Susan Mälkki conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Courtesy Hilary Scott)
The Boston Symphony Orchestra administration has justifiably taken heat for the way it handled the non-renewal of Andris Nelsons’ contract as music director. The disrespectful and insensitive manner in which Nelsons, the orchestra’s musicians and BSO audiences, learned of the decision is indefensible. The BSO decision makers have all been around and should have known better.
But perhaps the philosophy behind the BSO’s decisions is not so indefensible. There has been a paradigm shift among legacy institutions across the board in the country, particularly among arts organizations, that is partly responsible for the sidelining of Nelsons. That same paradigm shift could lead to greater glory for the orchestra, both in terms of what the BSO brass and audiences expect, and receive, from the orchestra.
I have a nomination in that regard – the Finnish-born conductor Susanna Mälkki, who just last week earned rave reviews in both Boston and New York, conducting the BSO in a terrific program and a world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, Kaija Saariaho’s “Innocence.” (I missed the Symphony Hall concert, which featured Ravel, Rachmaninoff and contemporary composer Andrew Norman, but the radio recording is out of this world.)
She is also a favorite of the BSO’s CEO Chad Smith, who hired her as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s principal guest conductor and has championed her since then. She was mentioned prominently when the New York Philharmonic was looking for a new conductor. That job went to another LA Phil conductor you might have heard of, Gustavo Dudamel.
But before we venture forward let’s sing along with David Byrne: How did we get here?
In an episode of “The Pitt” this season the likable Dr. Cassie McKay took the arrogant medical student James Oglivie outdoors to treat a drug addict. Oglivie wondered why she didn’t insist on the addict coming to the hospital. “Meeting them where they’re at makes a big difference,” says McKay.
Meeting audiences where they are has become the mantra among arts, media and other organizations. Whatever one thinks of Andris Nelsons as a conductor and music director, and I was more of a fan than many other critics, it’s obvious the globe-trotting maestro was totally old school when it came to new thinking. And I’ve always been critical that he never became a fixture in the local firmament. It’s hard to meet Boston audiences (and donors) where they’re at when you’re in Leipzig and Vienna with the Gewandhausorchester, his other orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic, with whom he’s been quite active.
The old paradigm among legacy institutions was that audiences and donors come to you. Subscriptions to orchestra seats were often passed down from one generation to another, particularly in large cities. Subscribing to the symphony was part of a cultured person’s rite of passage and it didn’t much matter whether Seiji Ozawa was leading the BSO or Herbert Blomstedt. Positive Boston Globe reviews sold tickets to ongoing arts events on the name of the Globe itself. Well-informed radio listeners relied on their NPR presets.
All that changed with the rise of the internet and home entertainment along with the related fracturing of American cultural habits. COVID made changing circumstances even more transformative.
The BSO was hardly immune. In Wednesday’s article for the Boston Globe Malcolm Gay cited the need for the next artistic director to make Boston his or her artistic home and to search for opportunities to broaden the BSO’s presence while reaching out to new audiences.
Nelsons didn’t seem to have the time or inclination to either plant himself in Boston or to go much beyond the traditional role of artistic director – hiring personnel, giving concerts and making recordings, many of which are excellent, including his recent lovely set of Mendelssohn symphonies and oratorios – albeit with the Gewandhausorchester. (To his credit he also has the riveting Shostakovich set with the BSO, Yo-Yo Ma and Yuja Wang as well as two recent Grammys, one for Ma’s contribution to Shostakovich and another for Messiaen with the BSO, Wang and Cécile Lartigau, following an amazing live concert of the piece.)
Yo-Yo Ma performs Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Courtesy Robert Torres)
Actually, the new paradigm isn’t all that new; it just hasn’t been in the BSO’s DNA until recently. The patron saint of everything the BSO now yearns for is Leonard Bernstein, whom the organization turned down as artistic director in 1948 in favor of Charles Munch. Bernstein then went to New York where he got “Young People’s Concerts” and other exciting fare on national television with the New York Philharmonic and raised the profile of classical music in New York and America to storied heights. (The Globe’s former music critic, the late Richard Dyer, did note that if the BSO had chosen Bernstein in the ‘40s there never would have been a “West Side Story” in the ‘50s. Our loss was New York’s and the world’s gain.)
