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  • Published: 15 November 2018
  • ISBN: 9781101973608
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $45.00

Maestros and Their Music

The Art and Alchemy of Conducting



John Mauceri brings a lifetime of experience to bear in this hugely informative, consistently entertaining exploration of his profession, rich with anecdotes from decades of working alongside some of the greatest names in the music world. With candor and humor, Mauceri makes clear that conducting is itself a composition: of legacy and tradition, techniques handed down from master to apprentice--and more than a trace of ineffable magic. He reveals how conductors approach a piece of music (a calculated combination of personal interpretation, imagination, and insight into the composer's intent); what it takes to communicate solely through gesture, with sometimes hundreds of performers at once; and the occasionally glamorous, often challenging life of the itinerant maestro. Mauceri, who worked closely with Leonard Bernstein for eighteen years, studied with Leopold Stokowski, and was on the faculty of Yale University for fifteen years, is the perfect guide to the allure and theater, passion and drudgery, rivalries and relationships of the conducting life.

John Mauceri, who has stood on podiums before storied symphonies, operas, and ballets around the world, brings a lifetime of experience to bear in this informative, brilliantly entertaining exploration of his profession. As Mauceri traces the lineage of his craft, from Felix Mendelssohn (the first to use a baton) to the present day, he shows us how conducting is itself a composition: of legacy and tradition, of techniques handed down—and more than a trace of ineffable magic.
 
Weaving clear musical explanations together with memorable accounts of working alongside masters like Bernstein and Stokowski, Mauceri reveals how conductors approach a piece with a combination of personal interpretation, imagination, and insight into the composer’s intent; what it takes to communicate solely through gesture, with sometimes hundreds of performers at once; and the occasionally glamorous, often challenging life of the itinerant maestro. Illuminating and instructive, inflected with candor, humor, and grace, Maestros and Their Music is the perfect guide to the allure and theater, passion and drudgery, rivalries and relationships of the conducting life.

  • Published: 15 November 2018
  • ISBN: 9781101973608
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $45.00

Praise for Maestros and Their Music

  • "Few authors have expressed so vividly the huge role of the score itself in a maestro's daily work, or the non-glamorous status of the guest conductor." --Opera News
  • "Symphony lovers will be thrilled with the behind-the-scenes details, and aspiring conductors will enjoy the rich industry insight. Those simply curious about how classical music happens will feel drawn in by Mauceri's palpable passion." --Booklist
  • "Informative and entertaining." --Library Journal
  • "A remarkably perceptive and charming guide into the mysterious art of the conductor. Part personal confession, part wise explication, Maestros and Their Music will be of tremendous value to anyone who wonders just what that person waving a stick in front of an orchestra is actually doing." --Stuart Isacoff, author of A Natural History of the Piano