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00:12For three days, the creme de la creme of Europe's junior conductors converge on London to compete
00:20in the prestigious Donatella Flick Conducting Competition.
00:26Each hungry to show why they should be selected as the next assistant conductor for the world-class London Symphony
00:35Orchestra.
00:38Mentored by me, Sir Antonio Papano.
00:41They have just 15 minutes to show what really goes into making a maestro.
00:52For young conductors at the start of their careers, the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition is the pinnacle.
01:00Through her passion for classical music, Italian philanthropist Donatella founded this biennial event,
01:06which places young conductors front and centre, and in 35 years has supported 18 previous winners, kickstarting their illustrious careers.
01:16When thinking about past competition winners, you can see the meteoric rise.
01:21Ever since winning the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, my career has really skyrocketed.
01:26It's a sort of passport for them, for the rest of their career, because the London Symphony Orchestra is a
01:37very special orchestra.
01:38The London Symphony Orchestra is one of the world's elite and has been conducted by icons of classical music.
01:47Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Bernstein and Sir Antonio Papano.
01:52Could the next trailblazing conductor be among this year's competitors?
01:59The Donatella Flick Conducting Competition takes place at LSO St. Luke's in the city of London.
02:07There are three rounds. In the first round, we have 20 young conductors, and they have just 15 minutes in
02:15front of the orchestra to do their bit.
02:19After day one, we whittled the 20 down to 10 for the second round.
02:26And then in the final round, we choose three finalists.
02:31We had this year 120 young conductors applying, that is people between the ages of 22 and 30.
02:39And I think the final 20 that we selected really are some of the best young conductors in Europe at
02:46the moment.
02:49As part of winning the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, you win prize money,
02:53but also you win one year of assistant conductor position to the London Symphony Orchestra.
02:59The LSO is one of the world's greatest orchestras, so to conduct an orchestra like this, possibly for the first
03:06time,
03:06is an extraordinary experience for any young conductor.
03:11Even those that don't win, they will always have on their life that they were able to conduct the London
03:20Symphony Orchestra,
03:21which is very important.
03:28When I was first dreaming to be an orchestra conductor,
03:32one of the first things I actually saw was a video about the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition.
03:36So it's really a childhood dream of mine to be able to be here.
03:41It's one of the most prestigious, one of the biggest, one of the most important competitions in the world.
03:48To win this competition would be life-changing, for sure.
03:53I think round one is the most difficult because it's the first approach you have with the orchestra.
04:00In only 15 minutes, you have to get what they offer you and give back your interpretation.
04:06It's a very short time.
04:12Over the three days, the repertoire that has been chosen should give us a rounded picture of each candidate to
04:22see their strengths and potential weaknesses.
04:24We welcome Roman Reshetkin.
04:30In the first round, they will be performing the drum roll symphony of Joseph Haydn,
04:37with a particularly tricky beginning because it is quite slow brooding the double basses and cellos together with the bassoon.
04:46And it's notoriously difficult to control and to create atmosphere.
05:03Also, we have Schubert's Fifth Symphony, a delightful piece of music, full of joy, full of rhythm, full of the
05:12vitality of life.
05:14It has spirit, and so the conductors will be tested to see if they have that kind of vivacity in
05:22them,
05:23and also the control of the all-important dynamics.
05:40And we have a more up-to-date piece written in the 50s by Batsevich.
05:51This is a fiery, rustic, almost peasant music.
05:55It's heavy, it's earthy, and then it has this wild allegro,
06:01and it shows also the control that each one of them has or doesn't have in front of the orchestra.
06:17That's your 15 minutes, Lina. Thank you.
06:19Thank you so much.
06:20Thank you very much.
06:23Thank you very much.
06:28The role of conductor, it's a fascinating subject.
06:33We know the cliché.
06:34The guy in the penguin suit comes out and he raises his hands and the hands come down and the
06:40orchestra plays.
06:46What we're looking to a conductor to do is to help us with the things that we can't do by
06:52ourselves.
