We were expected to play in any position within our section so I found myself as first clarinet for "Il Trovatore" under the baton of Rankl's assistant, Reginald Goodall. Since our College days I had only seem him occasionally when he was assisting Malcolm Sargent and had been repelled by his over anti-Semitism. He was by all accounts an excellent coach, singers loved to learn with him. A disciple of Furtwangler, his approach to conducting was intensely emotional which could produce fine moments if all was well but he had a very limited stick technique - openly despising such practical considerations - and so was unable to summon up or control such moments at will, in fact he was the antithesis of my ideal of a conductor. << less