2
Practice Listening
Listen to recordings with a score as if you were conducting them. Don't listen in order to enjoy the music, or to get to know the emotional content of a piece. Do it with pieces you've never heard before and also some you know well. Of course, listen to as many dazzling recordings with superstar conductors as you like, but for these purposes, perhaps listening to recordings made by not-quite-in-the-top-flight orchestras is more instructive at first.
Don't focus on anything even approaching artistry in the music at this point, and try to resist any subjective instincts at this point, like "I don't like this tempo much". Force yourself to focus on just the nuts and bolts - you are the dental hygienist at this point, tasked with cleaning up the mouth before the actual dentistry (artistry) begins. Were things together in that rallentando? Is that dance rhythm really crisp and precise, or a bit fudged and loose? If that's what an orchestra were to play with you conducting, would you stop the rehearsal and explain it, or is it something that's fixable next time with a different choice of gesture?
Just to repeat, we are not thinking about artistry here. That comes later, and the challenge of making good subjective artistic decisions is the topic of conversation for another day. We're talking about practicing one specific skill - helping the musicians get it really right, before starting to get it really good and exciting, and that is achieved by really close listening. If you've practiced it in private, and you know how to keep enough bandwidth for it on the podium, chances are you'll be able to do it there too.
Listen to recordings with a score as if you were conducting them. Don't listen in order to enjoy the music, or to get to know the emotional content of a piece. Do it with pieces you've never heard before and also some you know well. Of course, listen to as many dazzling recordings with superstar conductors as you like, but for these purposes, perhaps listening to recordings made by not-quite-in-the-top-flight orchestras is more instructive at first.
Don't focus on anything even approaching artistry in the music at this point, and try to resist any subjective instincts at this point, like "I don't like this tempo much". Force yourself to focus on just the nuts and bolts - you are the dental hygienist at this point, tasked with cleaning up the mouth before the actual dentistry (artistry) begins. Were things together in that rallentando? Is that dance rhythm really crisp and precise, or a bit fudged and loose? If that's what an orchestra were to play with you conducting, would you stop the rehearsal and explain it, or is it something that's fixable next time with a different choice of gesture?
Just to repeat, we are not thinking about artistry here. That comes later, and the challenge of making good subjective artistic decisions is the topic of conversation for another day. We're talking about practicing one specific skill - helping the musicians get it really right, before starting to get it really good and exciting, and that is achieved by really close listening. If you've practiced it in private, and you know how to keep enough bandwidth for it on the podium, chances are you'll be able to do it there too.