My ideal of conducting

Nice and witty!

I am copying this testimony of Alfredo Gasponi . . .

There was no one like him.

And we, the Conservatory students who knew his music, wanted to be like him: classical with "swing," a mix of Europe and America. (...)

As a man, he was an angel. Once, he was to conduct Bach's Magnificat at the Sala Nervi in the Vatican before Pope Paul VI. Some solo parts were assigned to boy singers. During rehearsals, one of them, paralyzed by emotion, repeatedly sang out of tune. It was Siciliani, the great artistic director, who revealed Bernstein's response to someone who suggested it would be better to replace him: "And who will repair that child's heart if it breaks?". He decided, therefore, to accept the risk of ruining the concert (the child, in the end, sang exactly as he did in rehearsals) so as not to hurt a child.

Alfredo Gasponi

Music critic for Il Messaggero

[from the booklet attached to the complete Beethoven Symphonies, L. Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker, DG, 474 475-2 (5 CD)]