New York Philharmonic tests more conductor candidates
NewsThe field is shortening for next music director of the NY Phil.
In a season announcement this morning, Gustavo Dudamel and Susanna Mälkki are back for a second audition, along with the Young Finn Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who gets two full weeks to strut his stuff and must be considered joint favourite.
New to the roster are New Yorker Karina Canellakis, who conducts at Netherlands Radio, Ruth Reinhardt, a former assistant at Dallas and Nathalie Stutzmann, who is taking over at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The highly rated Finn Klaus Mäkelä, who has jobs in Paris and Oslo, will make his debut in December. A fourth Finn, Hannu Lintu, debuts in November, as does the Venezuelan Rafael Payare.
The rising Czech conductors Jakub Hrusa and Tomas Netopil have been overlooked. New York has also yet to see the Israeli Lahav Shani.
Karina will make a great Music Director for NYP. NYP also needs to invite Vanessa Benelli Mosell to guest conduct.
I think that she’s the frontrunner. Yes. And it would be a good occasion for the NY Phil to have more attention internationaly if you take apart her great artistic qualities. During the last 10 years there were more attention about what happenned in Boston and LA than in NY.
I agree. I imagine the 13 negative votes are from persons who’ve not seen her conduct.
karina is absolutely terrific…I have played three times under her so far. ..Fabulous experience,three of the best concerts i have played in 43 years as an orchestra musician..The frustrated armchair maestri giving thumb downs are irrelevant goners without any professional experience…Let them watch their Karajan videos from the 80s and everything is fine.
I’ve mentioned Karina C. in this context before and got a bunch of downvotes. But conductors will always have their strong detractors.
I’d think she’d be a wise long-term investment for the Phil, being a native New Yorker and still fairly young (and photogenic). A European like Malkki is more experienced in some ways but can she do the glad-handing and public speaking needed for the job? The Phil had a really tough time trying market Jaap in NY…
Actually,it´s only two or three downvotes….The same sad frustrated misygonist creatures pushing the same button again and again.craving for some attention they won´t get because of their anonymity.
Negative votes likely for the recent childish and repetitive mention of Benelli Mosell
It is absolutely herself commenting already on several articles, first with her full name as user name and now just “maestra”. So terribly lame.
I didn’t vote negative although I played a concert with her conducting – found it quite mediocre….same with Ruth Reinhardt, who has definetly not the qualities for an orchestra like NYP….
Are you jokeing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQPIa4piJ8
Klaus Mäkelä leads a program in early December. And it includes Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 — they’re clearly seeing what he can do with a war horse.
Ivan Fischer is back. I would definitely consider him a contender. While he’s a bit on the older side — a young 71 — and his tenure probably wouldn’t be much more than a decade, it seems like everyone would be highly satisfied with him.
Dudamel is such a known quantity that he’s probably already been approached and declined. Everyone loves him — there’s no need to go through the motions of an audition if the NYP is interested in him.
I don’t believe one minute that Ivan Fischer who refused to be musical director of the RCO ( a job he has even if it’s not offical) will be musical director of the NY Phil. But he could be regular guest of course
NYP has an unlimited amount of money. It has financially funded very adventurous, costly programs, such as Alan Gilbert’s Philharmonic 360 at the Park Ave Armory. If he wants to conduct opera, the Met will gladly welcome him.
The best thing for Deborah Borda to do, if she were seriously courting a hesitant Dudamel, would be to host a dinner for Nézet-Séguin and Dudamel.
If they hit it off, the synergy between the head of the Met and the head of the Paris Opera could be dynamic, for the two men, for the two opera houses, and of course, for the Philharmonic.
“Dudamel is such a known quantity … there’s no need to go through the motions of an audition”
Has it ever occur to you that Dudamel is auditioning the New York Philharmonic and not the way around?
Dudamel is test driving the NY Philharmonic, are they as responsive as LA, do they purr like Vienna, can they go from 0 to 60 like Berlin…
Yes, and please leave him alone. We in Los Angeles are already splitting his time with Paris. New York will surely entice some other great person. Best wishes.
If I were Nathalie Stutzmann, I would just stay at Atlanta lol, she will do amazing things there! NY Phil music director is, let’s face it, a somewhat thankless task…
Klaus Mäkela 3 events 20221208–10
https://nyphil.org/calendar?season=23&q=klaus+m%c3%a4kel%c3%a4#
If Gustavo Dudamel goes to New York I suppose that he will leave LA… he started in Paris 6 months ago and he had a very big sucessful start in the press and with the audience. Or it would be very strange. And I don’t think that he will be musical director in 3 places.
