Conducting Weekend Report

Peter's first weekend conducting course with orchestra took place in early September. A considerable number of hours were spent working on Mahler's Adagietto from his 5th Symphony, Ravel's Pavane, and Mozart's Haffner Symphony (no.35). It was a great variety of music to be working on, with 'something for everyone'. The Mahler is certainly a real challenge for a conductor. Keeping the flow of the music whilst maintaining the very slow speed Mahler asks for, bringing out the wide range of tone colours and dynamics required, guiding the orchestra through many flats and many sharps!! The students did wonderfully well, and gained insights directly from the orchestra - players were able to make suggestions both about how the conductors were doing, and also give useful bits of information about their instruments. After 14 hours of work a rather tired but, I think, happy group of people made their way home from Abacus Arts near Elephant & Castle.