Overture Complete, St. Clair Moves Ahead

Carl St. Clair was a dark horse when the Pacific Symphony music director’s job opened up in 1989.

By the time he came west to audition, St.Clair--then an assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony--found more than half a dozen contenders lined up ahead of him. Many observers already had placed their bets.

But with a captivating blend of musical ability and social grace, he turned the tables, impressing the critics and the Pacific’s administrators. When the final note had sounded, St. Clair, at 37, had been handed the baton of Orange County’s oldest and most artistically and financially established professional orchestra. He was charged with leading it up the roster of America’s regional ensembles.

Since then, the youthful native of Texas has been rising steadily in his own right, conducting in Europe and guest-conducting some of this country’s most prominent orchestras: the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Last weekend, he conducted his first Wagnerian opera, the mighty “Tannhauser,” with the Austin (Texas) Lyric Opera and was given warm reviews.

“Wherever he conducts, he carries our name with him,” says Louis G. Spisto, the Pacific’s executive director, who created the vacancy for St. Clair in ’89 by spearheading a move to replace the orchestra’s founding conductor, Keith Clark. “And as recognition of his talent and ability increase, so does that of the Pacific Symphony, because he is [our] chief artistic figure.”

With recognition, Spisto notes, comes increased ticket sales, more successful fund-raising and a more confident orchestra.

“I don’t live my life as if I’m planning a career,” St. Clair said last week from Texas. “My basic philosophy is, wherever I am, I’m giving 100% of my energy at that moment. Hopefully, what I create around me is positive energy that people take notice of.”

Whereupon, he was off to Denver to conduct the Colorado Symphony. Upcoming are dates with the Seattle Symphony, the Vienna Radio Orchestra and the Juilliard Orchestra, among others.

The Chicago Symphony has yet to invite him, but its executive director, Henry Fogel, says, “Carl is highly regarded.” Fogel was on a committee that picked St. Clair in 1990 to share the prestigious Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award.

Fogel remembers that St. Clair “certainly did stand out at that point, I would say, in the first rank. I thought Carl had something to say musically and had both the personality and the technique. I haven’t seen him conduct in California, but Lou Spisto sends me the recordings and I continue to be impressed.”

So are at least some of St. Clair’s musicians in the Pacific, though--concerned that they either would be considered toadies or too critical--they spoke only on the condition that they not be named.

“Carl is 150% prepared coming to rehearsals,” one experienced member said. “He has a very clear idea of what he wants with the music, and he gives everything he has.”

A former member said, “Carl is a very talented conductor,” but added that he “dances on that podium in a way that is so distracting to the musicians, it’s difficult to follow him.” Worse, he “tends to be condescending to the musicians and he doesn’t let an orchestra play naturally.”

“People want a more hands-off style,” agreed another veteran among the orchestra’s 90 core members, many of whom are Hollywood studio musicians looking for a chance to play more serious work. “Carl tends to really dictate everything, and then the creativity gets lost. . . . The group wants to be told what needs to be done, but not really how it’s done. He’s always trying, sometimes trying too hard.”

St. Clair responded: “Some conductors let orchestras play because that’s easier. I have specific ideas, but I hope I am the kind of conductor who encourages musicians to play.

“I also know that orchestras don’t like to be allowed to just play by a person without ideas. When I conducted the New York Philharmonic, some of the principals said they were happy with me because ‘very simply, you knew exactly what you wanted. You were not just taking a ride on the back of the New York Philharmonic.’ ”

He has not been invited back to New York, where he got mixed reviews. But Welz Kauffman, the Philharmonic’s artistic administrator, says that’s because “we don’t have a lot of slots for guests. . . . A lot of conductors who appeared here haven’t been back in a long time. Michael Tilson Thomas and James Levine are good examples.”

Don Gustin, assistant managing director of the Boston Symphony, notes that “orchestras make their plans at least two or three years in advance. The cycle is such that it’s not really desirable or possible to invite someone back for the next season.”

The Boston Symphony itself has not invited St. Clair to conduct, even though he was one of two assistants there for four years. But Gustin says that’s because of “a feeling that there’s a need to put distance between his years as an assistant here and when he comes back to conduct. We’d be happy to have him back. The orchestra respected and liked him. He’s still very liked here.”

Philadelphia, where St. Clair was praised in the Inquirer as “a solid and often imaginative leader,” has “no plans currently to bring him back, but that doesn’t mean we’re not keeping an eye on him,” says Judith Frankfurt, the orchestra’s managing director.

“He is one of the most talented conductors that I have ever met,” says Walter Ducloux, the 83-year-old artistic director of the Austin Lyric Opera, with which St. Clair had conducted three operas before “Tannhauser.”

