NY Times fails two US orchestras
OrchestrasTwo 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.
1) “Salonen, clearly, refused to talk”, yeah, but he sat for a photoshoot with the NYT for 2 photos for the article.
Silent, but still vain.
2) He made $2.1 million a year at SF. Whatever the total cost of his grand artistic plan, apparently there was a fixed, upfront, annual cost of $2.1M in the form of his salary!
He’s like those American CEOs who make more and more money even as the company goes deeper and deeper into debt, on the justification that they are uniquely qualified to be the savior of the company.
3) The NYT was hardly vague in its reporting as to the reason for the conflict with the board:
“While Dodson said Salonen was a talented musician, he said the board had concerns about his sprawling vision. ‘He never actually said, ‘Can we do this or will you support this?’ Dodson said. ‘He just kind of went off on his own and assumed that the money would be there, as if by magic.’ ”
Well, to be fair to him, we can’t blame Salonen, he asked for a $2.1M annual salary and, abracadabra, he got what he asked for, like magic!
“He’s like those American CEOs who make more and more money even as the company goes deeper and deeper into debt…”
So Music Directors should be evaluated by whether the orchestra has a deficit or a surplus?
Yes, I’d say that’s the cynicism I’ve taken away from Boards who’ve chosen MD’s more suited to publicity than music making. What critic thinks Klaus Mäkelä worthy of the CSO for any other reason?
PC,
You know so much more about the CSO selection process than I do. I talked frequently to my colleagues on the Music Director Search Committee, who were pleasantly surprised at how much the musicians’ opinions were respected by trustees and staff. We were polled and encouraged to speak to any of our representatives on the committee, and it was clear that Makela had widespread support among the musicians. And as I understand it, this was what held sway when the decision was made. It may be the right decision or the wrong decision; we will know in time. But my colleagues and I are extremely optimistic about the new regime.
Now I am learning from you that the board made this decision on their own. Gee, please share with me your inside knowledge into the nuts and bolts of the decision. Or could it possibly be that you are just another of the eunuchs in the harem in these comments, holding forth with blissful ignorance upon activities and experiences in which you are fated never to take part?
“Now I am learning from you that the board made this decision on their own.” I didn’t say that. I’ve read that musicians held some sway. That doesn’t negate a thing I said and I stand by it. You exaggerate (re: lie).
Absolutely, you do.
What do you think surplus and deficit measure?
The audience and patron response to a music director’s programming in terms of ticket sales and donations!
If you program a season that no one comes to, who is at fault?
More fundamentally, if you hire a music director for $2M and no one comes, who’s at fault?
What do you think the CSO expects of Klaus Makela? Increased ticket sales, i.e., a surplus.
What do you think it would take for the CSO not to review Klaus Makela? Decreased ticket sales, i.e., a deficit.
The CSO ran a deficit in almost every year of the Solti era. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
No, but clearly a Music Director’s salary should be (evaluated).
Everyone in an organization–regardless of remuneration–is part of the solution.
If a program pushed by a music director fails to put rear ends in seats such that the orchestra is financially impacted in a negative way, it’s fair to take that into consideration when doing a performance review.
Thank you for using “rear end” and “impacted” in the same sentence!
Name conductors and soloists attract an audience. They should be compensated for that. The blame for the deficit lies with fundraising because there is no way a musical organization that large can balance the budget through ticket sales. If Salonen’s vision turned off donors, then that would be a problem. But his interpretation of the orchestral repertoire is top level and his own compositions, especially with him conducting, are the best modern works that I’ve heard in awhile. His salary is not out of line with peers.
Is he? Salonen is a mediocre conductor who’s paid too much.
NYT had the Salonen photos on file from previous articles. They weren’t taken for that article.
Well said. I was frequently in LA before retirement and attended LA Phil concerts in their old and new place. I learned to not go when Salonen was on the program. The guest conductors got a lot more out of that orchestra than he ever could.
I think your assessment is dead on. He assumed that he could issue proclamations that the board would somehow fund. More money to his inner circle? More tours to who-knows-where?More Gehry buildings at the usual 2-4x overrun? Riiiiight.
Most of the hard working staff at the BSO were done with Smith and his male assistant whom he brought with him a week after he started. He has instituted a DEI agenda especially gay centric which is not going over well. He’s also having his and his assistant’s office redone at great expense. I suspect he will be finding another lily pad to leap to shortly.
