The Los Angeles Philharmonic : What’s Next? : Name the Conductor: Through a Crystal Ball, Cloudily

Do we really have to play Name the Next Conductor? It is such a silly game.

Yes, yes. We know. It is the favorite pastime these days in newspaper offices, concert-hall foyers, board rooms, dressing rooms and upscale parlors throughout the nation, probably throughout the world. Still, it isn’t particularly useful or productive.

The subject is simply too subjective, the outcome too speculative. And anyhow, our crystal ball is both scratchy and cloudy.

OK. OK. Stop twisting our arm. We don’t want to be different. We don’t want to be left out. We don’t want to be a spoilsport. A game’s a game. We’ll play.

We’ll play in the dark. We’ll play in spite of all the variables, all the complications caused by openings elsewhere (anyone for Musical Chairs?).

We’ll make some systematic, uneducated guesses. We’ll put on a serious face and ponder the unanswerable questions.

Unanswerable questions: Who might be available, and when? Who might want a job in deepest, darkest Los Angeles, and, if so, under what conditions? Whom can we afford? Whom do we really want?

Who would bring along the most prestige, the best likelihood of a good recording contract? Who would bring glamour back to the Music Center podium and increase the flow of adrenaline in the Founders Circle?

More practical questions: Whom does Ernest Fleischmann really want? Who can get along with Ernest Fleischmann?

See? This isn’t an easy game. Hardly anyone knows these things, and the few who might know some of these things aren’t talking. Not yet, anyway. But stay tuned.

Guess who won’t come: Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Carlos Kleiber, Klaus Tennstedt, Sergiu Celibidache and Seiji Ozawa.

They are either too old, too tired, too eccentric, too sick, too difficult or too busy furthering their careers in more celebrated, more lucrative, more convenient locales--or all of the above.

Several of these gentlemen (no ladies, alas, have been entered in the sweepstakes) may have their eyes and hearts set on Berlin, where Karajan just left a significant void. One or two may actually be thinking of the New York Philharmonic, where Zubin Mehta recently left an insignificant void. We must adjust our sights accordingly.

Guess who says he won’t come: Zubin Mehta, who knows that one can’t go home again and who probably wants to concentrate on the joys of guest-conducting, not to mention an ongoing if controversial relationship with the Israel Philharmonic.

Kurt Sanderling, the beloved East German maestro who, at 77, doesn’t want to be tied down full time with an American orchestra. (Of course, Carlo Maria Giulini once said that too.)

Pierre Boulez, who had an unhappy tenure in New York prior to Mehta--Fun City found him too serious--and who now wants to play, most of the time, with his newfangled toys in Paris.

Colin Davis, who said no to Boston and goodby to Covent Garden and won’t even come here as a guest conductor.

Guess who might want to come: The list of reasonable major-league possibilities is headed by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Los Angeles loves him. He is young, blond, dynamic, picturesque, versatile, sympathetic to modern impulses yet tradition-oriented, even talented. Vastly talented.

Unfortunately, he may be miffed because he lost a Philharmonic tour when Andre Previn exercised certain contractual prerogatives. As a result, he turned down the principal-guest title here. It is rumored, moreover, that he has become a serious contender for New York. And he is ambitious.

Still . . .

Everybody would be equally happy--perhaps even happier--if the job went to Simon Rattle. Everyone, that is, with the possible exception of Rattle himself.

He can do anything Salonen can do. Since he is a bit older, he even may be able to do it a bit better. He commands flash, sensitivity and brains, in equal parts.

But he has turned down similar offers in the past because he is intrinsically British and reportedly wants to stay that way. He happens to love his unorthodox orchestra in Birmingham. He doesn’t like publicity machines and social whirling.

He has said that he wants to raise his family in an English environment amid English traditions. (His American wife, the soprano Elise Ross, is currently singing the trouser role of Cherubino in Long Beach even though she is 5 months’ pregnant with their second child.) He hasn’t always been happy about the relatively conservative Los Angeles milieu.

Still . . .

Who are all the others? The other reasonable candidates represent longer shots. One cannot overlook Leonard Slatkin, a local boy now very busy in St. Louis. He is solid and reliable, if not a particularly exciting prospect. Michael Tilson Thomas, yet another former Angeleno, might be a more logical choice, but his career seems to be blossoming in other directions. More important, his past relationship with our orchestra and management has been fraught with acrimony.

Charles Dutoit of Montreal inspires confidence and exudes competence but offers limited pizazz. Giuseppe Sinopoli, something of a critical fiasco in London, may be too provocative and too egocentric for local comfort. Lorin Maazel might consider the post, but his cumulative problems in Berlin, Cleveland and Vienna could bode ill. Christof Perick, an excellent kapellmeister from Berlin, won some friends here when he took over a pension-fund benefit this season, but he might be too small a fish for this big pond.

