Bad Vibes From Benaroya
The New York Times leads off its Sunday Arts Section tomorrow with one of those double-bylined investigative reports that spell trouble for somebody. It appears that all is not well with the Seattle Symphony. The article is not up online yet but here’s the lede:
Any dictionary will tell you that a symphony orchestra trades in harmony. Anyone who has spent much time around orchestras will tell you that the harmony often stops at the music’s edge; that tensions abound in a body of 100 or so high-strung thoroughbreds as a music director seeks to impose a single vision.
And to judge from alarmist reports coming from here over a dozen years or so, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra has carried disharmony to new heights, lurching from crisis to crisis…
That’s the good part. I’ll put up a link as soon as I find it.
UPDATE: See comments for link.
As a long time member of the Seattle symphony, I have to assert that the NY Times article accurately reflects the morale of the orchestra and the musicians’ frustration with the SSO board. That said, what the article omitted was that the allegations of “orchestral terrorism” were investigated by a 3rd party, hired by management and union, and turned up no conclusive evidence. This was never reported in the local press.
But the article is not about Mr. Cerminaro; that is just a symptom of the greater problem of what can happen when a music director stays too long. Any intelligent person can see from the current atmosphere that the relationship between Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony is no longer working. Under the current music director, the Seattle Symphony has had many triumphs, but few of them have had anything to do with music; the fact is, in the last decade the symphony has stagnated under this music director because there’s NO “THERE” THERE. Hearing the orchestra under a guest conductor is enough to prove that with fresh, inspired leadership, the Seattle Symphony could be great indeed. With a survey stating 61-8 that new leadership is needed, one can no longer say that it’s just a few disgruntled musicians! Too bad it has come to this.
P.S. Starting on Friday evenings, you can access the Sunday Arts and Leisure section by going to, for example, http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2007/12/16/arts/index.html
with the appropriate Sunday’s date plugged in (next week will be http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2007/12/23/arts/index.html)
Ah, you beat me to it. (I also blogged this earlier today.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/arts/music/16waki.html?ref=arts
This has been news in the blogosphere for at least 18 months – see Drew McManus for discussion of Schwarz’s tenure there.
The article is on the Times Web site already – I blogged it this morning.