The conductor's gift does not always go hand in hand with that of composition; indeed, the union is found much more seldom than is popularly believed.

Composers are not all good conductors.

I have often heard the statement made by foreign singers, as a demonstrated fact, that the German artists are artists in feeling indeed, and serious in their devotion, but that their singing is crude.

Conducting! A subject, truly, concerning which much might be written, yet scarcely anything of real importance is to be found in books.

The ability to conduct is a gift of God with which few have been endowed in full measure.

Of course, experience strengthens one later.

The composers could no longer direct all performances in person, and so the responsibility of interpreting their works in the spirit in which they had been conceived was placed upon conductors.