Want to play a really long shot? Who knows, the spirit of perestroika might bring us Yuri Temirkanov or, even better, Gennady Rozhdestvensky? We could do worse.

Even though Paris has arranged for him to have some time on his hands, Daniel Barenboim probably couldn’t combine Los Angeles Philharmonic duties with those of the mighty Chicago Symphony. Thank goodness. However, another great pianist turned dubious conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy, might want better U.S. exposure than what he gets as principal guest in Cleveland.

Bernard Haitink is happy, we hear, at Covent Garden. We also hear that there is more to music than opera. And, speaking of the most irrational of arts, we know that Wolfgang Sawallisch is having some extra-musical trouble at the Munich Opera. Could Bavaria’s loss be our win? It is doubtful, yet stranger things have happened.

Would Christoph von Dohnanyi want to swap Cleveland for Los Angeles? Only if we could make him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. Unlikely.

Andrew Davis? Kurt Masur? Gerd Albrecht? Gustav Kuhn? Well....

Who might take the job? Distant possibilities include Marek Janowski or Bruno Weill. Both are reliable Germanic pros. Both, not incidentally, have already been engaged to temporarily replace Previn next season. But neither is a known commodity here, and, according to some spies, Janowski is standing in the Met wings in case Levine takes off for Berlin.

There seems to be some lobbying hereabouts for Neeme Jarvi, who replaced Previn at short notice at the end of this season. He certainly is good, but we still know relatively little about him. There is a dangerous difference between an enjoyable date and a long-term marriage.

How about Edo de Waart (San Francisco’s beleaguered gift to Minneapolis) and James Conlon (big these days in German operatic circles)? Modest maybes.

Gunther Herbig, Lawrence Foster, Eduardo Mata, Claus Peter Flor, Horst Stein, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Andrew Litton, Semyon Bychkov, Bruce Ferden, Hugh Wolff, Lukas Foss, Dennis Russell Davies?

Some of them actually might be eager. Some are too inexperienced. Some are overrated. Some might actually be qualified. But, in each case, we can do better.

Will we do better? Think positive. Think about Salonen. Hope for Rattle. Dream of the best.

And expect the worst. That always eases disappointments.

Now, who has the dice?

THE EXECUTIVE SEARCH COMMITTEE

BOARD MEMBERS selected by the Philharmonic board of directors:

STANLEY BEYER, 57, chairman of the board at PennCorp Financial in Santa Monica and vice president of the Philharmonic’s board of directors. He has served on various boards, including the Young Musicians Foundation, County Museum of Art, and Cedars-Sinai.

MICHAEL J. CONNELL, 50, a partner in the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker and president of the Philharmonic board of directors. Has undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. A member of the Philharmonic Board since 1983, his father was also board president.

ROCCO C. SICILIANO, 67, chairman of the executive committee of TICOR, and vice chairman of the Philharmonic board of directors, which he joined in 1973. Served as vice president (1975-77) and (1977-81) and was elected chairman in 1981. A graduate of Georgetown University Law School.

ORCHESTRA MEMBERS nominated and voted in by the orchestra:

ROLAND MORITZ, flute, joined the orchestra in 1954. A Los Angeles native, he has degrees from UCLA (1947) and the Eastman School of Music (1952), and is active in chamber music, studio work, and as a private flute teacher.

JEFFREY REYNOLDS, bass trombonist, joined the orchestra in 1969. A graduate of Cal State Long Beach, he is director of the Downey Moravian Trombone Choir and a former faculty member at Cal State Fullerton and CSLB, and UCSB. He performs regularly with studio orchestras and has produced and performed on numerous recordings.

ERNEST FLEISCHMANN, 64, executive vice president and managing director of the Philharmonic. Previously an executive with Columbia Records and general manager of the London Symphony, he came to the Philharmonic in 1969.

THE KEY VACANCIES

Outgoing Year of Music Director Vacancy Salary L.A. Philharmonic Andre Previn 1989 **$501,000 N.Y. Philharmonic Zubin Mehta 1991 *$638,000 Bastille Opera, Paris Daniel Barenboim 1989 $1,100,000 Berlin Philharmonic Herbert von Karajan 1989 Unavailable

Contracted Weeks L.A. Philharmonic 14 N.Y. Philharmonic 14 Bastille Opera, Paris 16 Berlin Philharmonic --

Note: Myung-Whun Chung is expected to be named music director at Bastille Opera.

Source: Published articles * 1986 figure ** 198 7 figure