“If you imagine trying to talk to somebody in a totally foreign language, and you wanted to express something to that person without the use of language, how would you do that?” the British conductor Harry Bicket said. “That’s really what you’re doing.”
“You can do everything right and be of no interest at all,” said James Conlon, the music director of the Los Angeles Opera. “And you can be baffling and effective.”
The conducting master Jean Morel, taught that the right hand and wrist should be “thoroughly self-sufficient,” said Mr. Conlon, a Morel student; it should “do everything — time, expression, articulation, character — so that you could then apply the left hand and withhold it at will.”
“Basically the hands are there to describe a certain space of the sound and to shape that imaginary material,” Mr. (Yannick) Nézet-Séguin (Conductor-designate of the Philadelphia orchestra) said. That imaginary body of sound sits in front of the conductor, between the chest and the hands, he added. “It’s easier when there is nothing in one hand.” He started using a baton when he began guest-conducting at major orchestras, because they were more used to it.
In an interview Mr. (Valery) Gergiev suggested that waggling his hand, which he
called a habit, might have derived from playing the piano. “I’m a
pianist, and sometimes I ‘play’ texture,” he said.
A baton can work against a singing sound, he added. “Most difficult in
conducting is to make the orchestra sing, and this is where both hands
have to basically help wind or string players sing.” Hitting the air
with a stick, he said, is like fencing: “I don’t think it helps the
sound.” (I don't agree; of course, I've seen video of Gergiev using a toothpick--literally!)
The entire article can be seen here. Frankly, I find it a basic waste of time.
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