Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Music Director Sweepstakes, San Francisco Symphony Edition

With all the recent changes in music director at various U.S. orchestras, it was inevitable that somebody would speculate about San Francisco. And that somebody just happens to be me - and SFCV stalwart Janos Gereben. You can read the results here.

No, we know nothing; not a hint that he's planning to leave. Just a certain sense that things aren't what they were a decade ago, and knowing it's best if the MTT/SFS doesn't get stale. The 100th anniversary season is coming up and I hope it's a humdinger, in fact, revitalizing the symphony and its music director.

4 comments:

Henry Holland said...

I really hope the SFS doesn't take the easy way out and hire some dinosaur like de Waart or Ashkenazy. I think it's better to take a chance on a young conductor who has the chance to grow in to the job. I've really liked the concerts I've heard Lionel Bringuier conduct, including when he conducted the second orchestra in the War Requiem and made Lorin Maazel sound old and tired.

Damn, Hamburg's new hall looks incredible, from the outside at least.

Lisa Hirsch said...

There is no chance in the world that Edo de Waart will be RE-HIRED by SFS. He was Herbert Blomstedt's immediate predecessor.

The Hamburg hall is incredible and has its own web site. You can watch it coming out of the ground! Er, river. Go here, click Building, select Flash or HTML, and have fun.

Daniel Wolf said...

Jonathan Nott would be a superb solution for San Francisco.

Lisa Hirsch said...

I've never heard him, though I know the name. (True of so many conductors!)