TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/103089/10308900.076

Text File | 1990-09-18 | 6KB | 98 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.