Why would he leave LA for NY when it has the better orchestra, a better hall (with a pipe organ), a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl where he can try out new operas, a professional chorus whose counterpart doesn’t even exist in NY, and a local population with 40% native Spanish speakers…? If the only attraction NY has for it is that it’s closer to Europe, that’s not very convincing, is it? And he could always ask Mehta what he thought of his move from LA to NY…
True that Zubin did better things in LA (so many fantastic records!) than in NY. I don’t beleive in Dudamel in NY or maybe in 2040
Dude’s contract ends in 2026, 17 years in LA.
Salonen stayed 17 years.
LA is a dream orchestra for a bright young thing eager to make his mark early and fast, and it’s a mutual love fest with the audience, but LA is not a place to stay too longer.
The Dude may not take NY, which frees up conveniently in 2024, but he’s not hanging around in LA beyond 2026 either.
Why wouldn’t he drop LA? He doesn’t live there so the Latino percentage is not relevant. He can do opera/choral in Paris and get more money out of the bigger donor base in NY for a shorter commute.
LA Phil is richer than NY Phil. If LA really wants to keep him they will match NY Phil’s (or any orchestra’s) financial terms. Not that it matters a lot in this discussion, because given NY Phil’s history with conductors I doubt Dudamel will consider it no matter how much money they offer.
But NYC is far richer than LA.
They also have Borda who was responsible for a lot of the growth of the LA Philharmonic in the first place.
I’m curious what is important to Gustavo right now. He clearly has options. LA has been a good home for him, and I would add his El Sistema-style program YOLA to that list of reasons he might want to stay. But also, he’s been there 13-14 years now and he’s only 41. So there will be another chapter in his career (beyond just MD in Paris) eventually. His own marketing team has tried to position him as a Leonard Bernstein type, so maybe NY holds some appeal there. The LA Phil has seemed to finance any of his projects and has deeper pockets than even NY. But I think it all comes down to what sort of middle age artistic itch he gets, and certainly a lot of people have done some introspection about their priorities during the pandemic. Does he feel stagnant and want a change, or is he happy with where he is and with Paris now in his portfolio? I don’t know the man well enough to say, and I doubt anyone in these comments does either. We will see.
How much time does he spend on the LA Sistema organization? My friends in LA just laugh when I ask them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/27/venezuela-me-too-yo-te-creo-sexual-abuse-el-sistema-youth-orchestra/
Rouvali recently did a tense, overdriven, Tchaikovsky 5 with the Philharmonic. Of course, his photo will look great on the posters that would hang outside the hall if he becomes music director. The orchestra didn’t look happy after the concert was over. A week later the orchestra literally cheered Manfred Honeck, but he is nowhere to be found next season.
The new Philharmonic season is designed to make Alex Ross and Anthony Tommasini happy – neither ever heard a new piece they didn’t like. Tommasini is retired, and Zachary Woolfe and company at the Times are a lot more discerning when it comes to new music. The season is loaded with the trendy and the ephemeral – you would think the management would want to ‘try out’ the classics in the new hall, but there is not a single piece in the season by Wagner or Strauss, and only the Brahms Violin Concerto. They wonder why they are losing subscribers! Ticket prices have been substantially raised to make up for the loss of 500 or more seats. Where will the institutional loyalty come from that the Philharmonic needs to sustain its future?
Yes. Agreed. Hardly a stellar season, I found myself hard pressed to get excited about much at all. Carnegie season I hope is better.
I actually quite liked the programming. Unusually innovative for the NY Phil, which has one of the least adventurous audiences around. And not too many of those programs where the piece I really want to hear is offset by one I most definitely don’t (Lizst PC 2, Tchaikovsky R&J or PC 1…).
But the Philharmonic has time to look for a new MD; and chances are most of these folks were booked before JvZ announced he was quitting.
I’d love to see Klaus take over in Chicago after you-know-who finally departs…
Nobody is going to even consider taking this job until the new hall has been tested. Period.
HAHA! Not true….these younger conductors are drooling at the opportunity. Money talks – they would take it if the Phil was playing in a shoebox.
