DOS Orchestra #28 - 25 January 1995

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Topics

Boston Symphony to Issue Archival Recordings

The Boston Symphony has announced that it will issue historic BSO performances from its tape archives on its own new label, BSO Classics. Profits from the sale of the new CD's will go into the BSO's pension fund.

The first release will be of the first BSO performances ever recorded: a collection of works of Tchaikovsky, Wolf-Ferrari, Beethoven and Berlioz recorded in 1917 under then-music director Karl Muck.

Producer Brian Bell told the Boston "Globe" that he hoped to produce three to four CD's per season.

The BSO is following the lead of a number of other orchestras in releasing archival recordings, but Bell said "our philosophy is quite the opposite" of the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra, which have issued large boxed sets containing multiple CD's. "We want individual issues that will retail at the mid-price level of around $10; we seek the widest distribution possible," Bell told the "Globe."

Florida Philharmonic: Video Subscription Brochure

from the Florida Philharmonic management:

In one of the most innovative marketing initiatives in the industry, the Florida Philharmonic has become the first orchestra in the country to produce a video renewal brochure. Narrated by James Judd (FPO music director), the 15-minute video features informal, live Philharmonic performances of excerpts from the 1995-96 musical offerings. It will automatically be sent to all "Masterworks" subscribers beginning January 23.

Indianapolis Symphony: New Operations Staffer

Mark Savage, currently operations manager of the Memphis Symphony, has accepted a staff position with the Indianapolis Symphony. Savage, who had been with the Memphis Symphony for five years, told the Memphis "Commercial Appeal" that he believed he was the "senior survivor" on the staff aside from Mary Land, the orchestra's business manager.

A number of Memphis Symphony staff members have resigned or been terminated since Martha Ellen Maxwell became the orchestra's executive director in late 1993. Maxwell told the "Commercial Appeal" that she was not "the wicked witch of the west," explaining "when an organization makes a decision to do what this one did, which was not to operate in a fiscally unresponsible manner, then that's what you do, and it's called downsizing, and corporations all over the country are doing it."

Savage, 41, was principal violist of the Arkansas Symphony for ten years prior to joining the staff of the Memphis orchestra in 1989.

The Indianapolis Symphony has a budget in excess of $11 million, while the Memphis Symphony's budget is slightly over $2 million.

London Philharmonic Cancels North American Tour

The London Philharmonic has canceled a tour of North America with music director Franz Welser-Most scheduled for March because of "financial difficulties," according to the San Francisco Symphony, which was to have sponsored two concerts in Davies Hall in San Francisco.

National Endowment: Testimony For and Against

The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior Department and Related Agencies held a hearing on January 25 regarding funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, two agencies under serious attack by the new Republican majority in the House.

Speaking on behalf of the continued existence of the NEA and NEH was actor Charlton Heston, who has long been a supporter of conservative causes. Heston began his testimony by telling the Republicans on the subcommittee "I congratulate you on the revolution... I'm proud to have been a foot soldier" in the Republican victory last November. He went on to state that "both endowments have made mistakes, often grievous mistakes. Some grants, perhaps a few, have been simply indefensible. This does not lead, in my view, to the conclusion that the endowments should be de-funded. I join many other conservatives in supporting their continuation."

Heston pointed to the proliferation of regional theater in the U.S. as "one of the spectacular successes" of the NEA.

Speaking against the continued existence of the NEA and NEH were William J. Bennett and Lynne V. Cheney, who have both chaired the NEH, as well as Edwin J. Delattre, dean of the School of Education at Boston University.

Bennett testified that the NEA and NEH subsidized people whose aims were "ridiculing and antagonizing mainstream American values."

Representative Sidney R. Yates (D-IL), who has been one of the staunchest supporters of the NEA and NEH, noted that both Bennett and Cheney had testified in support of funding for the NEH when they chaired the agency. Bennett was NEH chair under President Reagan and Cheney under President Bush. Bennett told the panel that he now thought the NEA was "too corrupt" to be saved.

NHK Symphony: Benefit with Ozawa

Seiji Ozawa conducted the NHK (Tokyo) Symphony for the first time in 32 years on January 23 in a benefit concert for disabled musicians. Ozawa opened the concert at Suntory Hall with an unscheduled performance of the "Air" from Bach's third orchestral suite, dedicated to the victims of last week's earthquake in Kobe. Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with Ozawa and the orchestra, performed a sarabande of Bach as an encore, requesting that there there be no applause afterwards in recognition of the devastation wrought by the earthquake.

