The Cambridge Companion to Conducting (Cambridge Companions to Music)

This a book with chapters by many notable conductors and those connected with such. I learned a lot about the inner world of conducting and managing from reading this. Actually, only two chapters deal with any specifics of executing music those being by Raymond Holden on orchestral conducting and Vance George, who systematically gets into the use of consonants and vowels in articulating choral parts. The excellent chapter by Charles Barber was unusually perceptive where he said that any unnecessary words from the podium are nails in the coffin. My experience is having played violin and viola intermittently over a 35 year period in a major orchestra, civic symphonies and as a student at Indiana University. I especially appreciated The Rise of Conducting by J. Bowen in Part II History. Joseph Silverstein even contributed some insight into playing as a soloist under renown conductors although I have heard some criticisms of Eugene Ormandy from career musicians. Bob Ripley, a former cellist in the Boston Symphony and Cleveland, contributed some interesting remarks about his experiences playing in an orchestra and under many famous conductors. I have a lot of respect for Harold Farberman as a teacher and performer of the subject, who is now at Bard College. He enjoys a better reputation today than the notorious six conductors of the 50s-70s: Izler Solomon-Indianapolis Symphony; Dr. Hans Schweiger-Kansas City Philharmonic; Donald Johanos-Dallas Symphony; Werner Torkanovsky-New Orleans Philharmonic; Benjamin Swalin-North Carolina Symphony; Walter Hendl-Dallas Symphony and former director of Eastman. The final chapter and word is by Leon Botstein, who delves into the future of producing concerts and criticizes programs that only feature the war horses and little of the great music of the past.

I have very much enjoyed reading this book, and I have recommended it to all my friends who are interesting in studying conducting.

I had effectively rated it 5 star before I ordered it. I had the book as a 'borrowed item' form my local public library and I got sick of renewing it, so now I have my own copy. Thank you! Sorry, I forgot to add a note about the (physical) quality of the book - excellent.