Fast forward 25 years and the BSO bypassed its assistant conductor and Bernstein protégé Michael Tilson Thomas for Seiji Ozawa. In fairness, MTT by his own admission was not emotionally prepared for the job. Nevertheless, Tilson Thomas, who died last week, would hone his talents, and temper, elsewhere and in 1995 would become music director of the San Francisco Symphony becoming another prototype of the kind of music director the BSO now seems to be looking for. He was an innovative programmer and excellent musician who became a beloved fixture in San Francisco. He was much more a part of San Francisco cultural life than Ozawa was in Boston, despite his love of the Red Sox.
Michael Tilson Thomas, founder and artistic director of the New World Symphony, appears during the grand opening ceremony of the New World Center on Jan. 25, 2011 in Miami Beach, Fla. (Lynne Sladky/ AP) /
And MTT wasn’t the only one on the West Coast who transformed the American musical scene. Esa-Pekka Salonen made the Los Angeles Philharmonic a force that would more than rival what were then the Big Five American orchestras in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago.
The Finnish-born Salonen took over in 1992. Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed cited Salonen’s 17-year tenure as a “progressive vision for an orchestra of the 21st century that transformed the L.A. Phil into the world’s most successful and influential symphony orchestra.” In another piece Swed wrote, “He is widely hailed as having produced the most successful model anywhere for making a traditional symphonic orchestra an accessible part of a modern city’s fabric.”
When he left to concentrate on composing he was replaced in LA by another dictionary-definition artistic director of what the BSO is now looking for, Dudamel, now headed for the New York Philharmonic.
The Salonen-Dudamel-MTT musical chairs weren’t over. Salonen succeeded Tilson Thomas when he retired in San Francisco where he was promised even more freedom to forge alliances with the likes of esperanza spalding and multi-genre composer Nico Muhly along with members of the tech sector. When San Francisco reneged on those promises, saying COVID had ravaged its finances, a furious Salonen resigned. I was hoping that Salonen would wind up in Boston, particularly since Smith, another LA Phil transplant, was now the president and CEO of the BSO. (Smith has taken much of the blame for the BSO’s treatment of Nelsons.)
But Salonen wound up back in Los Angeles with a five-year stint as creative director of the Philharmonic, along with a similar post in the Orchestre de Paris.
Still, Smith and Salonen seem to have a good relationship. Salonen returned to the BSO podium this season, his first since 2012, with a ravishing concert featuring his own horn concerto, Boccherini by way of Lucian Berio and a superb Bruckner Symphony No. 4. This summer he’ll be conducting the BSO July 31 and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra Aug. 3 as well as curating this year’s Festival of Contemporary Music July 23-27. As a postscript on July 28 Salonen and Smith will be discussing “The Future of American Orchestras.” So perhaps there is a role for Salonen as adviser and guest conductor.
But as far as the top job goes, what about that other member of the LA Philharmonic mega-talent pool, Mälkki, who has worked with fellow Finn Salonen as well as with Dudamel after Smith hired her as principal guest conductor in LA. She has won several raves, not just for her recent work. The Times’ terrific former lead critic Anthony Tommasini championed her when she conducted the New York Philharmonic, calling her “one of the most exciting and in-demand conductors of her generation.” Mälkki, 57, has also appeared with the BSO and obviously she’s well acquainted with how Salonen and Dudamel laid the groundwork for how to be a modern major general in the classical music world.
There are several other interesting women out there, from veterans like Marin Alsop and JoAnn Falletta to younger conductors like Joana Mallwitz, Karina Canellakis, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Elim Chan and singer-conductor Barbara Hannigan.
But Mälkki could be No. 1. There’s an interesting quote in a 2021 New York Times article about her from a certain Chad Smith, who was then with the LA Phil. Smith was speaking about the New York Philharmonic’s search for a new conductor. Before Dudamel took the post he said, “Susanna has to be at the top of anyone’s list.”
