Santu De Silva wrote:

>Something Don Satz mentioned about Neville Marriner started me thinking
>about conductors who have carved a certain niche for themselves with a
>particular orchestra, and then perform for a time with other orchestras.

My response is sort of on target, and sort of off -- I remember Eugene
Ormandy, who served as conductor and music director of the Philadelphia
Orch.  for something like 43 years, conducted the LA Phil in about 1970.
He programmed the Tschaikovsky Pathetique, and turned out a near-perfect
copy of the Phila sound.  I also heard, on tape, during the 1950s, Beecham
conducting a college orchestra in several concerts of Mozart that were
uniquely Beecham.

I don't know how they do it, but there are some conductors who have the
character to imprint themselves on a group of musicians in ways that allow
(or force) them to rise above their usual standards.

Bill S