This is factually false (what assistant he brought with him? not on the BSO payroll–and how is that relevant?), interpretively questionable (“done with”? compared to where they were the previous year, Smith is considered a very positive addition, and my sources are really, really good), and, it should go without saying, homophobic. Cite one “pride night” that Pops has been trying to institute for years as being the cornerstone of a “gay centric” agenda that so far has resulted in an otherwise statistically insignificant change in representation of non-cis musicians or programming? DEI otherwise predates Smith by years. Only a tiny fraction of the audience is antipathetic to such change; most don’t care one way or the other; many are very much for it.
Wow, openly homophobic.
In what way? Would it be perfectly acceptable to you to have a straight man bring in his female assistant who is also his girlfriend, and have his and his assistant/girlfriend’s office redecorated at great expense??
Is any of that claptrap true? Complaining about him instituting a new gay-centric DEI focus when it’s untrue is a cheap, homophobic shot that makes the rest of the complaint totally unreliable. “fears of gun” challenges the integrity of the post. If they are right, then the homophobia is even worse.
It’s rumored that he will be taking over the NY Phil when Dudamel arrives….
Smith’s imperious, often rude behavior towards those “little people” rubbed a lot of Angelinos the wrong way. Some of those seemingly “little people” have BIG pocket books, and are looking for places to donate some, or a LOT of it. I personally saw him ignore, and cut dead folks at various black-tie galas, that just wanted to shake hands, and thrown money at LAPO. Jeesh, you’d get a more honest, down-to-earth interaction from a Taylor Swift or Beyonce.
How much do you think MTT made?
Plenty.
He connected with the audience in a way Salonen probably can’t.
I got to play there in their Best Times.
I’m sorry to see what’s happening now.
Salonen connected very well with L.A. audiences. I wonder what the problem might have been in SF?
The LA audience tends to not be as serious about music and more serious about being seen. The San Francisco audience is better informed and not there to be seen.
I’m a huge Salonen fan. I find his interpretations intoxicating and some of my favorite LAP and SFS concerts have included Salonen.
However, I completely agree with you regarding MTT and how he connected with audiences. MTT’s SFS era was so comprehensive. I knew we were in for something remarkable when Keeping Score began.
MTT has to share part of the blame for the fact that the orchestra has never developed into a top-tier ensemble. Perhaps some musicians don’t want to live in SF? It’s a major international city but its opera, symphony and conservatory aren’t very impressive.
Norman,
Did you post your criticism of the article on the San Francisco Symphony in the comments section on the NYT page?
If not, why not?
Why would I? They know where I live…
I cannot speak for Norman, but long experience has proved to me that the NYT rejects comments that are on point (“not in conformity with our ethical standards”).
Can someone please fill me in on:
a)The accusations about Chad Smith at LA Phil
b) Gail Samuel’s controversial plans, those that were and were not adopted by Smith
Thank you!
There is a subtle kind of dishonesty here. 1. I think it is ridiculous to compare 25 years of MTT to Salonen first years as MD of SF. Salonen was as greatly loved in LA and by the LA musicians as MTT was by SF musicians and SF patrons. 2. Salonen was not going around begging for an MD job. I heard thru the grapevine that after LA he did even want to be an MD again (the whys of this were clear to me…but one reason was because he wanted to compose more). The fact is that SF wanted him and in my opinion he was a really great choice for the orchestra. 3. To say Salonen had “instant incomprehension” is so insultingly ridiculous…they wanted him so badly they told him they would let him do what ever he wanted..so they lied to him, no wonder he didn’t want to stay. 4. As far as Mr. Smith…surely the BSO board (who would be in charge of hiring him) were more interested in how he was going to raise money for the orchestra, interact with wealthy donors…as well as give an overall shape to the future of the orchestra…whatever that might mean to the BSO. The grumbling I heard was that he was taking better care of the staff than the orchestra in LA…hence the decision to hire Kim Noltemy who has clearly shown her abilities to both raise money and care about the musicians. 5. What “controversial plans” was Ms. Samuel planning.Oh….just trying to make it juicy, right?
As long as the Boston Symphony Orchestra has existed, the New York Times has been writing nonsense about it.