Are the stars, then, in alignment? Frankly, I would love to see a Finn or two in the BSO’s future. It could go a long way to righting the ship and making the BSO raise the roof instead of raising hackles.
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COMMENTARY
Can the BSO end its woes with a Finn-ishing touch?
The Boston Symphony Orchestra administration has justifiably taken heat for the way it handled the non-renewal of Andris Nelsons’ contract as music director. The disrespectful and insensitive manner in which Nelsons, the orchestra’s musicians and BSO audiences, learned of the decision is indefensible. The BSO decision makers have all been around and should have known better.
But perhaps the philosophy behind the BSO’s decisions is not so indefensible. There has been a paradigm shift among legacy institutions across the board in the country, particularly among arts organizations, that is partly responsible for the sidelining of Nelsons. That same paradigm shift could lead to greater glory for the orchestra, both in terms of what the BSO brass and audiences expect, and receive, from the orchestra.
I have a nomination in that regard – the Finnish-born conductor Susanna Mälkki, who just last week earned rave reviews in both Boston and New York, conducting the BSO in a terrific program and a world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, Kaija Saariaho’s “Innocence.” (I missed the Symphony Hall concert, which featured Ravel, Rachmaninoff and contemporary composer Andrew Norman, but the radio recording is out of this world.)
She is also a favorite of the BSO’s CEO Chad Smith, who hired her as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s principal guest conductor and has championed her since then. She was mentioned prominently when the New York Philharmonic was looking for a new conductor. That job went to another LA Phil conductor you might have heard of, Gustavo Dudamel.
But before we venture forward let’s sing along with David Byrne: How did we get here?
In an episode of “The Pitt” this season the likable Dr. Cassie McKay took the arrogant medical student James Oglivie outdoors to treat a drug addict. Oglivie wondered why she didn’t insist on the addict coming to the hospital. “Meeting them where they’re at makes a big difference,” says McKay.
Meeting audiences where they are has become the mantra among arts, media and other organizations. Whatever one thinks of Andris Nelsons as a conductor and music director, and I was more of a fan than many other critics, it’s obvious the globe-trotting maestro was totally old school when it came to new thinking. And I’ve always been critical that he never became a fixture in the local firmament. It’s hard to meet Boston audiences (and donors) where they’re at when you’re in Leipzig and Vienna with the Gewandhausorchester, his other orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic, with whom he’s been quite active.
The old paradigm among legacy institutions was that audiences and donors come to you. Subscriptions to orchestra seats were often passed down from one generation to another, particularly in large cities. Subscribing to the symphony was part of a cultured person’s rite of passage and it didn’t much matter whether Seiji Ozawa was leading the BSO or Herbert Blomstedt. Positive Boston Globe reviews sold tickets to ongoing arts events on the name of the Globe itself. Well-informed radio listeners relied on their NPR presets.
All that changed with the rise of the internet and home entertainment along with the related fracturing of American cultural habits. COVID made changing circumstances even more transformative.
The BSO was hardly immune. In Wednesday’s article for the Boston Globe Malcolm Gay cited the need for the next artistic director to make Boston his or her artistic home and to search for opportunities to broaden the BSO’s presence while reaching out to new audiences.
Nelsons didn’t seem to have the time or inclination to either plant himself in Boston or to go much beyond the traditional role of artistic director – hiring personnel, giving concerts and making recordings, many of which are excellent, including his recent lovely set of Mendelssohn symphonies and oratorios – albeit with the Gewandhausorchester. (To his credit he also has the riveting Shostakovich set with the BSO, Yo-Yo Ma and Yuja Wang as well as two recent Grammys, one for Ma’s contribution to Shostakovich and another for Messiaen with the BSO, Wang and Cécile Lartigau, following an amazing live concert of the piece.)
Actually, the new paradigm isn’t all that new; it just hasn’t been in the BSO’s DNA until recently. The patron saint of everything the BSO now yearns for is Leonard Bernstein, whom the organization turned down as artistic director in 1948 in favor of Charles Munch. Bernstein then went to New York where he got “Young People’s Concerts” and other exciting fare on national television with the New York Philharmonic and raised the profile of classical music in New York and America to storied heights. (The Globe’s former music critic, the late Richard Dyer, did note that if the BSO had chosen Bernstein in the ‘40s there never would have been a “West Side Story” in the ‘50s. Our loss was New York’s and the world’s gain.)
