Daniel Harding, Please Fly Me to Paris.

Daniel Harding

Photo: Polly Brown, Courtesy of Los Angeles Philharmonic

No kidding: my summer vacation starts with an Air France flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Paris (CDG), and Harding is a part-time pilot for Air France.

I expect that Harding, who is also a conductor, will be spending a little more time, okay, a lot more time, in California than he used to, because he's just been named the next music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, effective with the 2027-28 season. He succeeds Gustavo Dudamel, who, after 17 seasons, is on his way to the N.Y. Philharmonic.

The LA Phil, as it styles itself, is about to have an interesting leadership structure, with Harding starting out with 8 weeks, increasing to 12, as the music director;  Esa-Pekka Salonen, who was music director of the LA Phil from 1992 to 2009, as creative director, with approximately 6 weeks a year (he also has a gig at the Orchestre de Paris, and Harding lives in Paris – his four children are there – so perhaps they can have confabs in the City of Lights); and Dudamel with up to 4 weeks, plus there's conductor-in-residence Anna Handler, a position to which she was recently appointed.

Between Harding, Salonen, and Dudamel, they've got up to 22 weeks of the season covered, leaving the rest for guest conductors. I hope the three of them get along well. And I hope Handler gets in some conducting too.

The appointment didn't take me by surprise, because I read Mr. CK Dexter Haven's blog, All is Yar, and he handicapped the conductors he saw as candidates the other week, putting Harding on top. (Note that he also has a believable explanation of why San Francisco, not L.A., signed Elim Chan.) He has good access at the orchestra and has interviewed a number of incoming and outgoing musicians; I have fond memories in particular of a two-part interview with Michele Zukovsky when she retired from the principal clarinet chair after 55 years.

Is anyone taking bets on just how many reviews and articles about Harding will include piloting and flying metaphors?

Coverage elsewhere:

• LA Phil press release
• Adam Nagourney, NY Times (gift link)
• Mark Swed, L.A. Times (paywall)
• Richard S. Ginell, SFCV
• Brian Lauritzen, Classical California
• Laurie Niles, Violinist.com

Los Angeles Philharmonic Die Walküre

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

I don't usually do review round-ups for performances I haven't seen, but in this case, I will. A semi-staged Die Walküre was among Gustavo Dudamel's last performances as music director of the LA Phil. I had thought of going, but I thought I had no hope of getting press tickets; writers in Southern California had the assignments for SFCV and Parterre Box. But Michael Strickland got a press ticket for one act, so maybe I could have as well. (Of course, I would have missed last week's excitement if I'd been away.)

The opera was performed twice, both times one act per night, and yes, if you wanted to see the whole thing you needed three tickets, with prices going up to $350 per. (Ouch.) Jim Farber mentions the enormous overtime that two regular performances would have entailed; for S.F. Opera, my understanding is that performance overtime starts at five hours, which is shorter than Die Walküre typically runs.

Here are the reviews I've seen so far.

• Joshua Barone, N.Y. Times (gift link)
• Mark Swed, L.A. Times
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Richard Ginell, SFCV
• Jim Farber, SFCV
• Harlow Robinson, Classical Voice North America
• Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International
• Matthew Richard Martinez, Bachtrack
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• David Bratman, Kalimac's Corner

Meanwhile....Joshua Kosman is in Berlin, seeing Donald Runnicles conducting Stephen Herheim's Ring at the Deutsch Oper Berlin. I might be just a little envious.

Major Openings

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

I'm months overdue on a big music director update, but last week's bombshell at the Boston Symphony reminded me that four of the big-budget U.S. orchestras now have music director openings:

• Boston Symphony, where there has been drama.
• Cleveland Orchestra, where there has not been drama. The orchestra announced in January, 2024, that Franz Welser-Möst would leave at the end of the 2026-27 season. Three years' notice, similar to MTT's three at SFS.
• SFS, where there has been drama, with Esa-Pekka Salonen deciding to part ways over differences with the board.
• LA Philharmonic, where there has not been drama. Gustavo Dudamel decided to move to the NY Philharmonic in February, 2023, and commences the new position with the 2026-27 season. Well, the return of Esa-Pekka Salonen in a non-music director position could be considered dramatic and could cause some conductors to rule out the appointment, because being music director when one of the best conductors in the world – who is also one of the best composers in the world – is in the office next door could be discouraging.

Making the San Francisco Symphony Look Even Smaller

Photo: Minna Hatinen

Esa-Pekka Salonen writes on his Facebook page:

I am happy to announce that I will begin three new positions in coming seasons: Creative Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Creativity and Innovation Chair of the Philharmonie de Paris, and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris. 

