Thursday, February 19, 2015

Eschenbach Leaving NSO

Christoph Eschenbach, the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, will become conductor laureate at the end of the 2016-17 season. A search committee has been formed to determine who his successor will be.

Anne Midgette has a fine article about Eschenbach's tenure that pulls no punches. His salary has been higher than MTT's, but the orchestra hasn't particularly improved under him. And ouch:
While the orchestra is sounding better in some areas, it still has not overcome some of its basic technical problems — such as a difficulty in playing together. 
.... 
It’s not that Eschenbach’s tenure has been an unmitigated failure. And he reportedly has a generally warm relationship with the orchestra’s musicians. When the players learned Tuesday that he was leaving, Shapiro said, “It was very quiet.”

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