Search Fever: Looking for a Conductor

one expected, one surprising--of conductors Herbert von Karajan and Andre Previn from their respective orchestras just a few days ago, plus the recent appointments of new music directors to four prominent symphonic posts in California, this has been a month of flux in the world of orchestras.

And the flux goes on.

In San Bernardino, the Inland Empire Symphony announced Friday that its new music director will be Stewart Robertson, the Scottish conductor who now leads the Santa Fe (N.M.) Symphony. He beat out an impressive list of competitors, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s assistant conductor, David Alan Miller.

At the Santa Monica Symphony, which bids goodby to music director Yehuda Gilad on May 14, the search has just begun. According to spokespersons for the orchestra, that search may take up to two years.

And in Orange County, the Pacific Symphony, second-largest symphonic operation in Southern California--and said to be the largest regional orchestra in the nation, with an annual budget of more than $4.7 million and a playing schedule of 52 performances this season--continues its search for a new music director to succeed outgoing orchestra founder Keith Clark.

“It’s a phenomenally exciting time for us,” says Louis J. Spisto, executive director of the 10-year old symphonic body.

So far, four candidates for the post have led the orchestra. Next season, another five will assume the podium. Will the next music director be one of these nine?

“For sure,” replies Spisto, unhesitatingly.

“And now, our audiences have got the fever of the search. Somehow, it happened at the time Vakhtang Jordania appeared with the orchestra (two months ago).

“We got a lot of letters after that, not necessarily for his candidacy, but because the audience suddenly realized this search was going on. A lot of them liked him, of course, but mostly they got involved.”

Something similar happened in Long Beach, where the L.B. Symphony two weeks ago announced the appointment of JoAnn Falletta as music director.

According to Margie Masterson, who headed the search committee, the interest in competition for the post was “amazing. People attended the pre-concert lectures in larger numbers than ever before, they couldn’t stop talking about the candidates, and they never missed a concert.”

Presumably, some of that excitement will die down after Falletta takes the reins, in September, as it will also in San Diego--where Yoav Talmi was named new music director last week, and at the Glendale Symphony, which appointed Lalo Schifrin its leader two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, at the philharmonics of Los Angeles, Berlin and New York City, the searches are just beginning . . . .

MORE FESTIVALS: Music of West Coast composers is the main thrust of the 27th Cabrillo Music Festival, this year holding forth July 20-30 in locations in and around Santa Cruz County. Dennis Russell Davies remains music director; among other conductors at the 1989 festival will be William McGlaughlin, Neil Varon and Henry Brant. Featured composers will be Lou Harrison, Chinary Ung, David Cope, Gordon Mumma, Olly Wilson, Mel Powell, Robert Erickson and John Geist. For a brochure, write Cabrillo Festival, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos, CA 95003. . . . The 17th Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, July 9 to Aug. 21, offers music from Adams fo Zwilich. Among the musicians are pianists Lee Luvisi, Christian Zacharias and Alicia Schachter; violinists Nina Bodnar, Federico Agostini and Christian Altenburger; singers Judith Nelson and Katherine Ciesinski, and cellists Laurence Lesser, Gary Hoffman and Carter Brey. For a brochure, write P.O. Box 853, Santa Fe, N.M. 87501-0853. . . . And, as announced earlier, the Ojai Festival in 1989 takes place June 2-4, and will be led by Pierre Boulez. Among other promised performances are Stravinsky’s “Les Noces,” in which the four pianists will be Ursula Oppens, Alan Feinberg, Leonard Stein and Bryan Pezzone, and a Boulez program expanded now to include “Livre pour Cordes,” “Eclat” and “Improvisations sur Mallarme”. The festival management has announced that composer Gyorgy Ligeti will not be able to attend the festival; he still will be represented by five of his major works, including the West Coast premiere of his orchestral piece, “Apparitions.”

ENDING WITH A SMILE: Announced last week, the demise of the Glendale Chamber Orchestra, after seven years of service to its community, came as a surprise to some. But not to Christopher Fazzi, the conductor and composer who founded the ensemble.

“We ended our latest season by breaking even financially on a budget of over $75,000,” Fazzi told The Times after the announcement. “We were within $100 of that point,” but with no surplus for next season. And small prospects.

“We had applied, as usual, for grants from city, county, state and federal sources,” Fazzi said. “And, this year, they all turned us down.

“So I had the choice of spending all summer long trying to raise about $100,000 for next season, or throwing in the towel.”

With several commissions waiting on his desk, and other ventures pending--Fazzi is a film and television composer as well as a writer in classical forms--the conductor decided to go back to the creative side.

“I’m not bitter,” he said. “We’ve accomplished a lot, and have brought music to a lot of people--including 3,000 students we gave free tickets to in those seven years. What we’ve done has been positive. We just decided it was better to quit now, before we have a deficit.”

ANOTHER INSTITUTE: For the second summer, cellist Lynn Harrell will again serve as artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, one of the more visible educational arms of the orchestra. On the faculty for 1989 will be conductors Yuri Temirkanov, David Zinman, Swiss musician Mario Venzago Neeme Jarvi, Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski (who will conduct a program of his own music at UCLA) and the Emerson Quartet.

Ernest Fleischmann, managing director of the Philharmonic and founder of the institute, told The Times that chamber ensembles made up of institute orchestra players will again give public concerts at a number of venues around the city. And, besides its three scheduled Hollywood Bowl appearances (July 16 and 30, and Aug. 13), the 100-member LAPO Institute Orchestra will perform four concerts in Royce Hall at UCLA.