Antonia Brico: Self
Quotes
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Antonia Brico , Judy Collins : [singing] You'll feel blue, you'll feel sad, You'll miss the dearest pal you've ever had, There'll come a time, oh honey, now don't forget it, There'll come a time when you regret it...
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Antonia Brico : You either rise very high and afterwards you drop very low. I have a habit of living in the present. And I don't want to think of what's coming or what was past. I just enjoy so tremendously. Some people say, "Oh, well, in three days it's over," or "I hate to think of it." I just completely put a block in past or the future.
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Antonia Brico : Piano you can play and play in the privacy of your domain. But, conducting is a public affair from the word go. You have to have people to conduct and people to listen.
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Antonia Brico : Clarinets and bassoons also: baa baa. Diminish it. Diminish those quarters. Diminish the quarters, please.
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Antonia Brico : The more inspiration there was in a concert, the harder the fall. That's normal. That's normal any time you had an emotional experience, the aftermath - aftermath is always difficult, I find.
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Antonia Brico : No, I don't think about the power. I don't think that's it. I think it's the feeling of a painter with a palette and you take one color and you do this to another color and do that. It's a fluid proposition. It doesn't stay stagnant. And - there's density to it. I feel that there's that three-dimensional. That when you really *dig* into an interpretation, it's just - it just - no, it just speaks to a person in a certain manner.
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Antonia Brico : I'm not so sure I want that in public, my dear.
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Antonia Brico : Where were we? We get constantly interrupted.
Judy Collins : We were in 1929 this morning.
Antonia Brico : We got interrupted because of "The Gates of Kiev." Yes.
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Antonia Brico : An orchestra requires such an enormous amount of money and people. And that's why its such a fascinating affair, probably. Because, it slips through your fingers. It isn't anything you can hold. You can't see it. You can't touch it. You can't do anything but just that one, split second.
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Antonia Brico : It's not whether I had the stuff or not. He said, in those days, he said, "Women can't be conductors." I said I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try. I'd rather die trying.
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Antonia Brico : How would it feel to you if you had, in the whole year, four performances? Would you like that? I have four - five performances a year. I'm strong enough to have five performances a month! I'm essentially a creative artist and I teach most of the time and I would like to conduct *more* than five performances. I'm squeezed. I'm frustrated because I conduct four - five concerts a year, sometimes six, and I'd like to conduct five concerts a month. I cannot play my instrument - which is the orchestra. I get an opportunity like last Sunday. I was extraordinarily happy. And that's *one*. That's like giving a starving person a piece of bread after days of hunger. Does that answer your question? I want to conduct professional orchestras!
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Antonia Brico : I met Stravinsky and I saw, but I didn't meet him, Ravel. And, of course, Sibelius. The greatest.
Judy Collins : Did Sibelius ever hear you conduct his music?
Antonia Brico : Yes. I have wonderful letters from him. Yes, he did. It was he who arranged for me to conduct in Finland, as much as I did.