06:53Balance, sound, colour, the musical interpretation.
07:06I think the more experienced young conductors know when to step back when an orchestra's playing fine and they can
07:12be quite subtle,
07:13and then where they need to step in and offer something.
07:30A really crucial part of the relationship between a conductor and an orchestra is that spirit of collaboration and communication.
07:38A conductor is there to get the best out of the players, and the greatest conductors do precisely that.
07:47They take a group of the world's finest musicians and they shape it into something extraordinary.
08:01I'm looking for the conductor who has opinions about the music, who respects the text, but also has the ability
08:11to bring it to life.
08:12Music needs to be played for it to mean anything, but it has to be played in a certain way
08:19to communicate all its riches.
08:24It's fantastic. Thank you very much.
08:40I'm Daniel Hogan. I'm 28 and I'm from the UK.
08:46I've been interested in music since I was around seven years old.
08:49I have all these memories of just dancing around the room, playing Tchaikovsky Ballet Sweets, with a twig in my
08:55hand, just air-conducting.
08:58My passion for classical music came from my dad.
09:01It was his passion in life.
09:03He was a scientist, but every spare second that he had, he loved listening to classical music.
09:09I just remember one time I came back from the school assembly and they had played some classical music in
09:14an assembly.
09:15And I just came running home and said, Dad, can you play me this? Can you play me more of
09:19this?
09:20And he just nurtured my love of classical music from that point and we would spend hours sitting, listening together.
09:27My father passed away a year ago, almost to the day, and I think he'd be beaming that I was
09:35part of this competition.
09:36And I do wish that he could be watching it, but I think he is from somewhere.
09:42Over the last couple of years, I have been working mostly with amateur orchestras, youth orchestras, community orchestras, and it's
09:49a real joy.
09:51You get to spend a lot of time with the repertoire as well and developing your own interpretations, developing your
09:57rehearsal technique.
09:58So it feels like the perfect way to develop your confidence as a conductor.
10:03Good afternoon, everyone. It's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.
10:07So we are starting with Haydn from the beginning, please.
10:09My dad was always in the audience for every single concert I ever did.
10:14And I'd always turn around at the end to face the audience to take a bow and he would be
10:19the first person I'd look for in the audience and he would always be smiling back at me.
10:23That image, it will be in my heart and I will feel it on the podium of the LSO.
10:51And there is a great place as the microphone I ever did.
10:51And here is the invitation, it will be of the LSO.
10:51We'll turn around at the end to face the speaker.
10:51The next one is by the LSO.
10:58The LSOUN
11:01Daniel had a really good technique and he was able to show a lot with his baton and with his
11:06hands.
11:06And he was better at showing that than he was at explaining it.
11:12I'd love if we can find a very fizzling sound, bright sound, but very pianissimo,
11:17so quite short in the seconds and violas.
11:27More open.
11:35In the Schubert, he really concentrated on trying to show as much as he possibly could
11:42and got a lovely fizzy sort of accompaniment going there, which gave everything a wonderful life.
11:49Although perhaps he then over-encouraged some moments in the phrasing where the orchestra should still be very, very, very
11:56soft.
12:06I think it just shows that the more you conduct, the more you realise you don't know about conducting.
12:10And the higher level of orchestra that you work with, you realise you just always need to go further, which
12:16is extremely humbling.
12:17But I certainly hope I get the opportunity to work with an orchestra like this more.
12:22If I could use this time actually to rehearse a little at the beginning, a little at the beginning.
12:27You've got seven seconds, Daniel.
12:29How many seconds?
12:29You've got seven, five seconds.
12:31Five seconds.
12:32Four.
12:32Four, three, two, one.
12:33Thank you so much, everyone.
12:34Thank you very much.
12:38I think my dad would be very proud.
12:40I think he's definitely watching from somewhere and would feel very proud, yeah, which makes me very happy.
12:45And that's something that I can take from this no matter what happens.
