Walter Meyer wrote: >This has fascinated me. Apparently the best conductors can get superb >performances from otherwise obscure orchestras and, conversely, an >orchestra of international reputation can fall flat from poor conducting. If you watch the film "The Gift of Music - An Intimate Portrait of Leonard Bernstein" (DG 440 073 200-3) you will see Lenny giving lessons on conducting. There is an amazing moment of the film, when a young conductor raises his baton and then... you can hardly recognize the first bars of Beethoven's 8th symphony. Then Lenny stops the orchestra and gives him [the young conductor - who is him?] some instructions. And when he starts again there is a new and beautiful sound coming from the orchestra - Beethoven's 8th is easily recognized now! A real miracle! Wilson Pereira.