talks to John Culshaw

In the second of two conversations, the celebrated conductor speaks of his experiences in opera houses and comments pointedly on the art of conducting.
George Szell is the conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and one of the senior and most respected maestros on the international scene. He has walked out of the pit of more major opera houses than many conductors have ever entered. In this programme he gives some of the reasons for these seeming displays of temperament, comments pointedly on the relationship between cast, producer, and conductor in the opera house, outlines his own stringent tests for young conductors who aspire to be his assistants at Cleveland, and has some sharp things to say about conductors at rehearsal and about the element of 'showmanship' in conducting.
(A conversation with Saul Bellow: April 22)