Klarinet Archive - Posting 000133.txt from 1998/12

From: KlarBoy@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Fwd: Do conductors need a union?
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 01:50:19 -0500

Here's something I think might interest the list. I hope it's not too long.

Mario E.

Baltimore Sun
Friday, November 27, 1998
Moonlighting maestros not good for orchestras

Jacob Weisberg

IN many fields, growing old means cutting back on your
professional responsibilities. But for orchestra conductors,
figures of mythic virility and longevity, advancing age seems only
to entail taking on more obligations.

Consider Kurt Masur, the 71-year-old music director of the New
York Philharmonic. Last week, it was announced that, beginning in
2000, Mr. Masur would become the principal conductor of the London
Philharmonic. In London, The Guardian reported that the German
maestro would, naturally, be resigning his New York position,
which pays him $1.3 million a year. But the paper was forced to
print a correction: Mr. Masur is not leaving New York. He will be
conducting in both cities until at least 2002, when his New York
contract expires.

With just two big jobs, Mr. Masur is far from the busiest of the
big guns. The title probably belongs to Placido Domingo, the
globe-trotting tenor. In 1996, he was appointed artistic director
of the Washington Opera. Nov. 1 it was announced that he would
also be replacing the retiring director of the Los Angeles Opera.

Mr. Domingo intends to run both institutions without cutting back
on his performance schedule at the Metropolitan Opera and
elsewhere, his "Three Tenors" concerts with Luciano Pavarotti and
Jos Carreras, his recording calendar or his bookings as a guest
symphony conductor.

Rich and famous

Mr. Domingo's helicopter-to-rehearsal lifestyle is now the model
for conductors whose salaries often match those of star athletes
and chief executive officers. Norman Lebrecht of the London Daily
Telegraph, perhaps the only music critic with much of an instinct
for sleuthing, has unearthed some of the closely guarded salaries.

In 1996, conductor Lorin Maazel earned $4.5 million, including $1
million as the chief conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony and an
additional $2.7 million from the Bavarian State Radio Orchestra.
The pianist-conductor Daniel Barenboim earns $3 million or more as
music director in Chicago, artistic director and general music
director of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and as a touring
conductor with both the Berlin and the Vienna philharmonics.

Perhaps most amazing is Charles Dutoit, who serves as artistic
director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, musical director of
the Orchestra National de France and the artistic director and
principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer season
in Saratoga. In his spare time, Mr. Dutoit likes to guest conduct.

The great American orchestras were built by conductors who by
today's standards would be hopeless homebodies.

The Boston Symphony was honed and polished by the Russian exile
Serge Koussevitsky, who conducted 100 concerts a year for 25 years
until 1949 and was midwife to the creation of great works by Igor
Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg and Aaron Copland.

The Philadelphia Orchestra was led by Leopold Stokowski, who
reigned supreme for 26 years until 1938, when Eugene Ormandy
succeeded him -- and stayed for 42. George Szell had a similar
role in shaping Cleveland into a great musical city, as did Fritz
Reiner in Chicago.

These men might travel to Europe for the summer festival season,
but they lived in the cities in which they played. They auditioned
musicians personally and knew them well. If a guest conductor
visited Philadelphia, you would probably find Ormandy backstage or
in the audience.

Today, by contrast, conductors tend to have a much more tenuous
relationship with their home cities. Rather than live in some
backwater, they jet in and out for rehearsals and conduct 30
performances a year there instead of 100. For nine months at a
stretch, they are somewhere else.

There are a few honorable exceptions to the orchestra-collecting
trend. Perhaps the most admirable is British conductor Sir Simon
Rattle, who took the insignificant Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
and, over a period of 16 years, developed it into a distinguished
ensemble. Despite many lucrative offers, Mr. Rattle has been loath
to even spend much time visiting elsewhere.

Mr. Rattle has stepped down from the podium at Birmingham and is
weighing offers. It is expected that he will again choose to work
with one orchestra rather than several.

Michael Tilson Thomas, who in 1995 became the music director of
the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, draws praise for doing more
than hanging his hat there. Esa-Pekka Salonen gets high marks for
his commitment to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as does Leonard
Slatkin at Washington's National Symphony.

Commuting conductor

Why would an orchestra prefer an overpaid, absentee landlord to a
dedicated resident, especially given that the latter is likely to
come much cheaper? Partly, it's the battle for prestige. A
provincial orchestra with an off-brand conductor seems doubly
provincial.

But the bigger issue is finance. Orchestra boards believe that a
star like Mr. Muti sells tickets, even to the majority of concerts
he doesn't conduct. And even the occasional presence of a musical
superstar makes it much easier to raise money. At a recent
fund-raiser, the Washington Opera took in an extraordinary $2.6
million, thanks to the charming presence of Mr. Domingo.

There are many more orchestras than there used to be and probably
fewer great conductors. The result has been a bidding war for top
talent and an opportunity to make money that few can resist. The
recent transformation of the conductor's career parallels what has
happened elsewhere in the economy.

As the income of top performers of all kinds has risen
exponentially, the old patterns of indenture have fallen away. The
ability of a Zubin Mehta ($6 million plus per year) or a Charles
Barkley ($4.6 million) to make really big money has led to a
system of free agency.

In basketball, where teams are constituted by the season, each
player looking out for his own career doesn't appear to harm the
overall quality of the game. But in symphonic music, where great
achievement comes from teamwork over a much longer time frame, the
moonlighting maestro is playing too fast.

Jacob Weisberg is chief critic for Slate magazine.

Originally published on Nov 27 1998

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