Hannu Lintu is an excellent conductor! He’s performed a couple of programs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra that were tremendous, and he performed Bruckner’s 5th with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra that I had the great fortune to hear live which was one of the greatest concerts I’ve ever heard in my entire life – and which blew away live performances of that tremendous symphony by conductors such as Welser-Most, Barenboim, Ozawa, Haitink, Ben Zander, and Sawallisch. He deserves a major post somewhere, because in the three live performances I’ve heard him conduct, he’s gone 3/3.
I recommand the excellents documentaries he did about the Sibelius symphonies. he has experience but maybe the NY Phil wants someone yonger or more famous.
Actually, Hrusa guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic to good reviews last November, and followed up with an acclaimed concert with the BSO in Symphony Hall. Here’s the NY Times review of the Philharmonic performance: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-review.html
I was there. It was an excellent concert, and an innovative program.
I think that NY should hire a slender blonde severe-looking female conductor. That narrows the shortlist down to about 27,
We have almost 0 American Music Directors of the major orchestras. The only possible American candidate here is Karina, who would be a great choice. Nevertheless, I would love to see the top American orchestras invest more in American talent.
YES. THIS.
We are all forgetting the wonderful Stephane Deneve. He is doing incredibly in St. Louis and I heard the NYPhil loved him when he visited a few years ago. Why isn’t he in the running?
Great point. I’ve heard him live twice in Boston, and both concerts were fabulous. His performance of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben was the best performance of the work I’ve heard live. Which is no small feat in my experience. Deneve is someone I’ve always wanted to hear more of.
I would have thought that Shani would be the ideal appointment. Young but commanding. Versatile. Confident.
The Dude will be given first refusal. Can anyone doubt that?
I think that’s right.
Dudamel knows he won’t get as much, musically, out of NY than he has out of LA because NY has neither LA’s resources nor LA’s exuberant enthusiasm.
Dudamel is at this juncture in his career that he doesn’t need a major music directorship just for the sake of a major music directorship.
So the question for Dudamel really is, can he be happy and productive in NY?
As I posted above, I really think Borda is letting Dudamel test drive NY, to see if there is mutual attraction, chemistry, with the orchestra, with the audience, with the NYT classical music department, let’s face it, the NYT critics still matter in NY, to management, to the Philharmonic, and so far, they are liking the idea.
“Dudamel is at this juncture in his career that he doesn’t need a major music directorship just for the sake of a major music directorship”
Definitely agree. Getting a major American Music Directorship at 28, it feels like a question of if he feels like he wants a change of scenery because maybe he’s felt too comfortable and content in LA and wants to shake things up to challenge himself artistically. But opera has also been a huge passion for him, and now Paris is scratching that itch and offering something new, so maybe having something comfortable in one part of his work life is nice?
The heritage of A.Seidl, W. Damrosch, G.Mahler, W.Mengelberg, Toscanini, Barbirolli, Rodzinski, B.Walter, Mitropoulos, Bernstein…
What the hell happened?…
We ran out of conductors.
Who is we?????I ,and a lot more people,don´t.I play under great conductors every months..In an orchestra,not in front of my loudspeakers.
“Heritage”, what heritage?
Here’s a quiz: Who is the longest serving music director of the NY Philharmonic?
Hint: It’s the last name I added to your list:
A.Seidl = 7 yrs
W. Damrosch = 1 yr
G.Mahler = 2 yrs
W.Mengelberg = 8 yrs
Toscanini = 8 yrs
Barbirolli = 5 yrs
Rodzinski = 4 yrs
B.Walter = 2 yrs
Mitropoulos = 9 yrs
Bernstein = 11 yrs
ZUBIN MEHTA = 13 yrs
So face reality: The NY Philharmonic is much more Zubin Mehta’s orchestra than Gustav Mahler’s orchestra (if it ever was Mahler’s, who stayed 1 season, got his paycheck, got to go sightseeing in NY City, then left town forever).
Stop living in the past, trotting out the tired list of names most of whom had short meaningless tenures at the Philharmonic.
The other reality is that no one ever stays long in NY. NY, for whatever reason, is an inhospitable place.
You can dream of a Lenny, but you’ll most likely get a Zubin.
Waw (indeed!), I mentioned conductors who made a difference, and who built musical life (or contributed to that) by training orchestras in the US
(My list stopped purposely after Bernstein)
Most of the names in the article will get a free ride with any great orchestra, provided they’ll have a fancy agency and strong marketing.
