectators, accustomed to the usual technique taught at conservatories, do not understand my gestures. They call them uclear, and go so far as to assert, that I engage in 'camouflage'. Recently a critic wrote about a concert of mine with the Vienna Philharmonic: 'With the unclear gestures of the conductor, it is impossible to understand how the orchestra could achieve such flawless ensemble playing. There is only one solution to the puzzle: endless rehearsals.' No, that is precisely not the solution. My rehearsals do not exceed the customary number and hardly touch on questions of technique, that is, of precision. This very precision is much more the natural consequence of my 'unclear' conducting. That this unclear conducting is not unclear after all, is shown by the fact that the instrument functions with flawless precision. It is, so to speak, the acid test."

As Boskovski notes, Furtwängler "never beat time clearly". But in the above clip we see that his gesture is pretty obvious! Not "beating time" as such, but "taking the sound" from the orchestra. Also, see how he sacrifices the 3-pattern for the constant flow of the quarter-notes. Later Herbert von Karajan often made the same decision - to forget the awkward beat pattern which sometimes gets on the way of the music.

Also, see in the ending of Brahms' finale, the exciting wiggle of Furtwängler's baton - which goes against all the rules learned in the conducting class. "It does not help" is the usual critizism. But it depends on what you want to help, really. It sure might make a difference!

Here is one of the most perfect examples of a good, varied and virtuosic conducting technique. I have posted this clip before, but just watch how almost every gesture of Herbert von Karajan is corresponding with the sounding result! When Karajan was making his mark as a touring maestro, one music critic wrote that he represents a "modern" way of conducting - not beating down, but encouraging the orchestra with movements that resemble hushing away a flock of geese!

I recommend watching this rehearsal in its entirety to everyone even remotely interested in conducting technique. Here you can see in the very beginning, how the first preparatory beat comes in various forms and even various tempos, which sometimes do not bear any relation to the tempo of the continuation. It is not to say that the tempo of the upbeat does not matter - just here it obviously serves a different function, a function of setting the mood, preparing the sound and breathing...

To round up my introduction to this fascinating topic, I selected two clips of Don Giovanni overture, the first one conducted by Wilhem Furtwängler, the second one by Herbert von Karajan. Furtwängler's performance starts with his (in)famous delayed upbeat, which Valery Gergiev has completely adopted into his conducting style (!). Karajan shows in turn a beautiful example of moulding and shaping the music instead of beating time. No doubt he would be a subject of many a complaint if he had conducted like that a hundred years ago! To me it is fascinating how some orchestras still prefer a traffic police to an artist, but that only tells how rare good artists with polished technique still are. Many players are simply not used to see the conductor do what he is paid to do and not merely keep the orchestra together, which many times would be much easier without a conductor disturbing the flow of music.