Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the … - Leonard Bernstein

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Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the audience; that all his efforts, however strenuous or glamorous, be made in the service of the composer's meaning - the music itself, which, after all, is the whole reason for the conductor's existence."