imported_administrator

A top American conductor is facing a mutiny from his orchestra, it was reported today.

Musicians at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra are understood to have voted for Gerard Schwarz to be ousted from his position as musical director.

Maestro Schwarz was brought in three years ago to turn fortunes around at the cash-strapped orchestra, which was then £2.5 million in debt.



http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2788316

MUSICandCHARACTER

Interesting article. They list his qualifications and he current and past positions, but don't state why his position may be under review or why he may had received a no confidence vote.

What did he do? (or maybe didn't do?).

M&C

orchtrpt

I didn't even know he conducted an orchestra over there. Who knows what he did. I know some weird things have gone down in Seattle over the past few years.

Dr G

Churchill once implied that the Americans and English are separated by a common language, it may also be that they are separated by a common music.

imported_administrator

Tootsall

A huge part of a conductor's job involves programming to "keep the audiences satisfied", not just "waving a stick" every two weeks or so. Symphony boards are demanding more involvement and "entertainment" to maintain audience interest (and cash flow); the conductors have to adapt to the new "entertainment reality" as do the musicians!

Failure to be aware of changing audience tastes AND maintain harmony (figuratively as well as literally) within the Orchestra will result in some new arrivals on the jobless scene.

MUSICandCHARACTER

RLPO chief executive Michael Elliott said: 'In the past year, under the artistic leadership of the music director, subscriptions have increased by over 40 per cent; group sales have increased by 57 per cent... new programmes such the Amadeus and Baroque series all made attendance and income targets, and three new audience campaigns have attracted over 3000 brand new attenders, of which 30 per cent have purchased flexible series subscriptions in the 03/04 season.'

Subscriptions up 40% by having an Amadeus and Baroque series? Sounds like going back to "good" stuff and it sounds like Schwarz has been programming the "right stuff."

A spokesperson for the orchestra confirmed to Gramophone that a meeting had taken place to discuss Schwarz's performance, at which an informal vote was made, but said that 'the tone of the discussion was far more wide-ranging and complex than has been reported

No kidding. You mean someone reported that there was a no confidence vote when it was more of a discussion ... hmmmm.

Maybe these musicians don't like an American ... or maybe they don't like Baroque music. I don't know. But with subscriptions up like that without programming rock music is something. It makes you wonder what was really said. Is it much ado about nothing?

M&C

davidjohnson

ok....let him leave & let them go back to the poor house. life's too short to do a good job & then get the axe.

dj

trickg

That always seems to be the rub: do you satisfy the audience, or satisfy the players?

The Big Band that I play for has a situation going where it seems like we play the same stuff over and over and over and overandoverandover....again. Tunes like:

Begin The Beguine
Satin Doll
Take the A Train
Moonligh Serenade
In The Mood
Little Brown Jug
Pennsylvania 6-5000
American Patrol
etc

There are complaints within the band that we are getting tired of playing these same, old, worn out tunes, and there is a movement to try to get some other more interesting stuff in the book. (Bill Potts arrangements come to mind.)

But the problem lies in the fact that while we as musicians might consider those same tunes to be worn out and boring, it's those very tunes that are what get us hired to play the gig in the first place. I wonder if the same thing is going on with Schwartz in Liverpoole?

Clarino

The most obvious complaint that I noticed in the Gramophone article was that Schwartz often programmed obscure works twice in the same week to half full houses.

This is probably more the fault of Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 than Mr. Schwartz. People are les likely to pay to see a performance of a work they have never heard of. But they rarely get the opportunity to listen to anything other than that which is already familliar. We need more concerts to be showen on television. We need to reach the largest audience we can so that people are more receptive to unknown works.