Jackdaw

I haven't seen anything of this and I certainly won't be.
However, I would be grateful if someone could explain to me how a non-professional can conduct an orchestra.
I wonder how many parts there are in the full score - probably eight to ten for the string section alone, and a conductor not only has to be able to sight-read the individual parts, he has to be able to hear the total score both in his head and in reality.
I won't bore you further with the all the rare skills a conductor has to possess, but I suggest it would be easier to find a handful of zelebs capable of carrying out an appendectomy than conducting an orchestra.

Steve Crook

I expect it'll be on the earlier part of the last night. The part that hardly anybody watches (normally).

The last night has a few hours of normal performances before they go into the sea shanties, Jerusalem and Rule Britannia

Steve

Steve Crook

Adding to that, most of the work of a conductor is done in the rehearsals, not on the performance.

Steve

Dame Starry

PLEASE DON'T give the TV companies any more ideas for reality TV; they'd probably get that one funded by the Department of Health!

DS x.

lupinpooter

OK naysayers, I'm going to offer a defence of this programme. As a classical music lover, I'd welcome a documentary series in which, perhaps, illustrious conductors talk about their work in layman's terms, or maybe a fly on the wall thing following a group of student conductors, or a series of conductor masterclasses. But that sort of series doesn't seem to appear very often, if at all, and, if such a series were made, the audience for it would be small.

What Maestro does is give the likes of me a fascinating insight into the role of the conductor. No-one really thinks that these celebrities are going to become "proper" conductors: that isn't the point of the programme. A programme like this attracts a much larger audience than a documentary series such as I described above would, and thus a lot more people are going to learn about the role of the conductor and about music more generally. A Good Thing, surely? I think so

CaptainWaggett

Naysayers might be interested in this article by Sue Perkins about what went on behind the scenes

I am reminded of the scene in Raising the Wind , in which Leslie Phillips, playing in his 12th Messiah in a fortnight, discovers that the aged player beside him hasn't even noticed who the conductor is!

Jackdaw

I'm sorry, Ma Capitaine, but Ms Perkins has sold herself so regularly to reality television that I'm now totally resistant to her argument.
It's a reality show, Sue, and you're not really conducting the orchestra.
They can do it in their sleep.

CaptainWaggett

If the orchestra can do it in their sleep, then surely there's no need for all the rare skills you claim that the conductor needs to possess? I suggest you watch the programme before dismissing it. You might be surprised at how much musical knowledge some of the candidates have and what imagination they have brought to the task (Goldie looks to be completely fascinating).

Steve Crook

That's why I said "most of the work of a conductor is done in the rehearsals, not on the performance". The performance is like the lap of honour for the conductor

If the conductor starts indicating some other rhythm or emphasis to the one they rehearsed and the one that is on the score then I think that most orchestras would just ignore the conductor and read the score.

Steve

lupinpooter

Hear, hear.

I found Goldie's method of diagramming his music fascinating: a home-brew notation system! I wonder if he'll learn to read music "proper" now?

Jackdaw

Are you suggesting that a conductor does not need to possess rare skills?
I try not to watch anything which I know will infuriate me - and it doesn't take much to do that these days.
My meaning is that there is nothing that an amateur can tell an orchestra that will improve its performance, since its members are hugely talented and experienced people.
My personal experience of conductors is limited to my time in the school choir, in which we spent weeks all year round working on the score for our annual performance, and I can't imagine that a non-professional could oversee even something so small-scale as that.

mrs_emma_peel

Excellent show - but very disappointed to see David Soul eliminated from Maestro - I thought he had by far the most difficult classical piece to conduct – the slow and poignant Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings – from Platoon - and put great emotional feeling into his performance. Personally, I thought lowest scoring Bradley Walsh should have been voted out. Sue Perkins and Goldie were superb.
Would have liked to have seen another 90 minute programme to allow more time to show mentoring and rehearsals.
Thoroughly enjoying the series

Mrs Emma Peel

lupinpooter

I wish Bradley Walsh had gone too: his gurning is irritating. I think Sue Perkins had the hardest job (I can't imagine the Simpsons theme is a staple of the orchestra's repertoire, although perhaps that worked to her advantage). Jane Asher murdered the piece from West Side Story though, didn't she? It sounded dreadful!

Tbh I was disappointed at the lack of mentoring/rehearsals coverage. My defence of the show on educational grounds has now fallen apart somewhat!

mrs_emma_peel

Best performance of the series.
Goldie’s blistering, powerhouse conducting performance of O Fortuna from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff was, I thought, the best of the entire series so far – for it produced the most explosive, exciting and incredible
BBC Concert orchestral and Symphonic choral sound I've heard in this series - absolutely magnificent!

This 3rd episode of choral music matched the superb, high quality of the first show.

Mrs Emma Peel

EllyMack

I'm loving this. My money's on Sue or Goldie. Jane's too sterile and Katy doesn't command enough respect for me.

Steve, the very idea of a non-professional (although I prefer to use the term 'non-trained', because I've worked with some very good non-pros) conducting a concert orchestra is laughable, which is why the programme is being made. So many people think it's a piece of proverbial piddle, and those of us who work with conductors know the truth. I think this is a good chance to show that it's not quite as easy as it looks, especially when, as you've said, most of the work is done in rehearsal. It's a pity the programme makers haven't allowed time to show the training and rehearsal these people are going through. I'd also like to see them working with different genres, ie away from classical - big band, brass band etc.