This edition of Milestones of the Millennium explores the role of the conductor, as host Lisa Simeone is joined by PT commentator and record critic Ted Libbey. During the segment, we listen to a variety of musical comparisons and recorded comments by musicians and conductors, including the late, great Leonard Bernstein.

Lisa explains that the true pioneers of conducting were composers who employed sometimes drastic measures to control the tempo of their orchestral performances. While conducting his operas for the court of Louis the XIV, Jean-Baptiste Lully beat time on the floor with his long, pointed cane. It annoyed some listeners, until Lully�s pounding inadvertently resulted in a self-inflicted, fatal wound.

More sophisticated conducting techniques were introduced in the late 1700s, as orchestras expanded and large public concerts became more commonplace. Franz Josef Haydn, the inventor of the symphony as a form, was compelled to have a conductor directing his increasingly complex music. Usually, the conductor was a keyboard player or violinist pressed into service. But eventually, conducting was seen as a role of primary importance for orchestral performance. We listen to Nikolaus Harnoncourt conduct the Concentus Musicus of Vienna in the finale of Haydn�s Symphony No. 59 in A, �The Fire.�

Felix Mendelssohn is widely recognized as the first modern conductor. A child prodigy, Mendelssohn composed several works for two string quartets by the time he was a teenager, and eventually assembled the greatest orchestra in his day, in the city of Leipzig. In 1829 at the age of 20, Mendelssohn expanded his orchestra to a then enormous 50 members for a revival of Bach�s St. Matthew Passion. Mendelssohn was a commanding presence whose intense yet well-mannered direction inspired musicians and other conductors and set a standard by which we measure conductors to this day.

Ted Libbey, curator of the PT Basic Record Library, talks with Lisa about five of the 20th century's greatest conductors: Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwaengler, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, and Herbert von Karajan. We also hear musical examples of their different conducting styles. We then hear the work a great 21st century-conductor-to-be, Michael Tilson Thomas, as he conducts the New World Symphony in the "Comparsa de la culebra" from "La Rebambaramba" Suite by Amadeo Roldan.

Listen to Lisa and Ted Libbey conduct this enlightening edition of Milestones of the Millenium. Note: music parts have been edited from the commentary due to internet rights issues. (This audio segment requires the free RealPlayer 5.0 or higher. You can also listen with a 14.4 connection)