How Occasional Should a Principal Guest Be?

Observers of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its principal guest conductor, Simon Rattle, have raised questions regarding Rattle’s visibility in the post he has held since the 1981-82 Philharmonic season.

Rattle’s time on the podium at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seems to be declining, rather than increasing, as was assumed by some when the British conductor became an official member of the Philharmonic’s musical administration. In 1989, Rattle--who turns 34 Thursday--will not visit Los Angeles at all.

“What’s the fuss?” asked Ernest Fleischmann, executive vice president of the Philharmonic, when asked about Rattle’s infrequent visits.

Noting that between last month, when he conducted the L.A. Music Center Opera/Philharmonic co-production of “Wozzeck,” and January, 1990, when he returns for his next Philharmonic performances, Rattle will be away for only 12 months, not for an entire season. “There is no break in (Rattle’s) appearances,” Fleischmann said.

Fleischmann then cited numbers: “Between 1981 and 1988, Rattle has conducted the L.A. Philharmonic here 83 times, in a total (time period) of 25 weeks.”

The principal guest conductor spent four weeks each in his first four seasons leading the Philharmonic. In 1985-86, Rattle gave himself a sabbatical and devoted himself to study. He returned here for two weeks in April, 1987, then for another two weeks in January, 1988.

This season, Rattle led the Philharmonic in two subscription weeks in November, before ascending the Music Center Opera podium for five performances of “Wozzeck”; at the end of that run, Rattle missed his final scheduled week of Philharmonic concerts due to illness.

“What’s in a title?” Fleischmann asked, rhetorically. Then answered himself: “Simon has indicated that, even if he decided to take off another year from American appearances, he would still come here during that time. Basically, he considers the Philharmonic his American base.”

The post Rattle occupies here is not one that exists in many other places. Among North American orchestras, there is no such position at the Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee or San Antonio symphonies. Nor at the orchestras of Minnesota or Philadelphia. The New York Philharmonic also does not currently use the title.

At the Cleveland Orchestra, where Christoph von Dohnanyi is music director and conducts 13 of the 26 weeks of the season, the principal guest conductor is Vladimir Ashkenazy, who is in residence for four weeks.

At the St. Louis Symphony, music director Leonard Slatkin leads 13 weeks of the 37-week winter season and none in the divided, 10-week summer season. Raymond Leppard is principal guest conductor, leading three weeks in the winter and three weekends of concerts in the summer.

And at Leppard’s main podium, that at the Indianapolis Symphony, where the British conductor spends 14 weeks a year in a total winter-summer season of 45 weeks, no such job exists, though spokeswoman Martha Karatz says the orchestra is seeking an associate or assistant conductor.

NEW OR RECYCLED: Noting the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jean Cocteau, Nevada Dance Theatre next month will present the U.S. premiere of Cocteau’s “Oedipe Roi,” five times, Feb. 9-12. Vasilli Sulich, founder and director of Nevada Dance Theatre, will stage the ballet-drama at Judy Bayley Theatre at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, using music by Philip Glass and a new translation of the play. . . . Jeff von der Schmidt will play the world premiere of “Veils and Variations,” a horn concerto written for him by William Kraft, with the Berkeley Symphony, Kent Nagano conducting, Jan. 27 and 28.

PEOPLE: Patrick J. Smith, currently director of the Opera Musical Theatre Program at the National Endowment for the Arts, has been appointed editor-in-chief of Opera News magazine, effective March 1. . . . Philip Eisenberg, a veteran staff member of San Francisco Opera, was presented the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company’s highest honor, Dec. 8. The medal is given in recognition of Eisenberg’s 30 years of service to the organization. A prompter and assistant conductor, Eisenberg has played rehearsals, coached singers and played piano and harpsichord on and offstage.

Calendar intern Shauna Snow contributed research to this column.