Reflections and Recollections

Extract

TEN GOLDEN RULES

Written in the scrapbook of a young conductor (Ca. 1925)

1. Remember that you do not make music for your own amusement, but for the pleasure of your audience.

2. Do not perspire when conducting; only the public ought to get warm.

3. Conduct Salome and Elektra as if they were by Mendelssohn; fairy-music.

4. Never look at the brass encouragingly; except with a quick glance for an important lead-in.

5. On the contrary, never let the horns and woodwind out of your sight; if you hear them at all they are already too loud.

6. If you think the brass is not strong enough, tone them down two points further.

7. It is not enough yourself to hear every word of the singer—which you know by heart anyway; the public also must be able to follow it without effort. If they don't understand what is happening they fall asleep.

8. Always accompany the singer so as to enable him to sing without exertion.

9. If you think you have reached the utmost Prestissimo, take the tempo as fast again.

10. If you remember all this sympathetically, your rich talents and great knowledge will always be the unimpaired delight of your audience.