[Dixielandjazz] More on Ms. Alsop & The Baltimore Symphony

[Steve barbone]

Caveat: Not OKOM . . . BUT A GREAT READ. Not too different from the problems
between sidemen and bandleaders in the jazz world, OKOM included.

As an aside, our trombonist Glenn Dodson was with the Philadelphia Symphony
during Muti"s conductorship. He feels Muti was the best Conductor he ever
worked for.. (See paragraph 5 about Muti & LaScala below) Dodson also
dislikes most classical musicians, preferring instead, us jazz wackos.

Bottom line, IMO, is what the "audience" thinks, not what the sidemen think.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



Baltimore Question: Can't They Get Along?
Baltimore Symphony Board Backs Choice of Marin Alsop (July 20, 2005)

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: July 20, 2005

When the news leaked out that Marin Alsop was to be appointed the next music
director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the national media leapt on
the story as a barrier-breaking milestone. Ms. Alsop would be the first
woman to direct a major American orchestra. She had already made history in
2002 as the first woman to become principal conductor of a major British
orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony.

Though the breakthrough is overdue, I supported the decision for other
reasons. Instead of turning to an elderly European eminence, as major
American orchestras so often have, the Baltimore Symphony was putting its
faith in a 48-year-old American dynamo, a formidable musician and a powerful
communicator, a conductor with a vision of what an American orchestra could
be in the 21st century. Ms. Alsop has also proved to be a programmer with a
knack for mixing old and new, a champion of contemporary music and living
composers, and someone who can talk from first-hand experience about the
new-music scenes and the standout composers in Los Angeles, Chicago, New
York and London. 

Then came the protests from the orchestra's players, and the voices were too
numerous and too strident to be dismissed as typical grumbling of jaded
union musicians. What to make of it? Ms. Alsop's debut with the Baltimore
Symphony in May 2002 was well received by critics and audiences. Though I
have not heard her conduct the orchestra, her performances with it since her
debut have seemingly been successful.

There is an inexplicable element of chemistry between a conductor and the
members of an orchestra. There is also, almost always, some friction, which
at best can be creative and at worst destabilizing.

The arrogance of the perfectionist conductor Riccardo Muti eventually drove
the players of the orchestra of La Scala Opera in Milan to rebel. Mr. Muti
resigned in a huff. But whatever the friction, the orchestra played
surpassingly well during Mr. Muti's years as music director.

Many members of the New York Philharmonic found Kurt Masur to be an abusive
taskmaster. Yet even his biggest critics among the players would surely
concede that he took the Philharmonic to a new level of excellence and
inspired them to profound performances.

On the other hand, Michael Tilson Thomas seems to have an utterly collegial
relationship with the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony. You could
argue that a little of Mr. Masur's grim-faced discipline is called for. (San
Francisco Symphony performances can be a bit scrappy.) But the dynamic
between Mr. Thomas and his players is working. The music-making is vibrant
and fresh. He is enticing audiences to take chances on adventurous programs.
Things are going great. Who cares about a few bloopers now and then?

It's possible that the complaints coming from Baltimore musicians about Ms.
Alsop's appointment are mostly expressions of disgruntlement over the
selection process. No matter how much input orchestra players are given in
choosing a music director, they never feel they have enough. Surely, they
cannot be serious when they argue that Ms. Alsop's expertise, stature within
the field and drawing power are in any way lacking. Would they prefer some
of the other potential candidates whose names have been released?

One is the Austrian Hans Graf, a solid conductor now at the Houston
Symphony. Despite being only 56, Mr. Graf is an old-world figure best known
for his cool and elegant performances of Mozart and Bruckner. He hardly
seems the kind of savior most American orchestras are looking for. Then
there are Juanjo Mena and Bjarte Engeset. While humbly admitting that my
knowledge of the field is not without limits, I respectfully ask, who are
they? 

Ms. Alsop is such an exciting conductor of American and contemporary music
that she has unfortunately been pegged as a specialist. Actually, she has
always conducted a wide range of repertory.

You need only listen to her recent recording of Brahms's Symphony No. 1 on
the Naxos label, the first in a promised survey of the Brahms symphonies
with the London Symphony Orchestra. This is a bracing, incisive and
unsentimental account of a staple. As someone steeped in contemporary music,
Ms. Alsop conducts the Brahms with a keen awareness of its path-breaking
elements. 

In the end, the orchestra players are the only experts on what it's like to
work with a conductor. Still, they are not the experts on what a performance
is like for the audience. That's why boards and managers sometimes choose to
stick with conductors whom the players grumble about. Clearly, the board of
the Baltimore Symphony senses that Ms. Alsop could be an energizing force
for the orchestra as well as a charismatic cultural leader in the city.

I'm often asked why there are so few women among prominent conductors. It
seems too glib to answer that the problem is rampant sexism within the
orchestral world. But what other explanation is there? Today, roughly half
the composition students at American conservatories are women, and music by
prominent composers who are women is performed everywhere. Women fill the
ranks of orchestras as players as never before, even in once-staid Berlin.
So why have so few women broken into conducting's top tier?

No one would defend appointing Ms. Alsop to this post merely as a gesture
toward correcting past prejudice, however exciting the gesture. Yet she
would be a plausible candidate to succeed Lorin Maazel at the New York
Philharmonic, an orchestra she conducts regularly and excellently. The great
European maestros - and there are not actually as many as people assume -
can and must be regularly invited to conduct American orchestras. But it's
time to let the new generation of Americans have a go at running things.