Read on to discover which instruments our famous maestros would play in the conductors' orchestra...
How do conductors rise to their exalted position?
Orchestral conductors. They’re better paid than their players, they get to take bows both before and after a performance, and they enjoy the lion’s share of the applause. They’re the ones that choose the repertoire, call the shots in rehearsal, smile for the cameras and flirt with the star soloists. It’s an exalted, enviable position, for sure. But how exactly did they all get there?
The answer is not straightforward, as there is no set path. Most conductors will have undergone some sort of training, though that is not always the case. And while many will have previously mastered another musical skill to a very high level, there are those who had their sights set on the baton from the outset – the likes of Semyon Bychkov, Yakov Kreizberg and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla all studied conducting from their early teens. Others, meanwhile, did once have instrumental dreams, only to have them shattered. We can only guess at how Seiji Ozawa’s piano career might have panned out had he not broken two fingers playing rugby.
The piano... the most frequent route to conducting
The piano, in fact, seems to be the most frequent route into conducting – from acclaimed concert performers to former opera house répétiteurs, there are fistfuls of them. And a few organists, too, including those three knights of the Proms, Henry Wood, Malcolm Sargent and Andrew Davis. Perhaps it’s a power thing?
Occasionally, you’ll find a former singer up on the orchestral podium – erstwhile countertenor Juanjo Mena and contralto Nathalie Stutzmann both fit that description – while JoAnn Falletta previously excelled as a classical guitarist. And then there was Gilbert Kaplan who, with no significant musical experience at all, instead had the benefit of being filthy rich, a fortune amassed in publishing enabling him to pay his way to conducting Mahler symphonies.
Former orchestral players who take to the podium
Concerto soloists and chamber musicians also often make their way into conducting. And, finally, there are those who started off in the ranks of the orchestra. One such example was violinist Karina Canellakis. ‘I had great bouts of inspiration [for conducting] when I was playing in big orchestras in Berlin and Chicago,’ she says. ‘I thought it was really fascinating and would study scores on the side. But I also really loved performing as a violinist, so there was no reason for me to do anything different. It was only as I approached my 30th birthday that I decided that if I didn’t give it my all, I might regret it.’
No regrets, then, from Canellakis, who has since gone on to become the first woman ever to conduct the First Night of the Proms. But while she made a fairly traditional journey from the front desks of the violins to the podium, other leading baton-wavers have come from all parts of the orchestra. In fact, if one were to put together an orchestra out of instrumentalists-turned-conductors, dead or alive, you’d quickly have a fairly handy ensemble. Here are just some of the well-known names who might feature in it…
The conductors' orchestra... the string section
Violin
One could quite easily fill both first and second violin sections with well-known conductors who used to wield the fiddle in earnest – as well as Karina Canellakis, among the many names up for selection are Bernard Haitink, Eugene Ormandy, Marin Alsop, Neville Marriner, Sakari Oramo, John Storgårds… It’s clearly a natural step.
And, as Oramo, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, explains, in some instances a violinist’s work as a conductor begins even before they’ve ever picked up a baton. ‘As a concertmaster (leader), if the conductor happens to be not very good,’ he says, ‘you have to be able to take over the situation and rescue whatever is possible.’ Ouch.
Viola
Orchestral players love nothing better than a joke about the violas. (‘How can you tell when a violist is playing out of tune? The bow is moving!’ etc.) What better way for violists to get even, then, than to put their instrument in the case, seize the baton and take charge? Among those to have done so is Pierre Monteux, who in 1910 played the viola in the first performance of Stravinsky’s The Firebird, then three years later conducted the now-famous premiere of the same composer’s The Rite of Spring.
Cello
Arturo Toscanini, who played in the premiere of Verdi’s Otello, John Barbirolli, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Susanna Mälkki, Han-Na Chang and Klaus Mäkelä are just some of the cellists who decided that the conducting life was for them.
Just 16 when he picked up his first pay cheque as a cellist in the Queen’s Hall Orchestra in 1916, Barbirolli also enjoyed the spotlight as a concerto soloist, as, many years later, did Chang. Harnoncourt, meanwhile, took a different option, heading from the ranks of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra to explore the world of period-instrument playing with his own Concentus Musicus Wien.
Double bass
Like his equally wealthy close contemporary Thomas Beecham, Serge Koussevitsky was able to kickstart his conducting career by dipping into the family kitty, hiring the Berlin Philharmonic and pianist Sergei Rachmaninov, no less, to make his debut on the rostrum in 1908. To be fair, by that stage, the future music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra had done the hard yards as a double bassist, firstly with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and then as an acclaimed soloist. Joining him in our conductors’ orchestra is Zubin Mehta, who began his career in the double bass section of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
The conductors' orchestra... the woodwind section
Oboe/Cor Anglais
Long before wowing audiences in opera houses and concert halls across the globe – in 1980, he was the first non-Briton to conduct the Last Night of the Proms – Charles Mackerras could be found in the wind section of the ABC Sydney Orchestra, playing under Malcolm Sargent. And when, in 1947, the Australian moved to England, his first job was as an oboist at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Other conductors previously seen pursing their lips and playing an A for the orchestra to tune up to include Douglas Boyd and Edo de Waart.
