Mark Ermler

 

 

Mark Ermler was eventually Chief Conductor at the Bolshoi. Orchestras adored him because he had a brain like a computer but was very sweet with it. He told me once that if he needed to work on some problem in rehearsal he would try to fix it twice and if they still couldn't manage it he would just move on! He could be absolutely inspired but he could also just be on auto-pilot. His tragedy was that he recognised this but he didn't know how to turn on the inspiration.

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