Jaap van Zweden, new NYPO director

[Brian]

Norman Lebrecht has a predictably stupid, outraged, and wrong-headed reaction, while Manfred Honeck told the Pittsburgh newspaper that he thinks Jaap is a very good choice. Honeck says he was contacted, but like Salonen, he declined. He wants to finish his term in Pittsburgh unimpeded.

[Monsieur Croche]

Players who have been accepted by major symphonic organizations are nearly all graduates of fine conservatories and music departments and have at least a masters degree in instrumental performance.

When a post for a position in these orchestras opens up, the number of qualified applicants often numbers between four to six hundred, from which between two to one hundred make it to final auditions.

I learned that the salary of a newly-hired last desk fiddle player in the Chicago Symphony starts at ca. one-hundred fourteen K per annum. The New York band probably compensates commensurately higher because of the crazy cost of living there.

These players are the top of the top. They have been coming up with nothing less than the most exacting 'best' all along the way. To assume they 'got by' with anything less than the most rigorous and demanding standards in their progression to holding those posts would be beyond silly.

What this is news of then is not really about the conductor; it is nothing more than an affected and postured whine, head tilted back, back of hand to forehead, ''Ooooh, he is soooo demanding.''

I don't buy this catty dis dish on Maestro van Zweden for -- a New York minute. 

[knight66]

Norman Lebrecht has a predictably stupid, outraged, and wrong-headed reaction, while Manfred Honeck told the Pittsburgh newspaper that he thinks Jaap is a very good choice. Honeck says he was contacted, but like Salonen, he declined. He wants to finish his term in Pittsburgh unimpeded.

I read Lebrecht's piece, what an insane rant he had, even dafter than usual. Basically it sent me scurrying off to find some of the conductor's work and I found a terrific Bruckner 8th. I hope it all works out.

I saw back in the thread a suggestion that Edward Gardner is ready for the big time; I agree. I have seen lots of his live performances and he really is excellent and has a very wide repertoire.

Mike

[Mirror Image]

I saw back in the thread a suggestion that Edward Gardner is ready for the big time; I agree. I have seen lots of his live performances and he really is excellent and has a very wide repertoire.

Mike

That was me who made the suggestion about Gardner. Lucky you that you've been able to see several of his performances. What concert with Gardner the best one you've seen?

[knight66]

He stepped in at short notice for Gerontius and that was memorable. He is very good in opera. He was chief conductor at English National Orchestra for some time, I saw a cracking Verdi Simon Boccanegra, Sibelius Kullervo, Peter Grimes, all vocal. Outside of the vocal I recall a muscular Beethoven 7th, Schubert Unfinished and some excellent Elgar. He has quite a wide repertoire which is reflected in his recordings. Not just a safe pair of hands, he gets under the skin of the pieces.

Mike

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Where can I read the Lebrecht rant? It seems not to show up when I click the link.

[knight66]

_{http://slippedisc.com/why-white-van-man-is-so-wrong-for-the-new-york-philharmonic/}


Let's see if this works.

Mike

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

_{http://slippedisc.com/why-white-van-man-is-so-wrong-for-the-new-york-philharmonic/}


Let's see if this works.

Mike

It works, I read it, and he seems to have made many points which are irrelevant to rehearsing and interpreting the music itself, some I agree with, but most of which seems to stem from either a CV worthy of Lebrecht's praise or political correctness (the latter I must say is of more importance in the world that we are today, but it has nothing to do with music whatsoever. The former I wouldn't even give much thought about if the conductor is musically very good and efficient and adaptable in rehearsals)

[Brian]

New York Isn't Thrilled to Welcome the Dallas Symphony's Conductor
(by me)

[knight66]

A fair bit of ouch there.

I have the distinction of being blocked by Lebrecht from his Twitter account; the only block I have so far achieved. I simply asked him if he could stop moaning.....but that was enough for The Arbiter. I made several pleasant contacts by his action; people who felt that I had to be an OK guy if I was being blocked by Lebrecht. In retrospect I feel I should have asked him to be more accurate, or at least less inaccurate, in his reporting.

Mike

[Pat B]

New York Isn't Thrilled to Welcome the Dallas Symphony's Conductor
(by me)

Nice angle. If Tommasini and Davidson have heard any of van Zweden's work -- either recorded or live -- it sure doesn't come across in their pieces. Davidson, particularly, borders on Lebrecht-style trolling. "Only" four concerts? Well, that's one more than the Berlin Philharmonic had with Petrenko. My sense is that all of those authors are looking at the selection through the lens of a post-Bernstein series of choices that mostly turned out to be underwhelming (at least in their view), that they would have been unhappy with anybody they could get. Ironically, there's also a clear sense of wishing they had just kept Gilbert.