Ozawa last conducted the NHK Symphony, generally considered to be Japan's leading orchestra, in 1962. The musicians voted to boycott a set of performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, to be conducted by Ozawa, in December of 1962, and the orchestra's management sent telegrams to the orchestra's patrons, advising them not to attend. Ozawa showed up anyway on December 11, only to find no orchestra and no audience.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: New Music Director

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London) has appointed Daniele Gatti as its next music director, orchestra chairman Alan Hammond announced on January 19. Hammond called the 32-year-old Italian conductor "one of the finest young conductors in the world today."

Gatti is music director of the Academia di Santa Cecilia (Rome) and principal guest conductor of the Royal Opera in London, where he has begun a cycle of the the complete works of Verdi. He has guest-conducted the orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and San Francisco, and will conduct the New York Philharmonic in February.

The Royal Philharmonic's former music director, Vladimir Ashkenazy, quit last month in a dispute over the orchestra's negotiations with Gatti, claiming that his contract with the orchestra entitled him to be consulted about any such appointment.

Gatti will begin his new position with the Royal Philharmonic in the 1996-97 season.

Seattle Symphony Awarded Challenge Grant

The Seattle Symphony has been awarded a challenge grant of $750,000 from the Clowes fund, a family foundation based in Indianapolis. The grant is intended for the orchestra's endowment and hall construction campaigns.

Alexander Clowes, a member of the orchestra's board, announced the grant, stating "we are convinced that the Seattle Symphony's campaign represents a defining moment for Seattle. We want our gift to encourage others... to step up to secure a bright future for a very deserving orchestra."

St. Louis Symphony: Flap over Color of Chorus

A controversy with racial overtones erupted last weekend in St. Louis over the decision of composer-conductor Hannibal Peterson to bar two white singers from participating in the performance of his "African Portraits" with the St. Louis Symphony and the "In Unison" chorus. Peterson barred the two women from the chorus on January 18 30 minutes before a rehearsal. The management of the orchestra issued a statement saying that Peterson had "insisted that the chorus be 100 percent African-American rather than predominantly African-American," and that "the result of this misunderstanding of the contract language saddens and disappoints us all," referring to Peterson's contract with the orchestra, which gave him the right to preserve "artistic authenticity."

Peterson told the St. Louis "Post-Dispatch" that he had asked the women not to sing in the work to maintain the "historic truth" of his work. "If they were allowed to sing in the choir, which in effect is both an African tribe and a group of blacks singing spirituals in a Texas cotton field, the work then becomes something other than authentic. The respect I have for this work and its importance far outweighs the unfortunate mistake in selecting members to perform it. I expressed my regret personally to the two women involved."

One member of the chorus, Kelly Harris, who had recruited one of the two women for the chorus, criticized Peterson's action, telling the "Post-Dispatch" "it was out-and-out reverse discrimination. Just because he sees two European women, he dismissed them, like that. I thought it was pretty cold and callous of him."

The next day, Peterson agreed to let the two women sing in the final part of the work, which deals with the interaction of different races, although there were reports that the women did not participate in the concerts over the weekend.

Deaths

James Duggan, a trombonist, conductor and arranger, and music director of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company since 1992, died on January 16 in New Orleans of cancer at the age of 52.

Duggan received degrees from Southeastern Louisiana University and the Manhattan School of Music and served on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point in the late 1960's. He conducted a number of American symphony orchestras as conductor for the Pete Fountain Band, the Al Hirt Band, and Ronnie Kole, including the New Orleans Symphony, the Sacramento Symphony, the Houston Pops, and the Louisiana Symphony.

Duggan's arrangements were performed at the Super Bowl, on the "Tonight" Show, and by the Boston Pops. He was a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 174-496 and of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

He is survived by his wife, his parents, two sons, and two sisters.
Ezra Rachlin, who was music director of the Austin (TX) Symphony from 1949 to 1969, died on January 21 in London at the age of 79 following vascular surgery.

Rachlin, who was born in Hollywood in 1915, studied with Fritz Reiner at the Curtis Institute. He conducted the world tour of tenor Lauritz Melchior in the late 1940's. He also served as chief conductor of the Forth Worth (TX) Symphony and Houston Summer Symphony before becoming chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane (AU) in 1970. He moved to London in 1972, where he guest-conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Halle Orchestra.

He is survived by his wife and a son.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

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