Boston fails 5 concertmasters at audition
OrchestrasWe hear that concertmaster auditions at the Boston Symphony are not going well.
Five designated recent candidates have gone home empty-handed since January of this year. Two are members of the BSO. One is a prominent US concertmasters, the fourth is associate concertmaster of a major US orch and the fifth is leader of a London orchestra.
The BSO has declined to comment on further progress in the search.
It cannot go headless forever.
Old hats… I posted the 4 contenders names a few months ago :Alexander Velinzon, Elita Kang, Nurit Bar Josef, and Zsolt Tihamer Visontay
So whoever gets the nod will have to immediately work alongside an associate concertmaster and assistant concertmaster who wanted the job for themselves? Good luck with that.
That’s usually the case
Yes and it doesn’t always end well. In 1967 Henry Freeman quit the BSO in a huff after he was passed over for the principal bassist’s job after he’d been serving as acting principal for the previous three years.
But also business as usual in many orchestras. Comes with the territory.
Velinzon, Kang, Joseph, Visontay…who’s the 5th?
Juliette Kang, associate cm in Philly
I’m not exactly losing sleep over it. I went to school with at least two of them. All I remember is that they as well as their friends treated non-string players like subhumans.
Disappointing to read the the Wash DC NSO cm, Ms. Josef, wants to move to greener pastures. We are lucky to have her here. But someone of her talent should move up the ladder.
Selecting a Concertmaster takes time and patience; it is not just based on the musician’s playing abilities. Personality, interaction with colleagues and conductor(s), diplomacy in difficult situations… Better to pick and choose for a while than to be sorry.
One thing that aspiring concertmasters should avoid is being part of the first group of candidates to be considered.
If you want to be the concertmaster of one of these big orchestras, do not audition.
Try to get your name in the mix later on.
Give the Concertmeisters a concert to showcase their skills. It soon becomes apparent if they can do the job – it’s not just the playing! As for Adult Tihamer Visontay, he’s superb. Old school style which BSO would appreciate…
Ah, autocorrect, turning Zsolt into Adult… so helpful!
All have played in concerts this spring
It saves an orchestra a lot of money, if such high rolling positions are not filled for a long time. As long as the orchestra is still functional. No?
The people choosing the concertmaster have nothing to do with overseeing the budget. I am quite sure that saving money had absolutely nothing to do with this decision.
It may not save much. Someone is doing the concertmaster duties during this interregnum and orchestra’s contract with the players should require that that person get a bump in salary for the week or month that he/she is at bat.
So chance for Captain Faramir to show his quality?
Clearly there is something more going on. Some of these candidates must have been qualified and generally acceptable. Partisans of some side or other are clearly sinking viable candidates to make a point or advance their cause. It will be interesting when the whole truth comes out.
I don’t think this is the case. Expectations for candidates are not laid out in front of them at the beginning of a trial like they would be at most non-music jobs. Sometimes the expectations for a candidate aren’t even discussed between members of the audition committee. Most often it just creates massive differences in opinion among the orchestra or a complex that they must wait for a superhuman player who can cultivate unanimous opinion. You are right in that a single person can mess up the process!
They have had someone in mind for the job for some time. That person has yet to decide whether to go to Boston.
Any hints?
A strong rumor is Frank-Michael Erben of the Leipzig Gewandhaus where Nelsons is also GKM.
Yup. Just like the BSO choral director position back in 2017. They spent 2 years auditioning the same 4 people only to hire the one Andris wanted all along. It destroyed the morale of the chorus and resulted in a catastrophic gutting of the chorus.
This concertmaster audition process has been nothing but mummery, designed to break morale, and usher in Andris’ pick, like a rabbit out of a hat. It is a familiar gambit straight out of Tony Fogg’s playbook.
Frankly, Andris is the one who needs replacing – from a bright shining star to a terribly boring conductor. His Rach 2 in NY last season was just dismally slow and tedious – not to mention not really the right sound (like you get from Philly, or Litton or Slatkin in Detroit). So disappointing.
