Pacific Symphony, Polish Conductor Talk

Pacific Symphony officials and an American agent for the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic said Monday they are negotiating for him to be the symphony’s interim artistic musical adviser for at least the 1989-90 season.

If a contract talks succeed, Polish conductor Kazimierz Kord would probably conduct six of the symphony’s 18 concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center that season, said Stewart J. Warkow, Kord’s New York agent.

Kord, 57, has been music director of the Warsaw Philharmonic since 1977 and was generally well received when he conducted the Pacific Symphony last month at the center in Costa Mesa.

Warkow stressed that talks have focused on a temporary position and do not mean that Kord will become a full-time replacement for founding conductor Keith Clark, who is stepping down at the end of the 1988-89 season.

“They’ve expressed interest in Kord, and Kord has expressed interest in coming, but there are still details to be worked out,” said Warkow, executive vice president of International Creative Management in New York and director of its conductors’ division. “The ball is in their court. . . . I’m waiting for a call from Lou Spisto.”

Louis G. Spisto, the Pacific Symphony’s executive director, said the orchestra’s full board of directors will meet Monday to consider hiring Kord. Spisto and Warkow said unresolved details include mutually acceptable dates and his fees.

The dates must coincide with Kord’s scheduled appearances with the San Francisco Opera. “We can’t just be bringing him from Warsaw to Orange County,” Warkow said. “It’s got to fit together with his other dates on the West Coast.” Spisto said that if an accord is reached, Kord would conduct three programs, each twice, amounting to a third of the season, which consists of two subscription series of nine concerts. The remaining concerts would be divided among six guest conductors, Spisto said.

Meanwhile, Spisto said the symphony will announce the names of three guest conductors to appear during the 1988-89 season with Clark.

Neither Spisto nor Warkow would indicate how much Kord might be paid for his county stint. “It’s not going to be anything outrageous,” Warkow said. “You’re not offering the job to (Herbert) von Karajan (the world-renowned conductor and music director of the Berlin Philharmonic).

Pacific Symphony board chairman Michael N. Gilano said of Kord: “The whole community is ecstatic that he is coming and that he is going to bring vitality to our orchestra. We think it is a great choice, absolutely great.”

But Spisto cautioned that Kord’s hiring remains under negotiation and that there will be no further public discussion of the matter until after the next board meeting.