Atherton Resigns as Conductor of Symphony

The latest chapter in the sad saga of the debt-ridden San Diego Symphony was written Monday as symphony President Herbert J. Solomon accepted the resignation of his conductor and music director, David Atherton.

Praised for his skill on the podium and criticized for his alleged abusive treatment of musicians, Atherton had, in five years, driven the orchestra to unexcelled artistic heights. But it all added up to naught in what would have been his sixth year, when the symphony’s board of directors, plagued with money and labor problems, canceled the winter concert season.

In his letter of resignation, Atherton said that the board’s decision to disband the orchestra made his position as music director “superfluous.” (On Jan. 12, the symphony board of directors voted to disband the orchestra, after the musicians refused its “best and final” offer for a three-year contract.)

“I would like to be in a position to accept other conducting engagements during forthcoming seasons,” Atherton wrote. He will not be paid for the 2 1/2 years remaining on his contract, which would have run through 1989.

Atherton also alluded to a clash last week with Solomon and symphony Executive Director Wesley O. Brustad that had forced him to offer his resignation. The 43-year-old Englishman, who had not conducted the orchestra since August, differed with Brustad and Solomon over the importance of reestablishing the symphony’s relationship with the orchestra.

“The most important thing is to get that orchestra actually working again,” Atherton said Monday. “I think that is the quickest way to establish credibility in the community.”

The conductor said he had held “lengthy discussions” Thursday and Friday with Brustad and Solomon, in which he conceded the necessity of dropping his own requirements for a change in auditioning and firing procedures, terms over which the musicians had balked at signing an agreement.

Atherton suggested to Solomon and Brustad “various ways we could get the musicians back on stage, including playing and talking. But to everything I suggested, I was given the same answer: ‘Negotiations are at an end. The orchestra has been disbanded.’ The reason they couldn’t go along with anything I suggested was lack of money.”

Solomon said Monday at a press conference that the lack of an agreement in January precluded a spring season and meant there was less money available to offer musicians. He and Brustad stressed that the association’s “best and final offer” to the players was just that. Any subsequent offer would be dramatically reduced.

Solomon said it was necessary to consider all the “financial implications” when trying to establish the symphony’s credibility through symphony concerts. Asked if it wasn’t easier to raise funds when the orchestra was playing, Solomon said: “That depends on the people who are called upon to give money. Substantial numbers of people are unimpressed with the association’s” history of raising money when the orchestra is playing.

“It’s not a simple let’s put on a show and raise a lot of money,” Brustad said. “That was ‘Our Gang’ comedies. The deficit is what we’re concerned about.”

The symphony has more than $5 million in debts.

Atherton’s confrontation with Brustad and Solomon was ordained at a meeting a week and a half ago between the conductor and Los Angeles musicians. At that meeting, he said he would take a leadership role in attempting to end the labor impasse that has all but wiped out the symphony.

The meeting had been called so that Atherton, who was conducting a series of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, could give his version to musicians there of what was going on in San Diego, according to Vince DiBari, vice president of Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians. DiBari described the tone of the meeting, in which Atherton was asked whether he planned to be part of the solution, as “very, very constructive.”

The San Diego musicians’ leader, bassist Gregory Berton, was not encouraged by Atherton’s resignation. “It seems like our stalemate is due to the insane intransigence of the board. It seems like Atherton made an attempt to remove himself as a barrier to a settlement and those actions were thwarted by the board.

“Doesn’t it seem slightly suspicious that they had the money (before Jan. 12) but couldn’t concede on the artistic issues. Now Atherton says he can concede the artistic issues and they don’t have the money,” Berton said. “How can the financial situation change so much in three weeks between having an orchestra and not having an orchestra? Doesn’t it seem kind of fishy?”

David Porter, who, as president of the symphony association signed Atherton to his first contract in London in 1980, said he “could not blame” Atherton for asking to be released from his contract. “He’s all dressed up and no place to go,” Porter said. “Maybe his programming wasn’t always what it needed to be to fill the hall.”

Porter, who was philosophic about Atherton’s departure, said that the conductor probably saw himself as “only another creditor” to the debt-ridden symphony. Atherton’s contract called for him to be paid half of his minimum $237,000 salary when there are no concerts. However, on Monday the former music director said that he had not been paid since Jan. 12.

Porter called the symphony association’s stand on artistic concessions an effort to end “old union attitudes and featherbedding. I think the days when the musicians can run the symphony are gone,” Porter said.

Brustad said that the complexity of the symphony’s financial crisis required cooperation and a collaborative effort from the musicians.

The first order of business for the symphony, Brustad said, was to come up with a fiscal plan for its future. However, neither he nor Solomon had a time line for the presentation of a plan, nor did they know how much it would cost to hire a financial planner. Additionally, they said there was nothing to report from a committee formed three weeks ago and chaired by Blaine Quick. The committee is charged with developing a plan for the symphony to pay off its debts in the absence of its orchestra.

During Atherton’s first year and a half in San Diego, a time also marked by fiscal instability, he was almost idolized by the musicians. “In the beginning the musicians would stand up and applaud him,” Porter said.

Not until the players were locked out in September did news of Atherton’s disfavor in their eyes leak out. “His behavior is abusive and cruel,” one player said. “He is cruel to people in front of their colleagues.”

Nevertheless, he still has supporters among the orchestra, such as violinist Beth Folsom and her husband, Jerry, who is principal French horn.

“If David resigns, so do we,” Beth Folsom said. “I think it is such a sad, sad thing to have happen. It shows where the board is. They’re just not doing it right. They canceled the season instead of playing and talking. Right then I knew the symphony needed a new board. They obviously don’t want an orchestra.”

Atherton, whose only other position is as principal guest conductor of the BBC orchestra in London, said he had “no interest whatsoever” in holding any position with any reformed orchestra in San Diego.

Solomon said there was no plan to immediately replace Atherton.