Conductor’s Art of Accompaniment in Opera

Abstract

The article deals with a subject which has obvious practical importance for opera conductors. Its key idea is the need of an active involvement of the accompanist’s profession into the “passport of qualification”. In this connection, the author dwells on the history of the subject highlighting careers of a number of outstanding masters of the art of conducting who also distinguished themselves as accompanists. Their experience both proves beyond any doubt the profound in-ternal kinship between the arts of conducting and accompaniment sharing aims, musical materials and principles of work, and calls for the need to go back to the positive expertise accumulated by the previous generations of Russian educators and performers.