the will of the conductor interprets with true virtuosity

10:07 Apr 14, 2012 

I think you should avoid using any form of 'virtuoso' which is seldom, if ever, used for conductors. It is generally accepted to be reserved for those who perform, with an instrument or with their voice.

16:17 Apr 13, 2012 

Conductors do of course communicate largely with their arms, and also with their hands (especially if they don't use a baton, like Boulez or Gergiev, for example: Gergiev's hand movements are quite extraordinary). But the eyes are extremely important too, and although some conductors barely twitch a facial muscle, many communicate a great deal through facial expression. "Gest" made me think of this, perhaps because in Spanish "gesto" quite often refers to facial expression. "Gesture" in English can, in principle, be a movement of the head, but I think it really suggests hands and arms. I'd be inclined to use a more general term like "movements".

14:55 Apr 13, 2012 

I simply interpret the adjectives "bold, elegant and precise" as referring to movement of the conductor's arms/hands. Like I said, _most_ of the work is done with the arms.
This is based on a lifetime of sitting in all kinds of concert halls and half a lifetime translating music-related texts, reviews etc. :-)

14:42 Apr 13, 2012 

This wikipedia page on conductiing speaks mostly of gestures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conducting. @ PAS Plus, I am not quite sure of your point, insofar as you seem to agree that gestures refers - in this context, mainly to arms... so is there a reason to change "gestures" to "arm movements"? gestures can at least include the nods, the sways, etc...

14:28 Apr 13, 2012 

Yes, but "gesture" to me indicates the arm - and that includes the hands :-)
Obviously, the conductor's whole body moves, but it's the arms that do most of the work. In my experience, descriptions such as "precise gestures", "expansive gestures" refer to the arms/ hands.

14:26 Apr 13, 2012 

A conductor's bodily communication is not confined to merely arm movements, there are of course also hand movements and movements of the rest of their body too.

I think restricting it to just 'arm' would be unwise here, and 'gesture' does have the advantage of remaining non-specific.

14:23 Apr 13, 2012 

Use "arm movements" instead of "gestures".