12:59In this year's Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, the jury is made up of a combination of conductors, myself, Thomas Sönnegor
13:10and Sean Edwards.
13:12We have a composer, Sir James McMillan, and two musicians from the London Symphony, Rachel Gough, a bassoonist, and Sarah
13:23Quinn, who plays violin.
13:27I've been involved in several of these wonderful flick conducting competitions, and every time they are incredibly interesting and full
13:36of very diverse views of music.
13:39I'm on the panel as a member of the orchestra, really, to see things from the shop floor, so to
13:45speak.
13:46We will look at conductors through a certain lens, which is, would this person inspire me?
13:51How would I feel in the rehearsals?
13:53Am I excited by their presence?
13:55Are they incredibly annoying?
14:00I am looking for someone who has the ability to communicate their musical ideas.
14:05You can have a flawless technique, but haven't quite managed to get your ideas across.
14:14I'm looking for that full package of somebody who can do both of those things very well.
14:24There are a whole range of very practical skills that we look for in young conductors.
14:31However, there's something that supersedes that, and it's a mysterious element about the person, him or herself.
14:39Something that that conductor exudes almost before you see him or her conduct.
14:57I'm Allison Norris, I'm 30 years old, and I'm from Wales in the United Kingdom.
15:04My whole family is from Wales, they live in Cardiff, and now I live in the States.
15:13My preparation for competition is way in advance.
15:17You have to work on the scores and knowing the music super thoroughly.
15:21You go through and do your musical analysis and figure out where you want the phrases to be.
15:26You get your ideas about the form and how you want things to be played.
15:31I do listen to a lot of different recordings, so I can get ideas of what the greats have done
15:37before me.
15:39My path to being a conductor is really quite unusual.
15:44I actually started as an engineer.
15:47Hi, welcome.
15:48Coming from, like, a science field, science background, I think there are parallel skills involved.
15:55You are like a puzzle solver.
15:57Music has so many puzzles when you study a score.
16:00Okay.
16:00Sure.
16:00Thank you so much.
16:01Enjoy yourself.
16:01Yep.
16:02Hello, everybody.
16:03Okay, beginning of hiding.
16:06Okay.
16:08Beginning of hiding.
16:08이러한
16:13Going
16:15Bye.
16:15Bye.
16:19Bye.
16:21Bye.
16:24Bye.
16:27Bye.
16:45I thought Alison started the Haydn very, very well, very interesting ideas about the later
16:51part of the introduction, which most conductors hadn't actually got to by the time they needed
16:58to move on to the next scene.
17:00I really like emphasis, especially for violins, I think the cellos were doing this, like really
17:07like hitting that D-flat like in measure, 47.
17:14Alison had a very understated, quite gentle presence, which was in contrast to some of
17:20the others.
17:20I wasn't always completely convinced about whether they kept the momentum going in the
17:30musical phrases.
17:31Okay, Alison, would you go now to Schubert, please?
17:35First movement, please.
17:36First movement?
17:37Yeah.
17:38One of the big challenges for all conductors and indeed players in Schubert generally is
17:44what does he mean by certain accents?
17:48He writes sometimes accents like that, sometimes accents like that, sometimes forzando, sometimes
17:54and you've got to somehow decide also whether the accents are long or very short and sharp.
18:01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:02Sorry.
18:03Can we just go right at 17?
18:04I think of these accents as more round.
18:07Yada dum bum bum.
18:08Can we try?
18:08Same for wind.
18:09She's right.
18:10Measure 17.
18:11Alison had some really good ideas about how they wanted the accents to actually be.
18:24Conducting is so subjective and there are many excellent conductors, so I'm happy with
18:28how I did and it really just depends what they're looking for.
18:34Alison, that's your 15 minutes.
18:36Thank you all.
18:37Fingers crossed.
18:39Thank you so much.
18:41It was a pleasure.
18:44There are certain basic signs that a conductor can make with his or her hands and also his
18:51or her face and we see these regularly on the podium.
18:56Usually this is the hand that keeps things together but this is the vital expressive instrument.
