Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Why so many pianists later become full-time conductors?

The list is long: Barenboim, Ashkenazy, Kocsis, etc. Of course, the reaons for each individual can be quite different. However, when the number of pianist-later-turn-conductor is so high, I think there must be some fundamental reasons for it. Then, what are they?

But three is not long.

When he was a developing musician, Barenboim showed exceptional talent as both a conductor and a pianist. He was told that he could not be both and was advised to choose between them. He refused to choose and pursued both. He was, in fact, a full time conductor and pianist. (Reference, his biography: "A Life in Music", a very interesting and enjoyable book).

But the list also included "ETC"..that makes four.

..not to forget Mikhail Pletnev..
I don't find the transition from soloist to conductor to be all that surprising. Some pianists are musicians with wide repertoire interests. WHy miss out on the great orchestral works.. The opposite is distinctly less common (start as a conductor and ens up as a pianist). My impression is that a fair number of conductors used to be modest string players..bUt no, I do not have the percentages..

Pianists have a head start with score reading.

Others would be Michael Tilson Thomas, Ozawa, Szell, Bernstein. There are a lot more if you go back further. The only reason Rachmaninoff did not switch to conducting is because he needed money quickly and thought the change would take too long.

Ozawa became a conductor after a baseball injury.

There are other names came to my mind: Eschenbach, Previn, Gabrilowitsch, Vasary, and Shelley.

What triggers this "transition"?

Of course, the great Fleisher became a conductor after his right hand gave up.

It's because we, pianists, think we are above everybody :P

seriously though, it's also something to do with injuries. Not just with pianists. I know of a major conductor who used to be a violist!

Hmm gergiev was a pianist first.. It's the score reaading thing.

Totally control-freakery.

The two roles are also traditionally linked, non? There's a precedent for conducting _from_ the keyboard, even.

Less common is conducting from the brass or percussion...

Keith Lockhart, a conductor for the Utah Symphony and Boston Pops, often spoke at pre-concert talks about his piano career. His original goal was to become a concert pianist, but the difficulty of some pieces were insurmountable for him. He once lectured before an Olga Kern concert that the Rachmaninoff piece she would be playing has the same difficulty for a pianist as for a swimmer to swim the English channel. I'll never forget that comparison.

Pianists are used to playing more than one line at a time and thinking in terms of how to balance multiple voices, how to voice chords, how to play counterpoint with yourself etc so they already deal on a smaller scale with some of the skills a conductor needs. Most other musicians in the orchestra spend most or all of their time playing single notes so it is a bigger leap for them.

It could also be that for pianists who burn out on performance but have name recognition and a good knowledge of theory moving to conducting is an attractive move.

I know Ashkenazy has moved further and further away from the piano towards his conducting career due to arthritis in his hands.

My guess is a combination of physical ailments, technical difficulties, and...boredom. I mean, how often can one tour around the world playing the same repetoire for years at a time? Conducting offers a much larger repetoire, with less technical sweat-and-tears involved to get there. And playing the piano can become tedious for some people.

Also, think of the composers who started their careers as performing pianists, and slowly moved to the compositional and conducting side of things.

Those are my guesses, anyways.

Loneliness.

Years of putting up with other conductors' 'interpretations.'

I think some of the pianists turned conductors listed so far didn't have much a major piano career(I could be wrong)although they may have played at a very high level. I'm thinking of Bernstein(mostly conducted from the keyboard when he played which was quite rare?), Ozawa(interesting about the baseball injury), Michael Tilson Thomas. I don't know about Szell although I heard he was a terrific pianist. I think Rudolph Ganz did a tremendous amount of conducting.

I think another interesting question would be how many conductors, if any, didn't begin by studying some instrument at a very high level(at least as high as a top conservatory grad). I would assume most didn't begin serious conducting until their late teens or more.

This may be the reaon why some pianists decide to conduct (at least part-time): Zimmerman, Uchida, Shiff, Andsnes, etc.

I'm wondering if it's because pianists are used to dealing with the bigger picture as well as more technical aspects.They get to decide tempo, dynamics, voicing, mood etc.As brilliant as orchestral musicians are, they are used to playing within an ensemble and leave the overall structure of a piece to the conductor.