NY Times fails two US orchestras

Two recent arts features illuminate the limitations of Times classical music journalism in these straitened times.

A report on the San Francisco Symphony by Robin Pogrebin and Javier C. Hernández omitted to mention the brilliant quarter-century balancing act of Michael Tilson Thomas as music director, followed by instant incomprehension with his successor, Esa-Pekka Salonen. It depicted Salonen’s recruitment as a coup by the previous board of management but gave no indications of why the conflict developed. Salonen, clearly, refused to talk, but a clearer picture could have been obtained from his associates. Instead, the Times floated the red herring of his ‘Treasure Island’ venture, a plan that was never more than pie in the sky.

Similarly, a report on the Boston Symphony’s new boss, Chad Smith, failed to sound out his former associates at the LA Phil, where he was accused of high-handedness and, in some instances, bullying. The Times’s piece by Joshua Barone makes him sound like a fresh-minted messiah. There is no mention of the abrupt exit of his predecessor Gail Samuel, or of Smith’s adoption of some of her controversial plans. This may not end well.

PR-driven journalism does poor service to performers and patrons in San Francisco, Boston and LA who know the reality of these situations.