19:02This is the hand that makes the phrase work, that can make the balance work, that makes the
19:19expression work.
19:22I see a lot of conductors who are just fabulous with the baton.
19:26It's like a magic wand.
19:28If you don't use a baton, yes you have more freedom but it costs a little bit more physically.
19:33You have a lot of flow and it can be very, very beautiful to look at.
19:39But, oh, on your shoulders let me tell you, it's hard work.
19:44Some conductors are very energetic and animated, others not so much.
19:51Sometimes you will find that a conductor who is expending a lot of energy isn't actually seeing much reward for
19:57that.
19:57And there are many conductors who make very small, very considered movements and can achieve what seems impossible by doing
20:08very, very little.
20:17To me, a great conductor is someone who communicates and gives some kind of bright energy to the musicians so
20:25that they can perform their best, no matter how they do it.
20:29As a conductor, you have so much control of the room and what kind of mood we're in and the
20:36energy or if it's very sparking and bubbling or if it's calm.
20:40I really try to be conscious about what kind of energy I'm giving out to the musician because it could
20:46be so different from what is needed for the music.
21:02So, when you study your score before, you always try, of course, to get as close to the music and
21:10to the interpretation of the composer as possible.
21:12But then you make your own interpretation and then you try to get the orchestra on the same board so
21:19that you always have the same idea and the same energy and then just try to transport that in the
21:24concert.
21:25Very light, not too much, too much sound and a very soft sound.
21:32To me, conducting is a matter of adaptability. I don't make music, I don't make sound, but I am in
21:41front of a lot of people who are doing sound.
21:44And my job is to adapt to these groups and to find what the music needs.
22:00There is something called star quality. We're in show business and I don't mean we're putting it on or acting,
22:08but there is an element of we're salespeople.
22:12We're selling the music and we have to be the best sales men or women possible so that the orchestra
22:21and therefore the audience gets an experience that is really making an impact.
22:30Ingun, thank you so much. That's 15 minutes. I'll be off time.
22:32Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
22:35Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
22:50My name is Matthew Rhodes. I'm 26 years old and I'm from the UK. Music's been a very big part
22:57of my life for as long as I can remember.
23:00I don't come from a family of musicians. My dad has always been an engineer. My mum works with him.
23:07It was the music of industry as opposed to the music of an orchestra.
23:16When I was sat playing flute in the orchestra, I was thinking, oh, what would it sound like if we
23:22did that with the violins or maybe we altered that or maybe this passage work would bear in a bit
23:28of a quicker tempo.
23:29And, you know, all these things would be going through my head. So maybe, maybe you could say that conducting
23:34was the thing that allowed me to try all these things out.
23:39I took part in this competition two years ago.
23:44You spend months and months preparing for what comes down to, in the first round, 15 minutes.
23:50And it's, it's sort of, it's a bit, a bit brutal like that, but it was a fantastic experience.
23:57I learned so much from the last competition.
24:01I would say maybe the key takeaway from me was I need to have more trust in myself and more
24:09trust in the orchestra.
24:10Two years ago in the competition, I made it through to the semifinals.
24:13This time, I hope maybe I get all the way to the finals.
24:29I liked the fact that Matthew started in a very straightforward and unfussy way at the beginning.
24:35And he's somebody, I think, who is very good at listening to the orchestra, receiving the sound and responding to
24:42it actually live,
24:42which is something that we all encourage the conductors to do all the time.
24:47Now colour this nut here.
24:53I thought he really wanted a mysterioso line in the Haydn and got a beautiful stillness when we got to
25:02bar 14 where the strings play,
25:04which was very special actually and unusual and different.
25:07What happened?
25:12No more than this.
25:27Mysterioso.
25:39I mean, two quavers here.
25:45Matthew's got good technique and some real skill.
25:49And what I'd love would be for him to think about the scene that he is setting and the story
25:57that he is telling,
25:58because it's not hugely coming through.
26:02I'd love him in a way to get away from the score and go for a walk in the countryside
26:07and think about music and bring that.