As a long-time BSO subscriber, I have to say your comments Anne strike me as having an agenda of some sort. I’ll focus on your first paragraph about the Tanglewood Chorus and search for its new director after John Oliver. The fact is, anyone who could listen critically could hear that in the last years of John Oliver’s magnificent tenure, the chorus had gone to seed. Their horrific performance of Brahms’ German Requiem under Levine was an all-time low as far as I was concerned. The chorus needing a DRAMATIC shaking up. I can’t speak to who was auditioned and who was preferred, but the new choral director, James Burton, has done a tremendous job restoring the TFC. I’ll accept that he may have been Nelsons’ choice all along – and if that’s the case, then Nelsons made a great hire based on the results I’m hearing. Clearly a lot of performers in the chorus needed to be replaced – and that’s exactly what happened. Perhaps doing so was handled in a less than ideal manner. But it would have been difficult to replace so many people under any circumstances, and taking a more “humane” approach and accomplishing the same end albeit much more slowly would have lengthened the time it took to fix the problem. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus clearly got a whole lot younger, but more importantly, they sound FAR better than they did at the end of John Oliver’s tenure. I don’t believe they’ve reached their peak under Burton yet, but regardless, they are back to being reliable and singing well – neither of which they were doing by the time John Oliver was gone from the scene (and passed away after a distinguished tenure overall).
I have no insights into what’s going on with the concertmaster search. But your posting makes it sound like some “wrong result” was achieved by the search process for the new choral director. On that, I strongly disagree. And if Nelsons and the BSO believe they have not found the right concertmaster yet, well, I’ll trust that process. I still believe that at the end of the day it will be someone who’s currently in the orchestra, but that belief is not based on any insider information but rather an awareness that the BSO does its best to promote from within.
No agenda, I am merely pointing out a proven pattern of behavior on the part of Tony Fogg and Andris Nelsons. The fact that you neglect to address my point makes your (long and tedious) post irrelevant.
I deeply apologize for not living up to your standards of relevancy, dear Anne.
Obviously my point was lost on you – and that’s fine.
Herr Doktor’s account was thoughtful and accurate – hardly tedious, Anne. As for your response…
What is wrong with taking time to ensure an appropriate fit?
Concertmaster is a difficult position to fill. I have heard it described that the CM is a soloist at heart, and that isn’t true. CM requires of course superb musical ability, that goes without saying. Also requires someone who is a leader, has management ability, a psychologist at times, a dictator one time and a friend the other. They also are the buffer between orchestra and the music director/ conductor.
Soloists may have the ability, but the soloist mentality might not work as a leader well.
It can take a while, to find that fit. Orchestras with distinctive ‘its’ like the Philadelphia, can be very hard to fill.
Brilliant description!
Max is correct. They’re still paying the fee to guests and whomever else is filling in. And Boston is insane rich. They’ve had a ‘process’ and now Andris will simply appoint a surprise. Like Franz did to Cleveland. What’s a greater problem are US orchestras not filling tutti positions. And thereby saving heaps of money with an endless rotation of subs- less fee, no instrument or health insurance, no pension. This is something maddening. It’s bad for the ensemble and well, audiences notice things. Like half the first violin section is new every week.
I’ll just add: Peter from Cleveland is clearly excellent and this is a big win for Nashville… but did I miss a public audition? I just don’t think there was one… European bands would never just appoint. I get it, it’s a big win for both him and Nashville but the audition process in America is going haywire. I am welcome to be corrected here.
Well, in Europe it´s also not always the case …The fantastic Natalie Chee got lured from the SWR Stuttgart to Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne
I read in the release that Peter did a guest concertmaster concert in Nashville. I don’t know if David Radzinski had a concert audition before winning the Cleveland post. Perhaps he was considering Boston too and Cleveland did not want to delay any further.
I agree that Peter is also excellent, and don’t think Nashville will be his final job (no offense to Nashville intended).
Even David Allen of the NY Times has noticed the “slackness that can sometimes be detected in the first violins.”
