Three more neophytes in the New York Philharmonic
OrchestrasThe orchestra has added three new players: Associate Principal Cellist Matthew Christakos, clarinet / bass clarinet Barret Ham and Associate Principal Bassoonist Julian Gonzalez.
That’s the third set of newcomers this season, by our calculation.
Dudamel had better start soon or he won’t recognise half the musicians.
Congrats to them. And still no new principal horn since Phil Myers….absurd.
It took the Boston Symphony seven years to appoint a new principal flautist after Doriot Anthony Dwyer retired. Looks like the NY Philharmonic is about to break this record.
She was a VERY class act to follow!
They auditioned David Cooper but decided against giving him a trial year, even though he was van Zweden’s protege.
Now that he’s associate principal horn hired by Dudamel in LA, it’d be interesting if Dudamel brings him to NY to be principal, especially since Dudamel has much more sway, influence, say, respect with the NY Phil than van Zweden.
Nonetheless, all these new, young hires are by van Zweden, so that’s his revenge and lasting impact for generations to come for the Philharmonic as he departs.
Dudamel is very much inheriting van Zweden’s re-made Philharmonic in the form of teams of young hires whose sound/playing preferred by van Zweden.
These young new hires seem very qualified based on their education and experience (despite their youth).
It’s up to any conductor to create a “sound” and “style” with the players he/she have on stage.
WIth so many new players in the NYPO, Dudamel is very lucky. He’ll have energy on stage, musicians with a high technical prowess, and the time to mould them into a cohesive unit.
Jaap did Gustavo a favor. Can’t wait to hear this orchestra with all the new talent on stage.
Well I would say a lot of these younger players are very fine (at least the wind players who are sometimes substitute principals on certain parts of certain programs). The string section is now at least 50% women and the violins almost 80% female. Personally I am glad JVZ is moving on as I found his conducting very heavy-handed and utterly devoid of subtlety. I remember in particular a Debussy Faun (at Carnegie) that was so matter of fact and “unromantic” even Boulez was more sensuous. Of course he was good at some things, but in my opinion he was not the right pick for the NYPO and Dudamel is much more the ticket, though he too is not terrific at everything…..at least we have lots of guest conductors during the season, some very good. I remember when Blomstedt did Nielsen 4 and Beethoven 5 – it sounded like the greatest orchestra in the world and they just loved him. Hrusa also gives very good concerts with the NYPO.
Not to get too psychoanalytical about all this, you know that van Zweden was plucked straight out of Juilliard at 19 years old to be the concertmaster of the Concertgebouw by Haitink?
So it just feels like van Zweden is coming full circle in New York, in the same Lincoln Center complex where his alma mater and his orchestra are…
Speaking of complexes, it’s hard to imagine that an orchestra can’t promote from its own ranks to associate principal, that there aren’t a lot of experienced players out there who didn’t audition and who didn’t play better then these young guns…
Orchestras really operate on the caste system, once you’re viewed as belonging to a certain caste, like back desk string player, you’ll never move up the caste system, as though you cease to improve and learn and develop whilst a member of the orchestra, that some young graduate is already better than you…
Like Joseph Silverstein, who joined the Boston Symphony as the youngest member, sitting in the back of the 2nd violin section, and then became concertmaster?
Revenge? And I thought in this day and age, new members are selected by a committee.
Bravo! They look like they’re 15 years old.
They couldn’t work in LA since they would have to drive.
In NYC, they can take the subway and be home after the concert in time for milk and cookies before getting tucked in bed by their Mum.
They look like the children of Philharmonic players on “Bring Your Child To Work Day”, and someone from PR asked them “wouldn’t it be fun to pose on stage with your father’s instrument?”, and they’re like, “OK”, and then someone from HR snuck up and said, “April Fool’s you’ve just been made associate principals”, and they’re like, “WHAAAAT, but we wanna finish high school first and go to the prom and have a first kiss…”
It could be a skit on SNL with the Please Don’t Destroy trio (they sort of look like them too)
Anything like this??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOAM00ecGh0
I very much doubt that any of them could truly be seen as neophytes. Certainly they had to prevail over countless experienced musicians to win those posts.
It’s good to see the NYPO filling vacancies.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra hasn’t had a Concertmaster for nearly four and a half years. Malcolm Lowe announced his retirement at the beginning of the 2019-20 season. Before that he had extended absences for health reasons. I heard the orchestra three times over the last few weeks – ‘Lady Macbeth’ and a concert that included ‘Le Sacre’ in Carnegie Hall, and ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ in Boston. To me they weren’t playing on their usual high level. The Boston concert included a performance of Bach’s ‘Air for the G String’ by the full string section, in memory of Seiji Ozawa, with curiously thin string tone. Could all of this have something to do with the absence of a Concertmaster? Each of the three concerts had a different guest Concertmaster occupying the first chair.
“Could all of this have something to do with the absence of a Concertmaster?” Yes. It could also be to do with the conductor (a brass player) not noticing the difference. Or deciding he can’t do anything about it. See the remarks by Joe Horowitz quoted elsewhere on SD a few weeks ago. I also heard the Rite at Carnegie a couple of weeks ago. The BSO came a few days after the Philadelphians (YNS) and the Cleveland (FWM). All 3 terrific orchestras but the BSO did not have the enormous string sonority I remember from earlier years.
Wonderful news.
Are these guys old enough to drive?
Congrats Gentlemen! I hope your new employers will utilize their endowments and grants to pay you well while lowering admission costs. It is in fact possible to compensate artists well without pricing out the common public. I have not attened the NYPO in year$
You should come, you can get upstairs at the back (best seats for sound) for around $70. Beats Wicked on Broadway for $300.
I’m so glad that this time they find new bass clarinet player so quickly than last time (7 year search). I think last time they have complete clarinet section in 2009 and also quite short time in 2016 before Nuccio left to Houston. Wishing many great years to their clarinets!