26:10Because there's a lot of control and I'd like him to let it go.
26:14Sorry. Beautiful.
26:16Matthew, that's your 15 minutes.
26:18OK.
26:18Thank you very much.
26:20Thank you very much.
26:22Wow.
26:23What an orchestra.
26:24I mean, it's just an amazing experience and, you know, loved every single minute of it.
26:29Fingers crossed, it's second time lucky.
26:45My name is Julia Kurzydlak.
26:47I am 24 and I am from Poland.
26:52My parents told me that when I was very little, I used to sleep only when Kunz der Fuge was
26:58playing.
26:59So I think it's, it was always natural for me to be connected to classical music.
27:07I was planning to be a theatre director and then I had the opportunity to conduct a Christmas concert in
27:14music school.
27:15And after that, one teacher asked me, where do I plan study conducting?
27:20And that was quite surprising because I haven't thinking about it.
27:24It was the best idea because it was this connection of things that I loved in theatre directing.
27:31But it was with music.
27:37Conducting is a connection of everything that is close to me and that I love.
27:43So it's working with people, creating something, some beauty with them.
27:47It's being a leader but with music and music is also the most important thing for me.
27:55Do it.
28:20There is a technology.
28:23Sorry, sorry, there's no light.
28:28Julia, I thought, had a lovely presence on the podium.
28:32I think she wanted much more sort of length to the phrase,
28:38which was very nice.
28:39She asked the orchestra to think in one, so much longer bars.
28:43But I didn't feel she quite had the control to actually manage that,
28:47and I wasn't sure quite where she was taking us with the phrasing sometimes.
28:51Let's support the melody in first violin and flutes with the accompaniment.
28:56So, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, for the piano and then with crescendo,
29:02but under the layer of our team.
29:05Although it was great that she was doing some balancing,
29:08in other words, asking some instruments to play a little bit softer
29:11so you could hear others a bit more clearly and so on.
29:22Julia had a very clear, precise beat, but I just want more feeling.
29:29It was very, very well presented,
29:31but I think that it just needs to loosen up a bit.
29:49Thank you, Julia. Thank you. That's your time. Thank you.
29:55It was great. They are playing fantastic.
29:58Of course, I have much in my head what I should do better.
30:04I was a bit chaotic, but I think like for the first time in front of the orchestra,
30:08I managed somehow and it was quite okay.
30:20My name is Matteo Dalmaso. I am 28 years old and I come from Italy.
30:27I come from a very, very normal family.
30:30My mother used to work in the grocery store
30:32and my father used to work in a car manufacturing industry.
30:37And so nothing about music, but what I appreciate from my parents
30:44is that they let me choose the path from a young age.
30:49And so I'm very thankful for that.
30:54I started to open some scores,
30:57like the symphonies from Mahler or Bluchner or Brahms, for example.
31:02And I tried to analyse the score.
31:06Basically, I realised that I was doing what a conductor does
31:11without knowing that this is a conductor job.
31:14So I decided to start studying conducting.
31:19I end up studying conducting in the UK.
31:23A thing that I learned is that time is very precious in front of an orchestra.
31:28And as a conductor, we should be very pragmatic
31:32and we should have a very clear idea of what we want.
31:38Most of the conducting competitions have an age limit.
31:41And this year is 30 years old.
31:44Okay?
31:45Please.
31:46So this is my last chance and I hope it goes well.
32:14Mateo had a very mature sense of what the Haydn could be,
32:18with this slow roll at the beginning on the drums,
32:22and he was the only candidate who actually mentioned the acoustic in St Luke's
32:27and therefore how he'd like certain instruments to play
32:31or the blend of sound he was getting from the ensemble.
32:39I thought he got a really beautiful sound from the orchestra,
32:43and he was the only conductor that whole morning
32:46where I actually got some goosebumps.
33:01It's very, very nice.
