A shoddy deal in Seville
mainThe local power brokers wanted to renew Pedro Halffter as music director.
The musicians protested they’d had enough after ten years getting nowhere.
Implacable force met irresistible players.
The result? Halffter remains chief at the Teatro de la Maestranza, while the American John Axelrod gets to lead the orchestra concerts.
Good result? Like all political deals, it’s a fudge. Bad for your teeth.
Which are you implying is worse: Halffter or Axelrod? It does seem like a lose-lose situation for the orchestra.
This is no great news. Seville ending up with John Axelrod, who I have seen conduct two times in Luzern and once, by accident in Angers is like watching a black and white film turned into colour, or eating food that has been overdosed with aspartame. It simply isn’t natural to me and everything seems contrived and produced for effect and little else, with artificial colours and flavours. No surprise that he ended up like this, as I read in the programme notes that he studied for a very long time with Christoph Eschenbach, another artificial additive conductor. Why is it not possible simply to make music naturally, to let it breathe and ebb and flow naturally, without having to stamp everything with your own inflated ego and narcissistic identity all over the place. Think of Bruno Walter, Charles Munch, Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis and even some new conductors of today. There is some hope, but I don’t envy Seville for this strange appointment.
Spanish politics in a nutshell.