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Eschenbach bows out
Calling Donald Rumsfeld! Or:
Christoph, we hardly knew ye
STEVE COHEN
I’m sad to see the termination of Christoph Eschenbach’s tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Even when I differed with his interpretation of a piece I was intrigued by his ideas. And often he drew lovely sounds from the orchestra. His Tchaikovsky Pathetique two weeks ago belonged in the lush and emotional Philadelphia tradition.
Three things are most distressing about the announcement that Eschenbach will leave the music directorship after the 2007-08 season:
1. The decisive factor seems to be, in large part, because Eschenbach isn’t popular with many of the players.
2. Another influence was the severe criticism by a single critic, the Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin.
3. No clear successor is in sight.
The conductor who carried a gun
Many fine conductors have been hated by their players. Arthur Rodzinski, one of Stokowski’s associate conductors with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1920s, carried a gun in his trousers and threatened to use it against his enemies. He also ran the opera department at Curtis and went on to become music director of the New York Philharmonic.
Peter Dobrin’s disparaging comments have been the most extreme of any Philadelphia music critic ever. (I’ve read clippings going back to 1900.) In person Dobrin is a quiet, thoughtful and polite man, so the bluntness of his critiques has been surprising. He has the right to his opinion, of course, but such sustained attacks on the work of a conductor are rare. I haven’t seen anything like it since the ‘50s, when Howard Taubman of the New York Times criticized the work of Dimitri Mitropoulos as music director of the New York Philharmonic. Taubman eventually wrote a long Sunday piece calling for Mitropoulos’s replacement by the then-young Leonard Bernstein. Within a year, Taubman got his wish.
Dobrin’s Inky teammate, David Patrick Stearns, often praises Eschenbach’s work. One hopes that the Orchestra’s decision to re-hire or fire wasn’t affected by one man’s writings, no matter how intelligent and talented he may be.
Will Dutoit return?
In any case, no potential Leonard Bernstein waits in the wings today. No conductor has been a prominent guest here over a period of years, as Bernstein was in New York in New York in the ‘50s or as Sawallisch was here before he became the boss. No one has been groomed with increasing responsibilities the way Riccardo Muti was during Eugene Ormandy’s later years.
Conductors who were considered for the directorship in the recent past have moved on to other venues. Riccardo Chailly, once a frequent guest here, has rarely returned since Eschenbach was chosen as music director in 2002. Same with Franz Welser-Most. Charles Dutoit was considered, then passed over, and he quit his position as music director of the Orchestra’s summer concerts at the Mann and at Saratoga. To Dutoit’s credit, he continues to come here as a guest conductor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he finally got the top job.
Stokowski's job interview
One has to go back to 1912 to find a situation anything like this. At that time, dissatisfaction abounded with Carl Pohlig in his third year as the Orchestra’s conductor. (The title “music director” wasn’t used until decades later.) Board members searched frantically for a way to replace him quickly, and they listened to the pleas of one of the day’s most popular pianists, Olga Samaroff. She had appeared frequently with the Orchestra and maintained many social contacts here. She recommended the Cincinnati Symphony’s 30-year-old conductor of, Leopold Stokowski, who happened to be her husband, and he was hired to replace Pohlig before anyone ever heard him conduct in Philly. (He sneaked into town and rode a train out to Merion Station where he was interviewed– on the train platform– by a board member.) That decision lasted 29 years and transformed the Orchestra into a world-class ensemble.
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s institutional prominence is too great for anything so quirky to happen again. Or is it? One man, 34-year-old Vladimir Jurowski, is considered as a candidate for the music directorship on the basis of just one program he conducted here last season.
Some observers look forward to a parade of guest conductors from which a list of candidates can be compiled, then narrowed down— sort of a classical “American Idol.” Too bad that next season’s guest conductors— Eschenbach’s last—have been booked already. That means Eschenbach’s successor will have to be chosen without a public viewing of many of the candidates.
Much of this mess could have been avoided. The Orchestra's management assumed that Sawallisch would be available as a laureate guest and that Simon Rattle would keep everyone happy by visiting for a few weeks each year. Beyond that, scant attention was given to who would fill the podium when Eschenbach was away. And no one seems to have formulated a Plan B in case Eschenbach didn’t stay.