With respect to arts coverage at the NYT…
A recent piece in the NYT (I may be wrong, but I think it was by Barone) described the allegedly wondrous updating of operas at Wiener Staatsoper and Volksoper Wien.
It was so full of factual errors that my letter to the editor took a full page. NYT applied some of my corrections to the article, but it soon vanished from the website.
The author also failed to mention the far-better work being done by Theater an der Wien under Stefan Herheim.
(Incidentally, Theater an der Wien has been performing in exile at Halle E in MuseumsQuartier since 2022 while the glorious 1801 house on the Linke Wienzeile has been undergoing renovations; it reopens in October with a new Herheim production of „Idomeneo“.)
Lucky people living amidst all these wonderful offerings! I can only dream of Idomeneo in Wien. It would be good to compare with the Sydney Opera production.
Absolutely correct. As a retired 30-year orchestra member and musicologist, I have long marvelled at the BS written by the NYT “music journalists.”. They just make shit up to suit their prejudices.
I agree
NY Times is trying to be all news for all people in all 50 states, while the reporters are limited to their NY staff. Similarly, the San Francisco news outlet SFGate is trying to cover all of California now.
The inevitable result is dilution of quality journalism.
Actually, SFGate is doing as good a job, if not much better, covering Southern California arts, than the L A Times. It looks like Mark Swed gets less space? Most people I know, have given-up L.A. Times subscriptions: too expensive, and mostly free-lance-flack-written.
Lebrecht is way off base, at best misinformed.
Those of us who live in the San Francisco area and have been patrons of SF Symphony for decades know that the NY times article was right on the mark.
Symphony Board mismanagement and misrepresentation are largely to blame for the Symphony’s very sad state of affairs, coupled with and accelerated by Covid-related financial declines.
Salonen’s visions and plans for the Symphony were endorsed and embraced by the majority of Symphony patrons, and publicly endorsed by the Symphony Board when he was hired, but the Board later reneged on commitments made to Salonen, the Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony patrons.
Unfortunately we expect that it will be many years before the SF Symphony recovers from this Board-created debacle.
“Internally, change is hard,” Smith said to the NY Times – that means he’s already having trouble with his BSO staff, hardly surprising. The LA Phil staff were joyous when the bully finally left. Now they are anxious that their incoming new CEO will not move quickly to get rid of the Chad sycophants who emulate his bullying behavior and are the organizations dead wood.
People change; wishing Chad the best at BSO.
The NY Times has not covered itself in glory for a long time now. For many years they allowed one of their high profile critics to review concerts and write glowing profiles of a conductor, never disclosing that the critic is the biological father of the conductor’s child. Not very “fit to print” is it? The critic is now retired, and the conductor has fallen lower on the career ladder since.
“He came to Boston from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where for two decades he played a crucial role in building the orchestra’s reputation as one of the most innovative, important ensembles in the country.” Did Smith tell NY Times that? What a vain, insecure narcissist. They said the same about Borda, but at least she did great things in LA and is a far better leader than Smith could ever hope to be. Let’s get it out of the way — it was Ernest Fleischmann who “built” the organization and positioned it in such a way that even Smith couldn’t quite destroy it.
I give it two more years before we learn from the NY Times that actually Chad Smith is the crucial reason Boston has the largest endowment among American orchestras. (“Donors have been sooo inspired by his vision!” and variations thereof ad nauseam.)
Also, right on cue: https://www.therestisnoise.com/2024/06/boston-symphony-meet-chaya-czernowin.html
They are so miserably predictable. These same people will also insist to us they represent “change”. The position of the music critic at the New Yorker has been occupied by the same man for 28 years now. I for one think his articles are getting incredibly stale. Time for a change, no? If a white male MD not named Levine stayed that long Ross would be calling for his head already.
Prepare to play a lot of Chaya Czernowin, BSO! Both the New Yorker and the NY Times will write many articles about it. Isn’t that what we play music for? Chad Smith thinks so, and you better think so too.
The level of these comments is embarrassingly low: agendas, axes, rude aggressive, even bullying rants… disappointing. I’m out.
Wait- THIS website- which specializes in rumor mongering, zero research of facts, has no accountability, and can’t even run spellcheck- is complaining about “the limitations of Times classical music journalism in these straitened times”??!!!!!