[mc ukrneal]

Nice angle. If Tommasini and Davidson have heard any of van Zweden's work -- either recorded or live -- it sure doesn't come across in their pieces. Davidson, particularly, borders on Lebrecht-style trolling. "Only" four concerts? Well, that's one more than the Berlin Philharmonic had with Petrenko. My sense is that all of those authors are looking at the selection through the lens of a post-Bernstein series of choices that mostly turned out to be underwhelming (at least in their view), that they would have been unhappy with anybody they could get. Ironically, there's also a clear sense of wishing they had just kept Gilbert.

I don't think they liked Gilbert either. I think the problem is that they want either: 1) Someone young and precocious (so if he succeeds, they can call that person their own, and if they fail, well they'll happily bury the person too), 2) Someone famous and a star (because this is New York after all) or 3) Someone unique and different (extreme being good). And if they could hit 2 or 3 of these, all the better. That doesn't mean such a person would succeed, but such a conductor is the goal (at least in the press). If it sounds like someone you have heard of, you are right..

[North Star]

Heather Kurzbauer: In Praise of Jaap van Zweden

[(poco) Sforzando]

I don't think they liked Gilbert either.

Don't forget, they (whoever they might be) didn't always like Lenny in his NYP days. Harold Schonberg, then chief critic at the Times, wrote scathing reviews of Bernstein's podium histrionics and even his interpretations: "Toward the end of the Liszt concerto, he rose vertically into the air, à la Nijinsky, and hovered there a good fifteen seconds by the clock." I'm sorry to say that such attitudes prejudiced me mightily against Bernstein at that time, and as a result I heard him less often live than I might have. And yet those early recordings (the Eroica, the Berg 3 Pieces, the Ravel Concerto where he also played the solo, and of course much of the Mahler), though they might lack the ultimate finesse of some European conductors, now strike me as the work of an extraordinarily vital musician.

In his later days, Bernstein became much more stately and ponderous. One of my last Bernstein live concerts was an NYP Mahler 2 where I left feeling both overwhelmed and at the same time wondering if any other conductor could have gotten away with such a reading.

[knight66]

North Star, Good to read something written from a standpoint of knowledge. I assume he will now be slotted into NY programming from now until he takes over.

Mike

[mc ukrneal]

Don't forget, they (whoever they might be) didn't always like Lenny in his NYP days. Harold Schonberg, then chief critic at the Times, wrote scathing reviews of Bernstein's podium histrionics and even his interpretations: "Toward the end of the Liszt concerto, he rose vertically into the air, à la Nijinsky, and hovered there a good fifteen seconds by the clock." I'm sorry to say that such attitudes prejudiced me mightily against Bernstein at that time, and as a result I heard him less often live than I might have. And yet those early recordings (the Eroica, the Berg 3 Pieces, the Ravel Concerto where he also played the solo, and of course much of the Mahler), though they might lack the ultimate finesse of some European conductors, now strike me as the work of an extraordinarily vital musician.

In his later days, Bernstein became much more stately and ponderous. One of my last Bernstein live concerts was an NYP Mahler 2 where I left feeling both overwhelmed and at the same time wondering if any other conductor could have gotten away with such a reading.

But he was always brilliant (if not as a conductor, as a composer) and was quite unique in the world of the conducting. And someone to criticize, in New York, is not necessarily a bad thing.

[Pat B]

I don't think they liked Gilbert either.

...until they hired his replacement.

I think the problem is that they want either: 1) Someone young and precocious (so if he succeeds, they can call that person their own, and if they fail, well they'll happily bury the person too), 2) Someone famous and a star (because this is New York after all) or 3) Someone unique and different (extreme being good). And if they could hit 2 or 3 of these, all the better. That doesn't mean such a person would succeed, but such a conductor is the goal (at least in the press). If it sounds like someone you have heard of, you are right..

Your list sounds like Dudamel. But Alex Ross's article mostly discusses Salonen, Noseda, and Rattle, and Tommasini fixates on Salonen. My sense that there was one overriding qualification: they wanted anybody they couldn't get. None of them even mentioned Honeck. Ross briefly mentioned Robertson and Alsop, but I am skeptical that either of them would have gone over any better than van Zweden.

[knight66]

With any luck that might be able to hire Trump now. Imagine that wonderful mane flying about.

Robertson is an entirely new name to me, I will have to look him up.

Mike

[Brian]

Jaap van Zweden Agrees to be Renamed "David Geffen"
(joke)
(not by me)

A fair bit of ouch there.

I have the distinction of being blocked by Lebrecht from his Twitter account; the only block I have so far achieved. I simply asked him if he could stop moaning.....but that was enough for The Arbiter. I made several pleasant contacts by his action; people who felt that I had to be an OK guy if I was being blocked by Lebrecht. In retrospect I feel I should have asked him to be more accurate, or at least less inaccurate, in his reporting.

Mike

Hmmm...I need to find you on Twitter!

[knight66]

Brian, See your Twitter feed.

Mike