Gewandhaus Orchestra

On January 18th we saw the Gewandhaus orchestra play Max Bruch’s violin concerto and Gustav Mahler’s symphony no.4. The orchestra was great and the featured soloist also did a great job however the big star of the show was the conductor Semyon Bychkov. I have never seen a conductor so abstract before and somehow the orchestra was able to follow. This was very interesting for me as I start my conducting classes when I return in the Spring. I have a small amount of conducting experience from being drum major back in high school although the conducting style is much different. All I had to do is make sure the beats were visible and easy to follow so that everyone was on the same page. I learned from this concert and observing other conductors that at a higher level and in a concert hall setting conducting is much closer to an art form than anything else. The members of a band/orchestra at this level can easily follow a tempo so that is not necessarily what they need a conductor for but instead they need him/her for artistic interpretation. This was very clear with Semyon Bychkov which I mentioned is very abstract with where his beats lie but when taking the music into consideration it becomes clear that his concern is with the musical interpretation of the piece and to make sure the orchestra is interpreting it in the same way. His movements were usually fairly extreme especially when concerning dynamics and intensity which allowed the orchestra to follow clearly and quite precisely. I also noticed his facial expressions also helped direct the orchestra in following his musical interpretation and the difference in one movement versus another. One last thing I noticed which was interesting at such a high level is the sense of freedom and enjoyment I got from watching him conduct. He looked quite free like he didn’t have a worry in the world not to mention the sense of happiness he seemed to gain from conducting. This is nice to see especially because at such a high level of classical music it seems at times there is a lot more stress involved than we would like to think. We think everything needs to go perfect on performance day but I felt during the performance that he surrendered himself to the music and performance which was a good change of pace and also very enlightening. I am excited to see what awaits me and my conducting experience in the future and I will always remember Semyon Bychkov.

Love from Berlin

-Jeffery S.