I’ve met Itay Talgam for the first time last year at picnic, Amsterdam. I immediately felt in love with his way of “telling a story” and so I was more than happy that he accepted to participate at SCOPE09. And so were the participants.

For those who don’t know Itay, he is one of the leading figures in the Israeli music scene, he is a champion of contemporary music, and in particular music of contemporary Israeli composers. He
developed the “Maestro program”, that explores the relationship between conductor, musician and audience to achieve inspiring new insights into leadership, management, and team work. Using a range of innovative techniques, these energetic and thought-provoking programs challenge standard thinking and offer participants a fresh perspective on a range of organizational issues and work styles.

So here we go. Our task during the workshop was to choose the “ideal leader” among 5 well known conductors.

Karl Kleiber
Riccardo Muti
Richard Strauss
Herbert von Karajan
Leonard Bernstein

And the winner is: Lennie Bernstein! Why?
Just have a look at video 13 and you will know. It is all about “meaning”. Watch Bernstein how he is giving his explanations to lift the young orchestra up to his ideas/his meaning simply by sharing experiences. He doesn’t tell them what to do … but nevertheless he achieves all he wants. WE all can do it! And WE’ll do it and achieve it together!
Or listen to audio file 14, in which he gave Glenn Gould the stage, but still leaving no doubt who the boss is.
And state of the art is the last video (15), in which Bernstein is conducting Haydn - with minimum effort maximum results!

In our ranking Bernstein was followed by Karajan and Kleiber - both of them almost with the same score. Without doubt Kleiber is the greatest performer among all of them and he always seems to have great fun! He combines top down (see his powerful expressions in video 2) with giving space to the soloist and invites him to perform (video 2). He also completely trusts his orchestra (video 3) while he is actually NOT conducting during the most complicated passage of the performance. Amazing is video 6 in which Kleiber really catches the Vienna audience. He gets them as closet as possible to “bally dancing” (quoting Itay).
Regarding Herbert von Karajan - to be honest - I have forgot everything what we’ve said. Sorry for that, but maybe one of our participants can help me out here … Thanks!
Note: Thanks to Jo Stark, who helped me out. Karajan as a manager can be best described by the following dialogue: “Maestro, please let me know when to start playing?” Karajan answered: “Start, when you can stand it any more!” What does this mean? Karajan is absolutely into self monitoring, self regulation. He gives the musicians maximum space, he forces them in a soft way to collaborate, he enables the orchestra to unfold itsself. They have to watch each other, they have to listen to each other - otherwise the orchestra would collapse. Karajan eyes are closed, when he is conducting - it seems they are only weak ties between the Maestro and the orchestra.

Richard Strauss, may God rest his soul, didn’t gain much acceptance (see video 7). He is acting kind of bored, tired, non-enthusiastic! His message is: It is all said and written (that is why he is skimming through the pages), just do it and attention handling! No interpretation.

Riccardo Muti, the last one in our ranking (video 4) was the exact equivalent to traditional top down management - not giving any space or chance of interpretation to the members of the orchestra. The orchestra doubtlessly had to follow his commands. Even though Muti’s work has been highly respected, the Scala in Milan forced him to step down after 15 years. The reason: No chance that the musicians can personally develop under his “reign”. Old school?

Interesting were also the remarks of the New York based Orpheus orchestra. They are playing WITHOUT a conductor - and they do this on purpose (see video 9 and 10). Collaboration and compromises are the biggest challenges for them. They are willing to accept a conductor, if he/she remains on the same level as the musicians.

And here are the links to the live recordings from Frank Hamm, but unfortunately the quality isn’t the best. But still good enough togive you an idea, of what Itay was talking about!

Introduction, day 1
Part 1 of 2, day 2
after a reboot:
Part 2 of 2, day 2