Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and Their Orchestras - Hardcover

Tom Service

4.29

121 ratings by Goodreads

9780571240470: Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and Their Orchestras

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 057124047X ISBN 13: 9780571240470

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2012

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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, from Toscanini to Karajan, from Carlos Kleiber to Gustavo Dudamel. 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. It's the first to see how Simon Rattle works with his musicians 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. The book reveals how the catalysts of place, time, and personal history are alchemised into the indelible magic of life-changing performances.

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About the Author:

Tom Service writes about music for the Guardian, where he was Chief Classical Music Critic, and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He has presented Radio 3's flagship magazine programme, Music Matters, since 2003. He was the inaugural recipient of the ICMP/CIEM Classical Music Critic of the Year Award, and was Guest Artistic Director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. After years practising in the mirror, he once conducted Bruckner's Ninth Symphony.

Review:

"Service's passion is evident from the opening page ... he blends in-depth musical understanding and analysis with an armchair conductor's enthusiasm and VIP access to rehearsals. The result is fascinating ...This book shows us how, through the efforts of this shamanic figure, live music can be simply good enough or, sometimes, utterly electrifying." -- New Statesman

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