Maestro Lorin Maazel on what makes a great conductor

I have asked many of my colleagues, can they define what a good conductor is? And all of them came up with the same response – the same I come up with – you can't. But you know one when you see one. It's as simple as that.

“There's a kind of authority. The way a young conductor walks ... to the podium, turns around, takes his baton and takes the upbeat, you already know 95 per cent of what you need to know.... Conducting is basically projection. If you turn inward ... to the exclusion of the music you are there to serve, then you're a no-no. If you have this authority, if you have integrated the music in such a way that you are actually able ... to communicate how you feel about the music and be able to recreate it for the players and the audience, then you are a proper conductor.--Maestro Lorin Maazel