Kevin Sutton wrote:

>I would hope that a professional ensemble would know the core rep already,
>but you are correct that there are many details that an orchestra or choir
>cannot know about a piece and it is up to the conductor to convey these
>hidden messages!

A few years ago a conductor came to the orchestra I used to play in,
in Barcelona, and we did the LvB 5.  Can't get much more core than that.
Proving that there's always a detail that awaits discovery, he pointed out
that in the last bar of the piece, the timpani has a two beats of 16th
notes, then a half-note tremolo or roll.  In all the performances I'd done
of that work no-one had ever pointed that out.  That endeared me to this
conductor right then and there.

David Runnion