TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/103089/10308900.076

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.6 KB | 110 lines

                                                                                MUSIC, Page 85

At Last, Some Fresh Faces


Great age is no longer a must on the symphony scene

By Michael Walsh


    The popular image of the orchestra conductor is that of a
grand seigneur: imperious, authoritarian and, more often than
not, old. Concert music, goes the conventional wisdom, is
something so emotionally and spiritually complex that no one who
has not reached at least his 60th year can possibly plumb its
depths. What Beethoven, who died at 56, Mozart, who died at 35,
or Schubert, who died at 31, would have thought of this
manifestly ridiculous proposition hardly needs asking.

    For too long, the myth that great age is required for great
musicmaking has been accepted uncritically by audiences,
performers and boards of directors alike. Now, with the
surprising appointment of Claudio Abbado, 56, to succeed the
late Herbert von Karajan at the august Berlin Philharmonic, and
the even more unexpected engagement of Finland's Esa-Pekka
Salonen, 31, to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic, two new
generations are finally laying claim to the world's great
orchestras. Coming shortly after the selection of Myung-Whun
Chung, 36, to lead the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, the
appointments indicate a fresh breeze whistling through classical
music.

    Few can deny that the choices are sound ones. Abbado is a
conductor of great range, equally at home, as Karajan was, in
opera and symphonic music. His repertoire, however, is wider
than Karajan's largely meat-and-potatoes Central European diet.
"Musical history does not end with Puccini," Abbado declared
after his election by the self-governing orchestra. Salonen,
whose photogenic, blond good looks are sure to be an asset in
image-conscious Los Angeles, is even more adventurous. "The
Salonen appointment in Los Angeles indicates an orchestra
possibly trying to change the image of what an orchestra might
be about," says Leonard Slatkin, 45, the innovative conductor
of the St. Louis Symphony.

    One reason that Karajan, Karl Bohm, Carlo Maria Giulini,
Sir Georg Solti and the other gerontocrats who dominated the
musical scene after World War II were able to last so long was
that there was simply no seasoned competition: the conflict
killed off a whole generation of Europeans and some Americans,
from whose ranks their successors might ordinarily have emerged.
Partly as a result, the repertoire stagnated as Karajan and his
contemporaries grew increasingly out of touch.

    Coupled with this was the problem for young conductors
trying to learn their repertory out of the spotlight. An
overnight success could make a name, but at what cost? Michael
Tilson Thomas, for example, sprang to fame in Boston by
substituting for William Steinberg and then spent the next two
decades dealing with the consequences of sudden celebrity. Still
only 44, Thomas has matured into a fine conductor, and now leads
the London Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps in recognition of the
pitfalls of premature success, Soviet emigre Semyon Bychkov, 37,
started out in Grand Rapids and then went to Buffalo before
taking charge this year of the Orchestre de Paris. Similarly,
Britain's Simon Rattle, 34, a leader of great promise, has
obdurately remained with his City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra in England, taking his career at his own pace.

    One reasonable ground for resistance to youth has been that
that there are many more first-rate orchestras than brand-name
conductors, and the competition for their services is fierce.
"We have a great orchestra, and we owe it to them to get the
best we can," says John Willan, managing director of the London
Philharmonic, which is currently seeking a conductor. As a
result, in London, in New York City -- where the New York
Philharmonic is looking for a successor to Zubin Mehta -- and
elsewhere, the usual suspects are consistently rounded up for
the obligatory short list: Lorin Maazel (whose career began in
Pittsburgh as a child prodigy), James Levine, master of the
Metropolitan Opera, Seiji Ozawa of Boston, Riccardo Muti of
Philadelphia and La Scala. Back in 1971 the New York
Philharmonic surprised everyone by hiring French avant-garde
composer Pierre Boulez as its conductor. A similarly bold stroke
is called for now.

    As welcome as all these recent appointments are, there is
still cause for some concern. The fact that so many of the major
players have held one another's posts -- Maazel was Abbado's
predecessor in Vienna, Muti his successor at La Scala, and
Abbado himself was considered a candidate to follow Mehta with
the New York Philharmonic -- has inevitably contributed to a
certain sonic sameness of the major ensembles: call it
Euronoise. Salonen's tenure in California should be exciting,
but once again a big American post has gone to a European with
little feel for American music or culture. And for every Rattle,
who stays where he is by choice, there are half a dozen
Slatkins, who ought to be considered for top jobs but are often
overlooked because of either their youth or their American
accent.

    Still, if mighty, tradition-bound Berlin can do it, then so
can anybody. "One of the many reasons that the musicians in
Berlin were so keen on Abbado, besides the fact that he is a
great conductor, is that he has great sympathy for modern
music," says Ernest Fleischmann, the executive director of the
Los Angeles Philharmonic. "Salonen is not known for exactly
being conservative, either. There is a change coming all over
the world. We are beginning to open up more to new things." It's
about time.