S.D. SYMPHONY PLAYERS HOPEFUL ON PACT

If the players of the San Diego Symphony are less than ecstatic about all of the terms in their new two-year contract with the symphony association, they are optimistic about the long-term implications of the agreement.

The contract’s first season is a short 32 weeks, and the base annual salary of $18,400 is a step backward from the $21,250 of the last season they performed.

“I’m not enthusiastic about the 32-week aspect of the shortened first season, but, on the other hand, the terms are good for the long run,” said principal bassoonist Denis Michel. “The main thing is that we retained artistic control.”

Putting the orchestra’s house in order has been a primary concern of the players, and many feel that at last there is some hope for reform. “A team from the American Symphony Orchestra League will come to make recommendations and make sure that they are implemented. This will be a first here,” said bassist Gregory Berton, the chairman of the orchestra committee who helped negotiate the contract announced Monday afternoon at Symphony Hall.

According to symphony trumpeter Mark Bedell, these recommendations will cover all aspects of the operation, from the makeup of the board to management, marketing and labor relations.

“A side letter to the contract from (symphony executive director Wesley) Brustad agrees to effectuate all such recommendations,” Bedell said. Along with the orchestra league team, the musicians believe that a blue-ribbon committee appointed by Mayor Maureen O’Connor will help keep the symphony’s operations on the straight and narrow.

According to Bedell, other advantages that the musicians find in the new contract include a limited dental plan and a pledge by the orchestra management to schedule symphony performances around those of the San Diego Opera. Many symphony members play in the opera orchestra to augment their income, and the new contract additionally guarantees such players time off with pay should the symphony schedule conflict with the opera’s schedule, a radical departure from symphony management’s restrictive policies over the past two years.

In sheer musical terms, of course, the orchestra is not the same animal it was during the 1985-86 season, having lost much of its musical leadership. Key people who have left include former director David Atherton, concertmaster Andres Cardenes, principal French horn Jerry Folsom and principal contrabassist Peter Rofe. This spring both Folsom and Rofe won positions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

At this time, only half of the first-chair positions are filled with properly auditioned players, although Berton noted that assistant principals would take over until auditions could be held. According to Berton at Monday’s news conference, 69 of the orchestra’s former 89 members still are in town, although the new orchestra will be reduced in size to 81 players.

However, one first-chair player still in town, principal oboist Elizabeth Enkells-Green, is uncertain whether she will go back to the orchestra this fall. “I’m still debating whether I should take up the instrument again,” she said. A performer in last summer’s music festival sponsored by the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, she asked to be relieved of her obligations to play in this August’s Summerfest ’87. “Not playing for a year has changed our lives--it has certainly changed my perspective,” she added.

According to Michel, how the orchestra will fare without a regular conductor is hard to predict, although management has vowed to hire a musical adviser as soon as possible.

“Everything will hinge on what kind of conductors they bring in next year,” Michel said. “In orchestras that are between permanent conductors, it is easy to become musically stagnant.” Michel alluded to the tensions that the musicians endured under Atherton’s direction during the final years of the controversial British conductor’s tenure, and said, “The interim could actually have some advantages, as long as there is a more relaxed approach to music-making.”

While Michel saw no serious problems in getting guest conductors to come to San Diego, “Getting a quality permanent music director to come here will not be easy,” he said. “Our problems have been pretty well chronicled.”