Bruch violin concerto no conductor

[lennygoran]

I've been listening to classical music with my Roku while in the kitchen-you tube had joshua bell and many others doing it-I decided on him-very nice but there was no conductor-it ended and I decided to hear it again as dinner was still being prepared-this time Sarah Chang-so Bruch violin concerto is done without a conductor? Regards, Len

[John F]

Normally, concertos are performed with a conductor, as you know. But many conductors start out as instrumental soloists. Joshua Bell has been the music director, i.e. chief conductor, of the English chamber orchestra Academy of St. Martin in the Fields since 2011, not just playing concertos with them but conducting their concerts. Pinchas Zukerman did the same when he was music director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and other orchestras; David Oistrakh conducted orchestral concerts beginning in the 1960s, though he was never music director of an orchestra.

[lennygoran]

Normally, concertos are performed with a conductor, as you know. But many conductors start out as instrumental soloists. Joshua Bell has been the music director, i.e. chief conductor, of the English chamber orchestra Academy of St. Martin in the Fields since 2011, not just playing concertos with them but conducting their concerts.

John thanks for clearing this up for me-I'll tell Sue also as she was just as surprised as I was. Regards, Len

[maestrob]

I have a DVD of Heifetz performing Bruch's Scottish Fantasy (IIRC) without a conductor, and it almost works, but not perfectly. There are times when Heifetz is playing and the tempo shifts when the orchestra sounds a bit tentative: not bad, but it would have been better with a baton-wielder at the helm.

[barney]

Of course the conductor was there, Len. He was just at the very back of the hall so he could get the audience perspective. Didn't you notice the night-vision binoculars the orchestra were wearing so they could see him in the darkened auditorium?

[lennygoran]

Of course the conductor was there, Len. He was just at the very back of the hall so he could get the audience perspective. Didn't you notice the night-vision binoculars the orchestra were wearing so they could see him in the darkened auditorium?

Barney is this some sort of Fake News? Regards, Len

[mikealdren]

I have a DVD of Heifetz performing Bruch's Scottish Fantasy (IIRC) without a conductor, and it almost works, but not perfectly. There are times when Heifetz is playing and the tempo shifts when the orchestra sounds a bit tentative: not bad, but it would have been better with a baton-wielder at the helm.

My understanding has always been that Heifetz disagreed with and then sacked the conductor, deciding to direct it himself. However I can't find any evidence of this.

[John F]

Hmmm. In a Jascha Heifetz discography, his two published recordings of the Bruch are listed as follows:

Schottische Fantasie, Op. 46/Scottish Fantasy
--1st recording --RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra --William Steinberg, conductor
--2nd recording --New Symphony Orchestra of London --Sir Malcolm Sargent, conductor

YouTube has a video of Heifetz playing the piece without a conductor, in Paris with the French National Orchestra, and I suppose that's what maestroB has spoken of. The listener comments on YouTube are usually not worth reading, but about this video Kevin Huang says, "Heifetz himself hated this performance and felt embarrassed by it." What the source is for this, and whether it's correct, I don't know.

[barney]

Of course the conductor was there, Len. He was just at the very back of the hall so he could get the audience perspective. Didn't you notice the night-vision binoculars the orchestra were wearing so they could see him in the darkened auditorium?

Barney is this some sort of Fake News? Regards, Len

Len, yes.