Breaking: Seoul signs up NY Philharmonic chief
NewsThe Seoul Philharmonic has just announced Jaap van Zweden as its music director from 2024.
The Dutchman, 61, will be leaving the New York Philharmonic where he is America’s second highest paid conductor.
In Seoul, he will replace Osmo Vänskä who quit after a single term. The orchestra has a history of turbulence since the breakdown of a ten-year relationship with Myung Whun Chung in 2015.
Van Zweden has made minimal public impact in New York.
He is also music director in Hong Kong.
Admittedly an old fart thing to say, but the days of the great conductors are past… Haitink in recent memory, and may Herbert Blomstedt stay healthy for a long time to come…
Most of the OLD conductors are gone, but there are plenty of talented young and middle-aged conductors working actively. I won’t add my list, but I’m guessing most readers of this website have their favorites.
Excellent conductors have always been around, however, “great” conductors are a media creation… part of a desire to promote “stars”.
Now that the major media no longer regards orchestras as stars, the conductors of them cannot be stars either.
Most star conductors in the past were created by the publicity departments of major record labels. Orchestras now don’t have the marketing savvy or reach to promote their conductors to the same degree, although we still have a few dinosaurs of the recording era.
Hack pretender of a conductor going where he belongs.
Fenway’s comment is more than ridiculous. I have no idea how his tenure in New York has gone, but there is zero doubt that JvZ developed the Hong Kong Philharmonic into a very fine international orchestra that was Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year in 2019. Seoul was an equally fine orchestra under Myung-whun Chung’s direction. I am sure it is equally fine under Osmo Vanska who is the current Music Director. Or does Fenway consider that Chung and Vanska are hacks?
Are you saying the Seoul Philharmonic deserves only hack pretender of a conductor?
No. But for whatever reason, that’s what they got.
Couldn’t agree more. What a waste. At least Gilbert had some nice ideas for modern music. But he was terrible too. Now the Phil has fired their last two MDs who’ve gone on to way lesser positions. Great job NY!
Alan Gilbert is leading an excellent orchestra in Hamburg’s glorious Elbephilharmonie, and a welcome guest at the Berlin Phil and other A-list bands. I would imagine he’s quite content with his lot.
“to way lesser positions”
You are over-estimating the NY Phil.
Alan Gilbert was hired by Zarin Mehta. Jaap van Zweden hired by Matthew van Biesen.
I dare say there is more action in the classical music scene in Asia than in the United States.
1) There is no race debate
2) There is no age worry
Asian countries are pumping out far more undeniably great soloists than the US.
The US is moribund. And that’s just the blue states.
The red states have been culturally dead since the Civil War.
Van Zweden is making a well considered, forward looking move. The NY Phil will never be the Met, and Geffen Hall will never be Carnegie Hall.
As a red stater, I’m not shocked that you would find our lack of high art culture dissatisfying. I’m sure you wouldn’t know how to bait a hook; when to wrap a brisket; or how to serve grits, but that’s fine. I guess the simple things just mean more when it comes right down to it.
That said, JvZ definitely had more to work towards heading out of NYC: I know they have plenty of high culture, but I can only do so many indoor activities before I go stir crazy.
What you are saying is mostly nonsense. But there certainly may be more reliable attendance, I don’t have the statistics. Without a doubt there won’t be this blinding need to have a black soloist, conductor, or composer represented on every single concert.
Even this job is too good for this guy. Koreans are used to mentally abusive teachers, maybe this will work out fine there. I had no respect for this guy when he came to conduct our orchestra. Mean to the players for no reason and not that great. At least should have something to back it up with
Precious few conductors have “something to back it up with”, other than arrogance, ego, smugness…
His commute between orchestras will be a good deal shorter.
What kind of impact did Zweden make at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra?
DSO is one of my favorite US orchestras and I love their hall.
And we now have the great Fabio Luisi!!
He had a good thing going for him in
Dallas …but the grass is always greener !
Chung’s musical ideas are like coca cola that has lost all carbonation. He and his wife also staged a coup against the orchestra manager by making a false claim of sexual harrassment. The manager had to fight a long fight just to clear her name. Deplorable.
Anybody would do better.
This is a very partial and largely untrue account of a politically-motivated personnel conflict at the Seoul Phil, from which the orchestra has never recovered. See back issues of Slipped Disc for details.
Partial, maybe. But, untrue? Text messages they exchanged were made public.
Seems David has little idea about Seoul’s intense politics. Chung was hounded by an incompetent politically appointed manager who had not the slightest interest in nor clue about music or orchestras. This lady’s job was to get rid of him. He did not wish to leave because he cared deeply about the musicians who wanted him to stay. Finally the acrimony got out of control and he decided he had no choice but depart. Better that David not comment on issues he appears to know little about.
I very much enjoyed playing under Chung (granted, my view was not at all unanimous in the orchestra). He got the Chicago Symphony to play with a completely different sound than is our wont, a sound that I at least found to be very much in the service of the music. I should make clear that this is not at all to disparage the sound that we traditionally offer. The conductors who are capable of accomplishing this, in my experience, can easily be counted on one’s fingers.
I found him to be a sensitive and probing musician.
https://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=3205476
This news is from the KBS, a public broadcast station. The situation has turned upside down. They report Chung’s wife is now the suspect of the false accusation.
You mentioned political clout of the ousted manager but Chung has more these days.
“turned upside down”? That was the phrase the former CEO of SPO has used in her propaganda.
” minimal public impact in New York.” I think you’re being kind, more like “no impact in New York”. Completely invisible and with no impact. And, since COVID, he’s been utterly non-existent. And, I have been a subscriber for years. Thursday nights.
Could be said of half of the music directors of the Philharmonic.
Even for some of the big names, they came, collected their paychecks, and left as soon as they extracted from New York what they could extract (the money and the experience of an American city), leaving only their big names behind, which the Philharmonic clings to like lint to laundry.
When we were on strike, the NY Phil very generously invited me to play a week with them. I very much enjoyed their collegiality and was quite impressed by their musicianship. I think there are unique challenges for that orchestra.
In Chicago, we are the premiere attraction, whereas New York orchestras can be overshadowed, not always fairly, by the celebrity classical musicians who live in town or are always coming through. Furthermore, their hall is simply horrible; if possible the the backstage facilities are even worse than the hall itself. One hopes that the renovation in progress addresses this; it is hard to feel appreciated when your workplace is so squalid.
Remove all my comments. You make it sound like groundless claim, despite of all the text messages conspiring the false sexual harrassment allegation, that is now made public.
“Largely untrue”, huh?
A video is worth a thousand words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eGUAnTnXB8
Not that much ‘hacking’…? Rather nice way of listening to and communicating with the orchestra I’d say