The Book Report on L.A. Philharmonic

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recently published brochure announcing its coming concert season goes by the book.

The book, in this case, is the dictionary.

On the new 20-page brochure’s cover, the word landmark is shown as a dictionary entry, along with its pronunciation and definition, and the lexical motif continues throughout the pamphlet. The brochure trumpets the orchestra’s “1989/90 Landmark Season” and features members of the orchestra alongside a dozen or so Southland landmarks.

Because the brochure is being released later in the year than usual, the orchestra is making a special effort to reach as many potential subscribers as possible. According to David Brown, the orchestra’s marketing director, 950,000 copies were printed, and all but 50,000 are being mailed. Brown declined to state the cost of producing and distributing the publication, but Deborah Rutter, executive director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, remarked, “Obviously it is an incredibly expensive piece.”

George Sebastian, marketing director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, said, “The quality of the printing is unsurpassed” and estimated the printing cost at $250,000 to $500,000. The mailing costs, using the non-profit bulk rate, would be $75,000, and free-lance photographer Evan Wilcox’s fee was $6,106.

The brochure, actually a booklet with a postage-paid return envelope stapled in the middle, is printed on slick stock paper and has full color on every page. Photographs show orchestra members in relaxed, often playful poses. Wilcox, who took the pictures over a three-day period, says the assignment was “really fun to do.” Instead of having them pose a particular way, he “let them be themselves--a lot of character and personality showed up in the pictures.”

Indeed, it isn’t hard to find personality--and humor--in a set of photographs shot at Dodger Stadium in which several orchestra members (mostly brass players, of course) can be seen clowning around. Wilcox remembers that the musicians were especially eager to participate in that session and that before the shooting, “they were out there in their tuxedos hitting balls around.”

A few music lovers, while praising the booklet, pointed out its similarity to the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s more modest 16-page mailer, in which one finds photographs of orchestra members scattered throughout. “My first reaction,” said Rutter, “is to say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

Philharmonic personnel, however, said that their booklet simply attempted to focus on the musicians this time. Partly because it is an institution without a music director--Esa-Pekka Salonen’s tenure doesn’t begin for three years--the Philharmonic “decided to emphasize the orchestra within the community,” according to Brown.

While the pictures seem to have made a positive impact, several readers found the dictionary leitmotiv especially amusing and were baffled by the use of the word landmark . Brown explained that, like the places that served as backdrops for the portraits (including the Queen Mary, the Getty Museum and the Santa Monica Pier), the Philharmonic is “a landmark institution within the community--an institution that has been here for 71 years now.”

Gretchen Citrin, the orchestra’s art director, is credited with conceiving the design of the booklet, but many staff members, she says, worked on the project.

Whether the brochure’s cost will be justified by greater ticket sales remains to be seen. It is clear, however, that the orchestra is serious about attracting new subscribers. “We’re in competition,” notes Brown, “with the other arts organizations (in the area). We have to be as sophisticated as they are.”

FESTIVAL FORSYTHE: The 1989 Reggio Emilia Festival of Dance in Italy will be a nine-day tribute to a living dance maker--the 40-year-old American, William Forsythe. Six of the 35 ballets Forsythe has created in the past 15 years will be danced by his own company, the Frankfurt Ballet, in Reggio Emilia between Sept. 23 and Oct. 1.

A European resident for the last 16 years, and, for the last five, artistic director of the Frankfurt troupe, Forsythe has been called “The Balanchine of the ‘80s,” as well as a neo-Expressionist and one who mixes “the cerebral with the theatrical.”

Five different programs, four of them performed by the West German company, make up this festival, along with interconnecting events. Halfway through the programs, the Italian company, Aterballetto, will present a triptych of Forsythe works: “Step-Text” (to music of Bach); a Pas de Deux from Monteverdi’s “Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda”; and “Love Songs” (to music of Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin).

The festival-opening program offers “Impressing the Czar,” to music of Forsythe’s frequent musical partner, Tom Willems. Sept. 26 and 27, the featured work is “The Loss of Small Detail,” also to a Willems score. On Sept. 29, the ballet is “Artifact,” to music of Bach, and improvisations by pianist Eva Crossman-Hecht. The closing program, to be danced Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, comprises “Die Befragung des Robert Scott” (Willems), “The Vile Parody of Address” (Crossman-Hecht) and “Enemy in the Figure” (Willems), Forsythe’s most recent work.

The three principal theaters of Reggio Emilia--the Opera House, the Ariosto and the Cavallerizza--will be used during this tribute to the artist the festival management calls “Billy.” Among auxiliary festival events are: an open-air exhibition of sets by Michael Simon, a longtime Forsythe collaborator; a panel discussion, in conjunction with the University of Bologna, on dance theorist Rudolf von Laban; and a “concert/debate” between the choreographer and his favored composer, Willems.