“I have rarely ever known a young conductor of the quality and the character of Carl St. Clair,” Ducloux says. “Of course, I’m biased: I’ve known him from his childhood on. He was trumpet in my orchestra at the University of Texas. But Carl is special. He has this dedication and this willingness not to let go, coupled with a very solid and perhaps Texan practicality.

“He will definitely be back, but we don’t have a good vehicle for him yet. But we will. He is a born opera conductor.”

Only Ernest Fleischmann, managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, rejected the idea of booking St. Clair again. “We have no intention of asking him back,” he said, noting that when St. Clair was asked in May to fill in for an ailing Valery Gergiev, “it was very much a last-minute thing.” He would not discuss the matter further.

Some say St. Clair might be further along in his career if there weren’t a prejudice of American orchestras against American conductors. Others say there is no such prejudice. But Chicago’s Fogel says there is “this idea that if you’re not a superstar by 35, you never are going to have a career.” St. Clair is 43.

Fogel thinks that notion is “just wrong. Most of the great conductors hit their prime and made their major careers sometime between the ages of 40 and 50. Somehow all that’s been forgotten. There is this expectation [that] you have to do all this in your 30s. I question it.”

The age-35 benchmark is out there in the general consciousness, though, and has been ever since James Levine, Zubin Mehta and Seiji Ozawa became superstars by their 30th birthdays, Fogel acknowledges.

“By virtue of their own extraordinary talent and whatever marketing machinery was around them,” he says, the three “destroyed the traditional expectations we should have of conductors. The careers of those three set up expectations that this was the normal career path. In fact, it’s not. In history, even Leonard Bernstein, the eternally young Lenny, actually kicked around for a long time before he became music director of the New York Philharmonic.”

Asked if she thinks St. Clair is where he should be at this stage of his career, Philadelphia’s Frankfurt said, “It’s an impossible question. It varies per person. There are people at a very early age who show enormous potential and reap enormous rewards, and there are people who bloom late and have long and wonderful careers. There are conductors who are happier with jet-setting lives and with international careers, and others who feel allegiance with and build an orchestra. Both are valid careers. They’re just different.”

St. Clair agrees that “everyone’s career has its own track and development. I think the best thing that can happen is that the next job you get is also the job that you’re ready to handle. I can’t think of a better place to be than Orange County. It’s a great place for me to grow and develop.”

Fogel concurs. “There’s a lot more visibility in the smaller orchestras now in this country than there used to be,” he says. “I think Carl is in a good position.”

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Profile: Carl St. Clair

Position: Pacific Symphony music director

Age: 43

Age he began studying music: 6

Hometown: Hocheim, Texas (about 100 miles east of San Antonio)

City of residence: Irvine

Family: Wife, Susan; married last year

Education: Bachelor’s degree with honors, music education; master’s in opera and orchestral conducting, both from University of Texas

Professional background: Was named Tanglewood Conducting Fellow in 1985; toured with Leonard Bernstein in 1989, conducting in East Berlin, Leningrad, Milan, Paris and Rome, among other cities. Filled in for ailing Bernstein at Tanglewood in the summer of 1990. Assistant conductor, Boston Symphony, 1986-90. Music director of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Symphony, 1985-92. Music director, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Ithaca, N.Y., 1986-91.

First conducted Pacific Symphony: Jan. 31, 1990

Appointed Pacific music director: 1990

Director he succeeded: Keith Clark

Contract: Runs through September 1998

Honors: 1990 co-winner of prestigious Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award

Attitude: “I don’t live my life as if I’m planning a career. My basic philosophy is, wherever I am, I’m giving 100% of my energy at that moment. Hopefully, what I create around me is positive energy that people take notice of.”

Source: from Times reports

Researched by CHRIS PASLES / Los Angeles Times

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They Also Ran

Carl St.Clair was one of nine candidates for the music director position at the Pacific Symphony. What happened to the others:

* Richard Buckley, who was music director of the Oakland Symphony, became principal guest conductor of the Seattle Symphony.

* Stuart Challenger, music director of the Sydney Symphony, died in 1991.

* Sergiu Comissiona, music director of the New York City Opera, became music director of the Vancouver Symphony and the Radio/TV Orquesta Sinfonica of Madrid. He also is principal guest conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony.

* Lawrence Foster, then music advisor to the Jerusalem Symphony, will step down as music director of the Aspen Music School and Festival this summer to become music director of the Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalunya, Spain.

* Vakhtang Jordania, music director of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Symphony and Opera Assn., became chief conductor and artistic director of the Russian Federal Orchestra in Moscow.

* Kazimierz Kord remains music director of the Warsaw Philharmonic.

* Christopher Seaman, who was music director of the BBC Scottish Symphony, became music director of the Naples (Fla.) Philharmonic and conductor-in-residence at the Baltimore Symphony.

* Toshiyuki Shimada remains music director of the Portland (Maine) Symphony.

Researched by CHRIS PASLES / Los Angeles Times