33:03Just one thing, the sostenuto here, for three bars,
33:06absolutely sense a crescendo to make this mysterious sound,
33:09and then sol, mi, do, fa, two bars, six, a bit of crescendo, OK?
33:16But super, super misterioso and sostenuto.
33:18Directly from bar two, please.
33:20Matteo has the ability to show what he wants,
33:23but I think that sometimes he chatted too much.
33:27You will lose people if you talk in great long lines.
33:31Three words are much more effective than three sentences.
33:36Beginning, one time.
34:02I really enjoyed, it was a really fantastic time.
34:06It felt like three minutes instead of 15.
34:22I think the level was very good.
34:24Everybody, there was a lot of difference of character, right?
34:27Wouldn't you say?
34:28I think what I liked about this particular conductor
34:31was that it was the best Bascevich slow movement so far,
34:35and that's saying something.
34:38I thought they had wonderful control of pianissimo,
34:42and the idea that these tiny little sparkles
34:45were coming out of the overall picture,
34:48I thought they delivered that really beautifully.
34:53I really thought that he was in control of the moment.
34:59He has 15 minutes to show what he can do in these 15 minutes,
35:03and they play incredibly well.
35:08I thought the subtlety that they showed
35:10in very gentle, long lines was really fantastic,
35:14because it's actually one of the most difficult things
35:16whenever everything's paired back to almost nothing.
35:20I just love that they really listened to the orchestra
35:23and just took everything that was coming at them and used it,
35:27and I just thought that was something really,
35:29really very interesting today.
35:35We're happy with the result, right?
35:37We're happy with what we've chosen for the semi-finals.
35:40Yeah, very.
35:40Yeah.
35:41We can take it upstairs, right?
35:43Yeah, definitely.
36:00Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to thank you all very much.
36:04The level today was really, really very high,
36:07and that was such a joy to watch,
36:09and you're all completely different one from the other,
36:13and that says a lot about the calling of being a conductor
36:17and how much the personality and the individual,
36:21how important that is.
36:23So when I call your name,
36:25you're going to come up here and join us, okay?
36:36Giovanni Conti.
36:40Leonhard Kreutzmann.
36:45Zhuyang Chang.
36:48Felix Benatid.
36:53Matteo Dalmaso.
36:57Nina Haug.
37:01Ingun Kosgård-Hagen.
37:05Maria Keller.
37:11Riley Court Wood.
37:16And Kingsley Lynn.
37:23Congratulations to you, and congratulations to you too.
37:27Like I said, onward and upward, okay?
37:31I'm really serious about that.
37:33It's very important.
37:34Straight ahead.
37:35Guys, you have a big day tomorrow,
37:37completely different than today.
37:39So go study.
37:43Yeah, what do we do that you'll change?
37:45Right, now.
37:46Congratulations.
37:51Obviously a little disappointed,
37:52but I'm really happy I still came this far.
37:55I know my dad would have been extremely proud of me.
37:57I know it wouldn't have mattered to him at all
37:59whether I won the whole thing,
38:02much more so the fact that I was here in the first place.
38:05Not going on to the second round is sad, of course,
38:09but I think it has shown me the level
38:11that I feel I can push myself to.
38:15I'm very happy.
38:16I have to realize.
38:19A long night of study will wait ahead of me.
38:24A little disappointing, always,
38:25not to go through to the next part,
38:27but maybe I apply again.
38:30Watch this space.
38:34Tomorrow's going to be harder.
38:35It's going to be a big step up.
38:37It went from 20 to 10,
38:38and then it's going from 10 to 3.
38:41So I'm just going to give it my best,
38:43see what happens.
39:00Round two, day two.
39:02So the 20 from day one have been reduced down to 10.
39:07They get 15 minutes in the morning,
39:09and then they get another 15 minutes in the afternoon.
39:12The morning and the afternoon are two sort of separate musical events.
39:17In the morning, there is the concerto part of the competition,
39:21and two of my wonderful colleagues, Diego and Juliana,
39:25will be playing the first movement of the Strauss Horn Concerto, number two,
39:30and the Strauss Oboe Concerto.
