Rooting for the Home Team : Pacific Symphony, Like the Dodgers, Deserves Community Support While Shooting for the Top

Now that the World Series is over, maybe the Orange County arts community--and specifically Pacific Symphony supporters--can learn a lesson from the sports world.

As a lifelong Dodger fan, I was disappointed that the boys in blue came up short on the final weekend of the regular season. But I’m still a Dodger fan. And I watched the World Series, and enjoyed it, even if it wasn’t with the same sense of live-or-die enthusiasm I’d have had if those Lovable Lunkheads from Los Angeles had been in the Fall Classic.

So what’s this got to do with orchestras and Beethoven?

Only that everybody loves a winner, whether it’s on the baseball diamond or on the concert stage. But the fact is, we don’t always have a winner to root for, and that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep on rooting anyway.

When it comes to the Pacific Symphony, there’s a lot of excited talk going around about glorious days ahead. Whether a proposed merger with the Orange County Philharmonic Society ever becomes a reality, it’s clear that the orchestra’s backers have given themselves a goal of greatness to shoot for.

One orchestra official recently said the board wants the Pacific Symphony to be standing bow to bow, chin rest to chin rest, with the country’s great orchestras within 20 years. A lofty, and worthy, goal indeed.

In the meantime, does the orchestra deserve the community’s moral and financial support? Absolutely. So what’s the problem? Perhaps it’s a case of some people putting the proverbial cart before the horse, of forgetting that the framework of musical excellence needs to be erected before the shingles of praise can be tacked onto the roof.

It recently was reported that Carl St. Clair, the Pacific’s young and charismatic music director, bristled during a recent rehearsal that the group still is labeled a “regional” orchestra, despite the strides it has made in the last few years.

There are external as well as internal pressures of that sort. “The Performing Arts Center definitely wants to see us, as one of its main tenants, be of outstanding quality,” one orchestra board member said recently.

Board President Randy Johnson points out that with all the leisure-time choices available to diversion-rich Southern Californians--let alone the plethora of cultural arts groups begging for support--competition is stiff for ticket buyers and donors.

“In the final analysis, people do want to support a winner,” Johnson said. “Fans like the (California) Angels if they’re winning. They want to support winners, and to some extent they need to be told if they’ve got a winner.”

What’s called for here is a bit more of the perseverance and win-or-lose loyalty that Chicago Cubs fans are famous for. The Cubs haven’t made it to the World Series since 1945, but the fans don’t care. In fact, the club’s underdog reputation is widely credited with engendering fans’ undying affection.

What the Pacific doesn’t need right now is the sort of “Be great--now!” pressure that has been cropping up more and more. It does need the space--and the support--to grow and flourish at a reasonable pace.

In the musical world, perhaps the best case study comes from Cleveland. Before World War II, the Cleveland Orchestra was a decent but clearly second-tier band from the great Midwest. But a dedicated and determined group of music lovers wanted something better. In 1946, they hired George Szell, an experienced conductor with the capability for greatness, and within the same 20 years the Pacific is giving itself, they watched their orchestra take its place alongside the titans of New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

They accomplished that not by linking their support and commitment to the latest critical review or end-of-the-night take. They got there by persisting toward the long-term goal, regardless of fluctuating short-term rewards. For better for worse, in sickness and in health, as it were.

“The Pacific Symphony is a fine group,” one veteran Orange County classical music lover said recently, “but it’s not in the same league with Cleveland or Philadelphia.”

Is that really such a difficult truth to swallow? The fact is that the orchestra is only 13, and like other adolescents, it will suffer growing pains in the years ahead. There will be nights where ragged ensemble work, interpretational confusion, sectional imbalances and plain old muffed notes are painfully apparent.

Maturity and experience are earned, not proclaimed. If the drive and the talent are in place, perhaps it won’t be so long until there won’t be any need to use the adjective “regional” when evaluating the group’s stature. But it’s not going to happen overnight, just because somebody wants it to.

The danger in the overzealous touting of virtues yet to come is like that facing the talented but inexperienced young pitcher who gets thrown into the World Series too soon and gets shelled in the first inning. Better to let him get the seasoning and confidence he needs by spending some time in the minors first.

And then, even if the home team doesn’t always end the season victorious, no big deal. As any veteran Cubbie or Dodger fan will tell you, there’s always next year.