To view responses, click here and here.
Christoph, we hardly knew ye
STEVE COHEN
I’m sad to see the termination of Christoph Eschenbach’s tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Even when I differed with his interpretation of a piece I was intrigued by his ideas. And often he drew lovely sounds from the orchestra. His Tchaikovsky Pathetique two weeks ago belonged in the lush and emotional Philadelphia tradition.
Three things are most distressing about the announcement that Eschenbach will leave the music directorship after the 2007-08 season:
1. The decisive factor seems to be, in large part, because Eschenbach isn’t popular with many of the players.
2. Another influence was the severe criticism by a single critic, the Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin.
3. No clear successor is in sight.
The conductor who carried a gun
Many fine conductors have been hated by their players. Arthur Rodzinski, one of Stokowski’s associate conductors with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1920s, carried a gun in his trousers and threatened to use it against his enemies. He also ran the opera department at Curtis and went on to become music director of the New York Philharmonic.
Peter Dobrin’s disparaging comments have been the most extreme of any Philadelphia music critic ever. (I’ve read clippings going back to 1900.) In person Dobrin is a quiet, thoughtful and polite man, so the bluntness of his critiques has been surprising. He has the right to his opinion, of course, but such sustained attacks on the work of a conductor are rare. I haven’t seen anything like it since the ‘50s, when Howard Taubman of the New York Times criticized the work of Dimitri Mitropoulos as music director of the New York Philharmonic. Taubman eventually wrote a long Sunday piece calling for Mitropoulos’s replacement by the then-young Leonard Bernstein. Within a year, Taubman got his wish.
Dobrin’s Inky teammate, David Patrick Stearns, often praises Eschenbach’s work. One hopes that the Orchestra’s decision to re-hire or fire wasn’t affected by one man’s writings, no matter how intelligent and talented he may be.
Will Dutoit return?
In any case, no potential Leonard Bernstein waits in the wings today. No conductor has been a prominent guest here over a period of years, as Bernstein was in New York in New York in the ‘50s or as Sawallisch was here before he became the boss. No one has been groomed with increasing responsibilities the way Riccardo Muti was during Eugene Ormandy’s later years.
Conductors who were considered for the directorship in the recent past have moved on to other venues. Riccardo Chailly, once a frequent guest here, has rarely returned since Eschenbach was chosen as music director in 2002. Same with Franz Welser-Most. Charles Dutoit was considered, then passed over, and he quit his position as music director of the Orchestra’s summer concerts at the Mann and at Saratoga. To Dutoit’s credit, he continues to come here as a guest conductor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he finally got the top job.
Stokowski's job interview
One has to go back to 1912 to find a situation anything like this. At that time, dissatisfaction abounded with Carl Pohlig in his third year as the Orchestra’s conductor. (The title “music director” wasn’t used until decades later.) Board members searched frantically for a way to replace him quickly, and they listened to the pleas of one of the day’s most popular pianists, Olga Samaroff. She had appeared frequently with the Orchestra and maintained many social contacts here. She recommended the Cincinnati Symphony’s 30-year-old conductor of, Leopold Stokowski, who happened to be her husband, and he was hired to replace Pohlig before anyone ever heard him conduct in Philly. (He sneaked into town and rode a train out to Merion Station where he was interviewed– on the train platform– by a board member.) That decision lasted 29 years and transformed the Orchestra into a world-class ensemble.
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s institutional prominence is too great for anything so quirky to happen again. Or is it? One man, 34-year-old Vladimir Jurowski, is considered as a candidate for the music directorship on the basis of just one program he conducted here last season.
Some observers look forward to a parade of guest conductors from which a list of candidates can be compiled, then narrowed down— sort of a classical “American Idol.” Too bad that next season’s guest conductors— Eschenbach’s last—have been booked already. That means Eschenbach’s successor will have to be chosen without a public viewing of many of the candidates.
Much of this mess could have been avoided. The Orchestra's management assumed that Sawallisch would be available as a laureate guest and that Simon Rattle would keep everyone happy by visiting for a few weeks each year. Beyond that, scant attention was given to who would fill the podium when Eschenbach was away. And no one seems to have formulated a Plan B in case Eschenbach didn’t stay.
To view responses, click here and here.
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