Transcript excerpts from Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic: “ There is no way to really put your finger on what makes conducting great, even what makes conducting work. Essentially what conducting is about is getting the players to play their best and to be able to use their energy and to access their point of view about the music. There is a connection between the gesture, the physical presence, the aura that a conductor can project, and what the musicians produce. ”

On the Grand Chorale in Stravinsky’s "Soldier's Tale:" “ There are lines that exist together and relate to each other in a linear way. So there’s a basic flow that happens, but one thing I was particularly thinking about just now was bringing out different layers…



I find that interesting, so it's not just a monolithic, homogenized texture. It’s a texture that hopefully works well together, but has local features, based on how each individual line moves. ”

On the ends of notes: “ The way you let go of a note, the shape of the tail of the note, if you will, has to be managed and thought about and felt together. ”