When will New Yorkers stop blaming Mehta for everything wrong with the NYP for the last 50 years or so? Why not blame Boulez, Masur, Maazel, Gilbert, etc.? Lot of highly touted folks since poor old Zubin. Also, tell me why he was always so beloved in Vienna and Israel? Masur also arrived to great acclaim from an epic stint in Leipsig, only to be sent packing 11 years later. He was hardly a slouch. Even Bernstein hailed his arrival if I recall. It just seems no one will ever be “good enough” for NY. And even Bernstein left under a cloud, I believe I have read. It is just very unforgiving terrain, or so it seems.
Philharmonic Hall happened….
Whine on.Those old whiners lamenting about the old times,ridiculous….Seidl,Damrosch????have you heard them???Both were,on accounts of orchestra musicians,horrible amateurs…The rest,well.fine for their times,yes…But times and styles change.If you like them so much,listen to their recordings.I don´t dwell much on the past.Repeating an event over and over again is boring.Give me life music,with young,fresh people.
A new hall, but the same old tired virtue signaling repertoire, same old tired soloists (Bronfman, Ax, etc.) Is there a single person at that organization that has even one creative thought?
Ax and Bronfman are fine pianists but they have appeared so many times as recitalists, and with our city’s orchestra over the years I have no desire to hear either again.
Nothing in Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s underwhelming discography so far suggests he’s ready for this job! Susanna Mälkki is much more promising, but may be too young for an orchestra collectively known as “Murder Incorporated”.
When the Chicago Symphony was on strike a few years back, the NY Phil generously let me play a week with them. Of course I was aware of their fearsome reputation, but that was not my experience. I encountered a genuinely nice group of people, courteous and kind. It was a pleasure to play with them.
She is 53, both experienced and youthful.The media, however, unfairly overlook middle age. They focus on hot new talent or elder statesmen.
I think it unfortunate that Hrusa and Shani aren’t on the upcoming season’s concert listing. I’d like to hear both of them with the NY Phil. As for possible future music directors, Ms. Malkki has impressed me each and every time I’ve heard her. She should be signed, at a minimum, as a regular guest conductor.
On second thought, the NYP doesn’t deserve Klaus. Check out this performance. If rushed for time, skip to 1:17:05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB3zR_X25UU
I care more about the music and choice of repertoire, than I do about who’s actually waving the stick. Putting together a good program from start to finish is almost an art these days. You have to have your obligatory ‘new work’, and your obligatory concerto of some sort. Let me give you one example.
Muti/Chicago have a concert coming up with a new work by Missy Mazzoli, followed by E. Garanca singing Mahler’s “Five Ruckert Lieder” . . . so far, so good, right? . . . But then it closes with Bruckner’s early and – in my opinion – rather immature second symphony. For me, the juxtaposition of Mahler’s ‘progressive’ and mature song cycle, coupled to Bruckner’s early struggle to say the same thing that he said far, far better down the line, makes this program not work for me. It would work great if it were coupled to Bruckner’s sixth symphony, which is one of Bruckner’s most ‘progressive’ ones (let down only by some repetitious and ‘improvisatory’ like passages in the finale). Or, if Muti would visualize the problem here, and put the Bruckner 2nd on the first half; thus leaving the possibility of Garanca doing encores to conclude the concert (preceded by the serene ending of Mahler’s “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”). That would be a really nice concert.
I’ve labored the point, but just as they say real estate is all about location, symphony concerts are greatly about programming.
None of these people you mention are remotely ready for such an appointment. And a couple are downright untalented.
As Oscar Wilde once said “When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers”. NYP is a poisoned chalice for the person who thinks of it as a pinnacle of their career. Dudamel is much more likely to be successful and not unduly disappointed BECAUSE he does not desperately want the job. Being a New Yorker has not exactly been a plus for NYP (look at Alan Gilbert…btw, where is he?). And Jaap certainly thought of NYC as his other homeland before his foray with NYP…not exactly the happy homecoming he imagined. I think Dudamel would be a fantastic choice for NYP. His expansive optimism would be such a tonic for the the orchestra and the city. Karina does not have the astounding intellect nor the deep soul that was the true Bernstein (and he didn’t exactly have the most incredible time either. It was pretty rocky directorship if you really look at it) nor does she have the charisma of Dudamel. What she has, however, would make her a fantastic replacement for Dudamel in LA and she could really grow and find her true core.
It is clear to me that Dudamel will get right of first refusal. I’m sure Debbie Borda will move heaven and earth and pay him crazy money to come to NYC.
He will also get a better concertmaster in New York in Frank Huang. Martin Chalifour, LA’s concertmaster, is second league. (And Dudamel doesn’t have the right to replace him)