How conductors keep getting better at 90

‘It’s a bad week. I gather we’ve lost one.’ Sir Neville Marriner, himself a huge name, is talking about the death of one of the world’s top conductors. Lorin Maazel, who died at home in Virginia at the age of 84, had led orchestras including the New York Philharmonic. He was still conducting this year. Last month, the Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos died in Pamplona at the age of 80. Only a week earlier he had announced he had cancer and would have to retire. Conductors, it is no secret, enjoy long working lives — some have even passed away mid-performance. But what’s their secret?
This summer’s BBC Proms are celebrating four ‘birthday batonists’. Among them are the three knights, Sir Neville (90), Sir Roger Norrington (80) and Sir Andrew Davis (70). Each has been waving his baton — Sir Andrew just his hands since he got tennis elbow — in this country or abroad for half a century.