39:36These pieces are a very sophisticated piece of music,
39:39and some of them will conduct the oboe concerto,
39:44some of them will conduct the horn concerto.
39:52Working with a soloist demands quite a different set of skills for young conductors,
39:56particularly because you've now got this additional input coming,
40:02not only from the orchestra,
40:03but from the soloist and the need to then fit with what they're offering.
40:07So it can be very, very challenging.
40:13The conductor has to be very sympathetic to what the soloist wants to do.
40:20The soloist is the main player here,
40:22and the conductor serves the soloist,
40:25but the conductor is the conduit between the soloist's interpretation of the work
40:30and what the orchestra do.
40:32So you've got to stick with the soloist really tightly,
40:36obviously in a technical sense,
40:38but also to match the expression of the soloist in a complementary way.
40:44Today is the semi-finals, and I can feel the pressure
40:47because there are only three candidates going to the final round,
40:51and it is more competitive, and I feel the pressure a bit.
41:27So you've got to stick with the soloist.
41:36Do Young controlled everything very well,
41:40and he also really wanted to balance things.
41:43He was one of only a few who really addressed balance,
41:46and that's incredibly important when you're working with a soloist.
41:52I think maybe he could have a slightly rounder beat.
41:55Sometimes he would get a less harsh sound from the orchestra.
41:59It verged on being a bit edgy for me sometimes.
42:18Ah, I have to say, I am less nervous than yesterday,
42:21but still, I feel my heart beating very fast.
42:34My name is Leonard Kreuzmann.
42:36I'm 22 years old, and I'm from Bonn in Germany.
42:44Conducting always has been a childhood dream for me.
42:46I know some time when I was in primary school,
42:49I wrote it down somewhere as my dream job,
42:52just like astronaut or being a detective or something like that.
42:57But somehow I knew that's what I wanted to do.
43:02I'm the youngest competitors in this year's competition.
43:05I'm 22 years old.
43:07I feel very privileged to be here this early,
43:10to be here this young,
43:11and to be given this chance.
43:14Of course, I admire very much my colleagues,
43:17and I also am very much aware of that
43:20they probably have more experience than me.
43:24I think in the end,
43:25I believe music doesn't really have an age.
43:28I think it's about honesty.
43:30How honest do you feel the music?
43:33How honest can you communicate it
43:34and show what's within?
43:38And I think that matters much more than the age in the end.
44:05And I think that matters much more than the age in the end.
44:13Leonhard had the Strauss-Horn concerto,
44:16and when he started, for me, it was a little contained,
44:20nervy, if I'm honest.
44:22And I thought, you've either got to use this
44:23or it's going to slightly affect you in a negative way.
44:27He certainly developed over time.
44:30I think he got to grips with that,
44:31and that was really lovely to see.
44:49If somebody is quite focused on what they're talking about,
44:52then it means that people are more careful, generally.
44:55It makes them more aware,
44:56and that then will transmit throughout that particular repertoire.
45:00And he was very good at expressing what he wanted in that sense.
45:13Could the triplets be a bit lighter and more phrased to the next bar?
45:31The orchestra reacted wonderfully today.
45:36I certainly feel the pressure of being in the semifinal,
45:39but it's not quite over yet,
45:40so let's see how this afternoon goes.
45:51The contemporary music part of this competition
45:55will separate the wheat from the chaff.
45:58It's just a very complex piece.
46:00But I'm alive.
46:02We had a visit by His Majesty King Charles.
46:06I hope I'm not calling you too many anxious moments.
46:09It's all to be played for,
46:11because the concert turns people into performers,
46:14and the performing beast is completely different.
46:17It can all change in the final.
46:19I felt he really came out of his shell
46:22and did a lot of really great things.
46:24The orchestra is certainly going to raise their game.
46:27Can the conductors raise their game?
46:29Have a great day.
46:31Have a great day.
46:59Check out onscreen sometimes.
47:01Transcription by CastingWords
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