How to hold the baton

[mahler10th]

I saw on the South Bank Show (recently) a conductor (can't remember who I'm afraid, but it wasn't Andrew Parrot) showing the delightful and very talented Tasmin Little how to hold the baton for ease and effectiveness in conducting for her conducting debut with the London Mozart Players.  Here is my hand showing his recommendation - the holding of the baton allows for easy beat keeping at a very slight movement of hand, and also allows for more expressive use of the baton than gripping it and waving it around statically.
Hmm.  Don't know why I decided to share this.

[david johnson]

i prefer the back-of-the-hand-up grip.  the type of handle could change my mind.

dj

[eyeresist]

 
If I was a conductor I would hold the baton in my fist, and wave it straight up and down. It was good enough for Tchaikovsky!

[david johnson]

If I was a conductor I would hold the baton in my fist, and wave it straight up and down. It was good enough for Tchaikovsky!

heheheh...conducting should never get in the way of the music!  amen.

dj

[M forever]

It doesn't really matter how you hold the baton.

[mahler10th]

It doesn't really matter how you hold the baton.

My point was that Tasmin was on her conducting debut, and he was showing her this method for easy beat keeping and flexibility.  I personally would hold the damn thing any way I wanted too, but I did find it interesting and...er...tried it out to Bax's 7th (!) - and indeed it is a very useful form of holding.

[M forever]

What kind of a name is "Tasmin"? "Tasmin Little" - that sounds like a character from a Tolkien book.

[PerfectWagnerite]

It doesn't really matter how you hold the baton.

As long as you don't poke yourself in the eye.

[Renfield]

What kind of a name is "Tasmin"? "Tasmin Little" - that sounds like a character from a Tolkien book.

Too fairy-tale for Tolkien. How about E.B. White?

[eyeresist]

Shouldn't it be "Tamsin"? Someone should tell her.

[Lilas Pastia]

It worries me that someone should be making a conducting debut and need to be crash-coursed in Baton 101  .

Solti did poke his eye with his baton and ended at the hospital with a bad cut. He was conducting Cosi fan tutte. I wonder what would have happened during the Triumph scene of Aida. A Joker "pencil trick", maybe?

[Renfield]

It worries me that someone should be making a conducting debut and need to be crash-coursed in Baton 101  .

Solti did poke his eye with his baton and ended at the hospital with a bad cut. He was conducting Cosi fan tutte. I wonder what would have happened during the Triumph scene of Aida. A Joker "pencil trick", maybe?

"And now it's gone."


I'd heard about Solti having a poor baton technique, but poking an eye with it is on an entirely different scale than what I had imagined!

[knight66]

Lully displayed a less than stellar technique.

Mike

[Brian]

What kind of a name is "Tasmin"? "Tasmin Little" - that sounds like a character from a Tolkien book.

Haven't you ever heard of the Tasminian Devil?



That's her on the left!

[Lilas Pastia]

Lully displayed a less than stellar technique.

Mike

I've always wondered if the use of the baton didn't start with this unfortunate accident. I suspect he may had had an ingrown toe nail when he smashed his big walking stick on his toe. This usually degenerates into a full blown infection.

[M forever]

Solti didn't poke himself in the eye, but in the side of his head in the Royal Opera House. Still, rather telling. He also suffered from stiffness of the shoulders and neck because he worked so hard when he conducted. Completely unnecessarily, but he just couldn't control himself, apparently. He was a mediocre conductor. But he was also a very hard worker and had a lot of energy which allowed him to reach places he couldn't have gotten to just based on talent and musical quality. And I think that should be respected, too. I actually quite enjoyed the few cocnerts I heard with him and the BP. But his vast recorded legacy hardly plays any role anymore. I think there are very few conductors who have recorded so much but, apart from the really very good Ring and a few other items, really left that many relevant recordings.

[Lilas Pastia]

Very true. There are comparatively very few Solti recordings that end up on anybody's top list, but he still managed to make it right by Zauberflöte (both times), Don Giovanni (senza timpani, a most bizarre recording feat), and early LSO recordings like Ruslan and Ludmila (Overture) and Bartok Miraculous Mandarin suite. His Chicago Strauss Till , Don Juan and Zarathustra disc was also quite exciting, if a trifle hyperactive. Other than that, he left many eminently listenable discs (in no small measure thanks to the great teams of musicians and technicians the Decca label lavishly appointed for his recordings).

I count him a liability in just about every Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler discs he's made.

While I think I've heard a good percentage of his pre-1980 recordings, I have heard very few of the later ones. From what you relate, it would appear he experienced some kind of Indian Summer.

[knight66]

I very much enjoy his Nozze di Figaro and his Mahler 8. His Elektra also I admire, though Bohm can find a less bombastic but equally compelling way with the piece. I am sure I have others I enjoy a lot, but I never did collect his recordings just because he made them.

Late on I was in choir for a Missa Solemnis at the BBC Proms. I have hoped it might somehow emerge on disc or DVD, it was televised, I would like to see now whether I would feel it was as terrific as it seemed at the time.

I have found my VHS tape and will take it to london with me to have it transferred onto DVD. Then I will be able to see how it stands up.

Mike

[david johnson]

solti - fine mahler, whether with the lso or cso!

dj

[MISHUGINA]

I watched a DVD of Solti conducting Bruckner 3rd with BRSO. His stick technique is a little conflicting it looked like he was doing some kung-fu moves.