Over the course of my career, I am lucky to have found myself in many situations where the right parts have been in the right place to create genuine magic. More often than not, that place happened to be Los Angeles or Paris. 

We aspire to invent the musical worlds in which we want to live, and the LA Phil and Orchestre de Paris have done just that with Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Philharmonie de Paris. These are top-notch orchestras and the coolest halls, embedded within cities with the most curious and adventurous audiences. Most important, they are institutions who understand that the behind-the-scenes creative work is just as important as waving the stick.

I cannot wait to start creating together.

Chief/principal conductor of the Orchestre de Paris make him the successor to Klaus Mäkelä. Lucky Paris! Lucky L.A.!

• Press release, L.A. Phil
• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle, fulminating
• Michael Zwiebach, SFCV
• Joshua Barone, NY Times (gift link)
• Mark Swed, LA Times
• Aidin Vaziri, SF Chronicle (gift link)

 

Recent SFS Reviews

Davies Symphony Hall

I reviewed two recent San Francisco Symphony concerts.

• Giancarlo Guerrero: Saariaho, Stravinsky, Respighi. Note that Pines of Rome is on the September, 2025 season-opening gala, which will make the third time in three years that the orchestra has played this thing, and can't they find something better?
• Dalia Stasevska: Vaughan Williams, Thorvaldsdottir, Sibelius. The other commissioning orchestras of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's new cello concerto, Before we fall, the Iceland Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Odense Symphony, and BBC Proms. They are getting their money's worth. Other interesting information that had to be omitted: As far as I can tell, this is the composer's first concerto of any kind. And she herself is a cellist. (Watch for a full media roundup later this week.)

Meanwhile, at the LA Phil, Esa-Pekka Salonen led a tribute to Pierre Boulez, and you have to wonder whether SFS's administration nixed a similar program here.

 

Seoul Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

I've got a listing in my inbox for upcoming LA Philharmonic concerts, and it's the kind of thing that makes me weep, because we used to have great festivals at the San Francisco Symphony. They are no more, and now we've got the aimless 2025-26 season coming up and I'm wishing I lived in Los Angeles. (As my friend Mr. CKDH once said to me, "LA is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit." I kinda disagree–I love visiting LA–while also understanding what he means.)

Anyway, the Seoul Festival is finally coming to WDCH. It was originally scheduled for the spring of 2021, and you know what was going on then. I'm sure you can tell that it's a series of concerts and events focussed on (South) Korean composers, performers, and music. It makes so much sense for the LA Phil to do, considering that Los Angeles has the largest population of Koreans outside Korea. 

You can see the full listings on the LA Phil's web site, but let me just say that the festival includes a chamber music concert by the LA Phil New Music Group curated by the great composer Unsuk Chin; works by composers Kay Kyurim Rhie and Texu Kim on an orchestral program curated by Chin and conducted by Hankyeol Yoon; Chin's Clarinet Concerto on another program conducted by Hankyeol Yoon; and a chamber music concert featuring the Novus String Quartet and pianist Do-Hyun Kim.

It promises to be quite a series.

 

Friday Photo

 

Los Angeles City Hall

December, 2024

LA Phil Das Rheingold

 

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has performances of Wagner's Das Rheingold later this month, and gosh, the cast looks great. (Which of these singers will be in the next San Francisco Opera Ring bring-up? Place your bets now.)  There was a point when I would have said "this is in advance of a Paris Opera Ring, but we can't know whether any future Paris Ring productions will be conducted by Dudamel, who is no longer the music director there.)

I can't get there, but presumably others can. Scenic design by Frank Gehry should be interesting!

DUDAMEL LEADS DAS RHEINGOLD Thursday, January 18, at 8:00 PM Saturday, January 20, at 8:00 PM Sunday, January 21, at 2:00 PM Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Alberto Arvelo, director Rodrigo Prieto, lighting designer Ryan Speedo Green, Wotan Barry Banks, Mime Peixin Chen, Fafner Alexandria Shiner,Wellgunde John Matthew Myers,Froh

Frank Gehry, scenic design Cori Ellison, dramaturg Raehann Bryce-Davis,Fricka Jochen Schmeckenbecher,Alberich Jessica Faselt, Freia Taylor Raven, Flosshilde Kyle Albertson, Donner

Cindy Figueroa, costumedesigner Simon O’Neill, Loge Morris Robinson, Fasolt Ann Toomey, Woglinde Tamara Mumford, Erda