Category: music

As China becomes an ever-more-important player on the world stage, the clash between its relatively closed and controlled Communist society and its desire to compete with Western countries on every front possible is leading to some incongruous situations. Case in point: the rise of China’s stable of young classical musicians, bred almost from birth to be the next generation of superstars. On the one hand, the cultural push is giving rise to some phenomenal talents who might otherwise never have had the opportunity to learn the musical craft. On the other hand, some Europeans have been dismayed by the Chinese approach, claiming that children deprived of a normal childhood in favor of intense study in a single area will not grow into well-rounded musicians.

Before signing her contract as the Baltimore Symphony’s next music director, Marin Alsop spent some time with the orchestra’s musicians in an attempt to put aside any hard feelings and articulate her artistic vision for the ensemble. The musicians, in return, assured Alsop that they would “always give [her] 110%.” Meanwhile, various BSO board members have begun to publicly explain their decision to appoint a music director opposed by 90% of the orchestra’s players, and Alsop herself has described the controversy, which seems to have been about principle as much as personality, as “a warning light about other issues the musicians have that need to be addressed.”

Richard Dyer says that there’s plenty of blame to go around in the Baltimore mess. “At this point, no one should be patting themselves on the back except perhaps Alsop, the innocent bystander/victim in an ugly management-vs.-musician conflict. The management and board should never have let the news out before it had all the ducks lined up. And once the announcement was made, the players should not have made a public issue of their dissatisfaction. What possible purpose could this serve?”

Free downloads of BBC Beethoven symphonies have blown off the lid of the download charts, beating all popular music. “Final figures from the BBC show that the complete Beethoven symphonies on its website were downloaded 1.4m times, with individual works downloaded between 89,000 and 220,000 times. The works were each available for a week, in two tranches, in June. It would take a commercial CD recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies ‘upwards of five years’ to sell as many downloads as were shifted from the BBC website in two weeks.”

“Exactly what those objections are or why Baltimore’s management was willing to hurt relations with the players to rush this appointment [of Marin Alsop] through are unclear. Is it, for the players, personal? Do they dislike her as a conductor? Are they unhappy with her predilection for American music? And what about management? Is it interested in Alsop’s vision? Or is it out for the publicity of hiring a woman? The Baltimore Symphony is not in particularly good shape these days. It’s deficit has been variously reported as $10 million and $12 million. And the orchestra has hardly demonstrated strong artistic vision of late.”

Marin Alsop hasn’t yet accepted the music director job of the Baltimore Symphony, which was offered to her Tuesday over the objections of the orchestra’s musicians. “The course of events in Baltimore leaves Alsop in an awkward spot. The job may be hers, but musical success hinges on that ineffable thing called chemistry. Liking, respecting, and trying hard for the conductor on the podium count for much in how well a performance goes. Such relationships are even harder to develop after the atmosphere has been poisoned with complaints such as the ones cataloged by Baltimore musicians and magnified in yesterday’s Washington Post.”

“Despite pleas by its musicians that it consider other candidates, the board of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Tuesday formally offered the post of music director to Marin Alsop, the principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in England, who will become the first woman to head a major American orchestra.” The orchestra’s musicians responded: “The musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra are disappointed in the premature conclusion of the music director search process. However, this will not dampen our enthusiasm and zest for music-making. We will work together with Marin Alsop and every other conductor to present the inspiring performances our audience has come to expect.”

Marin Alsop would seem to be an excellent choice to lead the Baltimore Symphony, but one shouldn’t dismiss the objections of the orchestra’s musicians. “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.”

The Washington DC-area Arlington Symphony has shut down and filed for bankruptcy. The 60-year-old ensemble was one of the older orchestras in the Washington area. “The professional symphony had struggled financially for years. Its debt now is about $140,000, with an annual operating budget of $300,000 to $400,000.”

The mess surrounding the appointment of a new music director for the Baltimore Symphony comes to a head today as the orchestra’s board meets to decide whether to hire Marin Alsop. “The hard-to-define chemistry between musicians and conductor that produces and sustains a long-term relationship is difficult to predict, let alone guarantee. Whether Alsop and the BSO could achieve such a connection is a question that the orchestra’s board may consider this morning.”