I haven´t heard any slackness in recent years.
It sounds like their selection process is broken.
It’s hard to believe that several of these candidates wouldn’t do an excellent job, and many qualified people applied who didn’t make it this far in the process.
The audition process in most orchestras has a lot to do with playing. Being a decent concertmaster involves a lot more than that
Could be they’re trying to reach a new Lowe.
Well they do need to find a new Lowe – big shoes to fill!
Can they please take Martin Chalifour from LA? Dudamel and many of the subscribers would be glad to see the back of him.
Ignorant comment. Has Dudamel himself told you that? He is one of the most musical concertmasters anywhere, despite not having the most solid technique. The fact that LA’s string sections can always find the most suitable style of playing for different composers attest to his leadership abilities. Compare, for example, how they are attuned to the different sound world of Mahler, Dvořák, Rachmaninoff, and Adès in recent recordings. Having a concertmaster with great personal playing abilities does not always translate into a great violin section. You in NY should know this very well. In any case I can’t imagine the orchestra would want him to leave when they are in a period of big transitions.
“Having a concertmaster with great personal playing abilities does not always translate into a great violin section”
That would easily apply to Glenn Dicterow during his tenure there. But now? The violin section is neither great nor is it’s current leader…..
Huang is kinda enigmatic huh? His concerto performance recently got a bad review.
Some are also looking forward to seeing the back of the Dude.
How would you know when you play mostly as a sub in 2nd tier European orchestras with some summer engagement at Tanglewood?
I think Martin is excellent. I recently heard him in a chamber version of Mahler 4 where his playing was exposed for the entire piece. As always, very impressive.
Or Robert Chen and his entire family? The whole of CSO, any possible future music director and the whole of Chicago would be eternally grateful!
LOL. I remember a story when Chen lead his whole family down into the pit via the podium during a Lyric intermission. Just stormed on through. He would also go into the women’s locker room at Lyric. The balls on that guy!
He’s unqualified
Juliette Kang gets my vote. She was the 5th candidate
A fantastic player but not so sure about her charisma and ability to lead and inspire….
Shall we consider the fact that the BSO has had only three concertmasters since 1920? Richard Burgin, through 1962, Joseph Silverstein, through 1984, and Malcolm Lowe, through 2019…it’s a weighty choice to make.
That’s pretty incredible.
Either the selection criteria was insufficient or expectation unrealistic.
Preucil might be available. But he’d need a legal staff to accompany him.
Could be that they’ve waited long enough for that fella in Berlin to make up his mind. Yes or no? If it’s no, perhaps they should take the one of the five they liked best and move on.
Yes my BSO friends, hire one of those you rejected because hey, one of them still had to be the “best” and move on so you can be stuck with the wrong person for the next 30 years like we are at CSO because that’s precisely what Barenboim did, didn’t care to find the best possible person, he just wanted to move on. Now 20 something years later we’re stuck with the worst possible tw@t you could hope to have as a CM and can’t do anything about it. Go down that way because PG says so
Bring back Max Hobert. An amazing conductor and violinist. Astoundingly good.
About 40 years too late…
Sounds usual. Person already chosen. Auditions just to show they (unions etc) went through process apparently, fairly!!
Exactly.
A few years ago it took them four auditions to hire a single section player. Not sure why anyone would be surprised they can’t decide on a concertmaster
Symphony Orchestras do not have an obligation to fill positions, including covited Concertmaster, until the right person applies, successfully auditions, interviews, does a trial period if requested, and is clearly “the right person for their organization” and completes a probationary period. There is much more at stake than exceptional musicianship.(I was a Orchestra Personnel Manager & Violinist and Union Board member who handled all kinds of auditions during (RIP)James DePreist decades at the Oregon Symphony and while now retired I know auditions remain a hot topic at LOAO conferences and various meetings but it’s simply, first decide what you are looking for, listen to those who you select to hear based on specific criteria, and chose the person who will fit and survives probation or choose more auditions, next candidates please. BSO please don’t give in to media pressures, too much is at stake. Mack