norman lebrecht<\/p>\n
September 09, 2025<\/p>\n
From an interview with Bruce Duffie in 2005:<\/p>\n
Many young conductors come up and ask for advice.\u00a0 It is hard, you know.\u00a0 The first thing is that real talent needs not so much advice. \u00a0It needs the talent of copying first.\u00a0 Copying is a practice which is not really regarded as something which is important in art, but it\u2019s very important in the beginning that you are able to copy.\u00a0 So if you have a real great\u00a0chef\u00a0as a conductor, somebody you really admire, you should first try to get close to what he is doing, and learn how he\u2019s doing things.\u00a0 Once you get over this, it\u2019s like a painting.\u00a0 Most of the great painters\u00a0\u2014\u00a0people like Goya, and so on\u00a0\u2014\u00a0started copying other pictures, and finally developed their own style.\u00a0 Nowadays it seems that everybody has to be very original from the very beginning\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to be too slow, or too fast, or too nothing.\u00a0 It is more important to try to get close by going the route other people went\u2026.<\/p>\n