While readers will be fully aware of the practical issues related to a conductor’s responsibilities there are some matters in the percussion arena which require special attention. The variety and number of instruments deployed in various scores is a constant challenge to the players, who often have to go well beyond the call of duty to fulfil their role. David Hockings explains these issues. He recounts an experience in which the conductor had no concern for the special needs of the section. The work was Boulez’s Rituel, but the conductor was not the composer. After spending a great deal of time waiting for the hired instruments to arrive for the first rehearsal, the conductor did not rehearse the piece. The dress rehearsal was the only occasion when there was a complete play-through – for 15 minutes! Added to this, the conductor gave no consideration for the setting-up time needed. With such a lack of concern and an absence of understanding of these practicalities the result was ‘chaos in the performance’. Hockings concluded that the conductor had no interest in the music and did not know how to deal with the score, choosing not to deal with its requirements. Such an experience also demonstrated the conductor’s failure to understand that such a work is not known to any of the players as much as a work of, say, Ravel. The players require much more rehearsal time than they do in a well-known work. Percussion players have so many more practical issues to deal with than any other section of the orchestra in this kind of repertoire.

Hockings has also experienced conductors who show little concern for the varying combination of instruments in each of several works in one programme. Each station might require a different combination of instruments from one work to another. Whenever the pieces are adjacent in a programme, this requires time to reorganise, which must be specified by the players. Rather than having a break of 10–15 minutes between each piece the conductor and concert organisers would be well advised to confer with the percussion section regarding what order of programme would work best to avoid such breaks between performances in the concert.