[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Roger Hecht]

At 05:49 PM 5/24/2007, james meador wrote:

>For me, this search is borderline ludicrous.  First, I've heard 
>Steve Witser play, and he is more than capable of handling that job, 
>and very well.  He's been playing there since 1989, so he is not 
>fresh meat, so it seems he is not the best option for a 'new' 
>conductor trying to make a splash in the American scene.  For that 
>matter, Rick Stout is a worthy candidate.  For that matter, most of 
>the people who have sat down to play in that orchestra would be 
>excellent choices.  No one will argue the abilities of Doug Wright, 
>yet he was not offered tenure either.  Other fantastic trombone 
>players simply turned down the opportunity to audition with the 
>orchestra due to his history with rewarding tenure.
>
>This is not the first time this has happened in Cleveland with Franz 
>Welser-Most.  In fact, no one has earned tenure from him since he 
>arrived 5 years ago.  He put the crunch on several people who gave 
>up jobs to go there after winning their respective auditions but 
>then did not earn tenure from him.  At least two of them were past 
>their leave dates, so they did not have jobs to go back to.

I heard somewhere that Jim de Sano, former assistant principal, had 
to sweat a bit before being offered principal. That was by von 
Dohnanyi. This does not sound (in terms of reports) like a happy 
orchestra. Hey, Szell made some strange decisions there, too. 
Banishing Mark Lifshchee (sp) oboe. Putting Robert Body on principal 
trombone seemed odd, too.


>Welser-Most is just trying to stir up trouble in the orchestra scene.
>Rumors have it that he wants someone with a 'European' sound.  Well, 
>if that's what he wants he should go back to Europe.  He has put a 
>muzzle on Cleveland Orchestra.  They never sounded as good as when 
>guest conductors came in (the notables were Pierre Boulez, Michael 
>Stern, Neeme and Paavo Yarvi).  When Welser-Most conducts, they 
>usually sound lifeless and small, contained if you will.  When the 
>guests come through and they are actually allowed to express 
>themselves, they sound as good as any orchestra I've ever heard.
>
>There is a reason his nickname in Europe is Franz Worst-than-Most.

I believe he earned that name while alienating the London 
Philharmonic. As I recall, Cleveland knew there were a number of 
conductor openings coming up in other orchestras, Welser-Most was 
loose, so they grabbed him.




Roger Hecht