Carlo Tenan - Orchestral Conductor

[Robert Newman]

There is an emerging orchestral conductor in Italy, Carlo Tenan, whose talents are really remarkable. Here's a very short Youtube clip of Tenan conducting the 4th Movement of the beautiful Bizet Symphony in C. From this and other things I've seen/heard I think this man is destined for great things.


http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5BNsZx6z8

[sunwaiter]

as a pure listener, i would like to know what makes conductors so pivotal and interesting, though i had some approximative ideas about it. i mean, outside being the one who makes a symphonic play as a whole, is there something that makes him or her a real part of the music, something that is not obvious at first sight or listen?

i've often had this question in mind.

all info welcome.

[Robert Newman]

Hi there Sunwaiter,

In the first place a talented conductor like Tenan obviously knows this music inside out. The orchestra know this and they know their individual playing parts also. (Without this basic knowledge that the other side is competent there can really be no chemistry in performance between them). Secondly, a great conductor seeks to reduce 'conducting' to a minimum. Notice how rarely he uses the baton as a metronome. He's not authoritarian (although there have been many conductors who became famous because they were tyranical in imposing on the orchestra strict, rigid rules of interpretation). Tenan shows us this also. Thirdly, he is not only conducting but also responding - so he is in a sense dancing with them and vice-versa, in a sort of dialogue, and yet he is also leading in the broader sense. This nearly perfect balance is quite rare. I think that Tenan is an outstanding conductor for all these reasons.

Regards

Robert

[sunwaiter]

thank you for answering!

as i watched "baby snakes", and other performances on video, i wondered how frank zappa was considered. he wrote the music, played it accompanied with his band, and also created interaction on stage and in the studio, directing them, sometimes with a stick. improvisation was also part of this interaction, as he spontaneously ordered cymbals to crash, for example, making it stop or continue with a single little move of the hand. he used all the "sign-ography" of a classical maestro .. continued tomorrow

[Robert Newman]

Yes, and that reminds me of a surviving eyewitness report of Bach conducting during rehearsals in Leipzig -

''Oh, but if you could see him....this Bach... singing with one voice and at the same time playing his own parts - watching over everything and bringing back to the rythm and the beat, this amongst 30 and even 40 musicians - one with a nod of the head, another by tapping his foot, a third with a warning finger, giving the right note at the top of his voice - to another the bass part, and to a third person the middle parts - all of this done alone in the midst of the greatest din made by all the participants. And, although he is executing all the most difficult parts himself and notices at once whenever a mistake occurs, yet he holds everyone together, taking precautions everywhere and repairing any unsteadiness - this man full of rythm in every part of his body. You would not and could not see this anywhere else. ''

I wish this conductor Carlo Tenan every success in his career.

Regards

RN

• Johann Gesner, school teacher in Leipzig, writing in 1738

[Robert Newman]

And here is another short clip of the Italian maestro Carlo Tenan in the same Bizet work - in my view one of the most wonderfully gifted conductors of our time.

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=eyYWtT...eature=related