Flute/Piccolo
Who better for Thierry Fischer, as principal flautist of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, to learn the art of conducting from than Claudio Abbado? And it was through the great Italian’s personal guidance that Fischer then took his first steps onto the podium, later rising to positions including principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Meanwhile, if today’s London concert-goers feel they recognise conductor Jaime Martín from somewhere, it could well be from the Spaniard’s time as principal flautist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martin the Fields and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Clarinet
Colin Davis reached posts such as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra the hard way. Ineligible for the conducting class at the Royal College of Music due to his lack of ability as a pianist, he instead specialised in the clarinet. An early career playing in the band of the Life Guards then followed before, slowly but surely, a succession of freelance gigs as a conductor led to more permanent positions. In comparison, fellow clarinettist Osmo Vänskä had it easy: principal clarinet with the Helsinki Philharmonic, conducting studies at the Sibelius Academy, and then a string of posts such as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Bassoon
With time freed up following his recent retirement as music director of the Hallé, will Mark Elder be digging out his old bassoon from under the stairs? Elder first learnt the instrument at primary school, going on to become principal bassoon of the National Youth Orchestra, where memories of one composer in particular remain very strong . ‘I loved it because it was funny and unpredictable,’ he told the Guardian. ‘It chirrupped along and suddenly I got this long, passionate and stern bassoon solo at the start of the fourth movement. As bassoonists, we revere the symphonic works of Shostakovich.’
The conductors' orchestra... the brass section
Trumpet
When Andris Nelsons was invited to conduct the famous Vienna New Year’s Concert in 2020, the Latvian took the opportunity to remind the watching public of the skills that first got him there – arriving on stage with a trumpet, he both played in and directed Lumbye’s Postillon Galop from the rostrum. Those brass talents were once employed in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before Nelsons, who was studying conducting at the time, came to the notice of legendary maestro Mariss Jansons. The rest, as they say, is history.
Trombone
If only his arms as a child hadn’t proved too short, Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the LA Philharmonic, might have taken the trombone slot in our conductors’ orchestra. As it was, he abandoned his slide ambitions and took up the violin. So, instead, we turn to Jakub Hrůša, soon-to-be music director of the Royal Opera House but also an erstwhile trombonist in the school orchestra at the Gymnázium třída Kapitána Jaroše in Brno, Czechia.
French horn
You’ll already have noticed a lot of Finns here: Oramo, Mälkki, Mäkelä, Storgårds, Vänskä… This is not sheer coincidence, but more to do with the fact that it is traditional in Finland for conducting students to master an orchestral instrument first. Now add to the list Esa-Pekka Salonen, who took up the French horn from the age of 12, practising eagerly ‘and feverishly hoping that one day I would be a great horn player’, as he later remembered. It was not to be, but a glowing CV as a conductor – including with the LA Philharmonic and Philharmonia in London – is surely some compensation.
Tuba
Ben Gernon is not Finnish. But he did play the tuba as a boy, taking care of the low notes in a local brass band in Shropshire before making his orchestral debut with the CBSO Youth Orchestra at 17. And it was from there, he tells us that he got the inspiration that would lead to him becoming principal guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and, in 2014, enjoying the first of five conducting appearances at the BBC Proms.
The conductors' orchestra... the percussion section
Timpani
Like Andris Nelsons, Simon Rattle has been known to remind us of the glories of his musical past, not least when the then principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra played the opening timpani solo in Siegfried Matthus’s Konzert für fünf in 2009. Those talents were honed in the Merseyside Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra back in the 1960s, shortly before the appeal of waving one stick around rather than two proved too great to resist.
Percussion
Since being announced as the new principal conductor of the Philharmonia in 2019, Santtu-Matias Rouvali – another Finn! – has also been inclined to have the occasional play alongside his own orchestra’s percussion section, whether in Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood or, earlier this year, accompanying pianist Frank Dupree in Duke Ellington’s Caravan. With his experience as a percussionist going back to when he first had a go at the timps at the age of four, plus training at the Sibelius Academy, the thrill of the bish, bash and bosh is clearly still there.
The conductors' orchestra... and finally, the harp!
Harp: OK. Not for lack of trying, we have failed to find a top-flight orchestral conductor who once used to play the harp. Maybe a life of rippling and plucking doesn’t lend itself to dreams of leading from the front? Or perhaps there is, in fact, someone we’ve simply not remembered? Over to you, readers…
