Jansons In Pittsburgh: The Exit Interview

Mariss Jansons’s tenure as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been an unqualified success by artistic standards, and as the maestro prepares for his final concerts in the Steel City, he still speaks of his musicians with great affection, praising their humility and work ethic as well as their talent and skill. But if Jansons has any regrets about his time at the PSO, the blame can be laid squarely at the feet of America’s political and cultural disinterest in great art. “What I can’t understand is having this orchestra in the city and not supporting it, or making it a treasure. This I don’t understand as politics. I lived in Soviet Union, the officials didn’t like classical music, but how they supported art and sport, you can’t imagine.”