Fast forward 25 years and the BSO bypassed its assistant conductor and Bernstein protégé Michael Tilson Thomas for Seiji Ozawa. In fairness, MTT by his own admission was not emotionally prepared for the job. Nevertheless, Tilson Thomas, who died last week, would hone his talents, and temper, elsewhere and in 1995 would become music director of the San Francisco Symphony becoming another prototype of the kind of music director the BSO now seems to be looking for. He was an innovative programmer and excellent musician who became a beloved fixture in San Francisco. He was much more a part of San Francisco cultural life than Ozawa was in Boston, despite his love of the Red Sox.
And MTT wasn’t the only one on the West Coast who transformed the American musical scene. Esa-Pekka Salonen made the Los Angeles Philharmonic a force that would more than rival what were then the Big Five American orchestras in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago.
The Finnish-born Salonen took over in 1992. Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed cited Salonen’s 17-year tenure as a “progressive vision for an orchestra of the 21st century that transformed the L.A. Phil into the world’s most successful and influential symphony orchestra.” In another piece Swed wrote, “He is widely hailed as having produced the most successful model anywhere for making a traditional symphonic orchestra an accessible part of a modern city’s fabric.”
When he left to concentrate on composing he was replaced in LA by another dictionary-definition artistic director of what the BSO is now looking for, Dudamel, now headed for the New York Philharmonic.
The Salonen-Dudamel-MTT musical chairs weren’t over. Salonen succeeded Tilson Thomas when he retired in San Francisco where he was promised even more freedom to forge alliances with the likes of esperanza spalding and multi-genre composer Nico Muhly along with members of the tech sector. When San Francisco reneged on those promises, saying COVID had ravaged its finances, a furious Salonen resigned. I was hoping that Salonen would wind up in Boston, particularly since Smith, another LA Phil transplant, was now the president and CEO of the BSO. (Smith has taken much of the blame for the BSO’s treatment of Nelsons.)
But Salonen wound up back in Los Angeles with a five-year stint as creative director of the Philharmonic, along with a similar post in the Orchestre de Paris.
Still, Smith and Salonen seem to have a good relationship. Salonen returned to the BSO podium this season, his first since 2012, with a ravishing concert featuring his own horn concerto, Boccherini by way of Lucian Berio and a superb Bruckner Symphony No. 4. This summer he’ll be conducting the BSO July 31 and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra Aug. 3 as well as curating this year’s Festival of Contemporary Music July 23-27. As a postscript on July 28 Salonen and Smith will be discussing “The Future of American Orchestras.” So perhaps there is a role for Salonen as adviser and guest conductor.
But as far as the top job goes, what about that other member of the LA Philharmonic mega-talent pool, Mälkki, who has worked with fellow Finn Salonen as well as with Dudamel after Smith hired her as principal guest conductor in LA. She has won several raves, not just for her recent work. The Times’ terrific former lead critic Anthony Tommasini championed her when she conducted the New York Philharmonic, calling her “one of the most exciting and in-demand conductors of her generation.” Mälkki, 57, has also appeared with the BSO and obviously she’s well acquainted with how Salonen and Dudamel laid the groundwork for how to be a modern major general in the classical music world.
There are several other interesting women out there, from veterans like Marin Alsop and JoAnn Falletta to younger conductors like Joana Mallwitz, Karina Canellakis, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Elim Chan and singer-conductor Barbara Hannigan.
But Mälkki could be No. 1. There’s an interesting quote in a 2021 New York Times article about her from a certain Chad Smith, who was then with the LA Phil. Smith was speaking about the New York Philharmonic’s search for a new conductor. Before Dudamel took the post he said, “Susanna has to be at the top of anyone’s list.”
Are the stars, then, in alignment? Frankly, I would love to see a Finn or two in the BSO’s future. It could go a long way to righting the ship and making the BSO raise the roof instead of raising hackles.
Related:
Ed Siegel is critic-at-large for WBUR.
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