# Conductors And Politicians



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

It seems to me that condictors and politicians have a lot in common . Especially those who are music directors of top orchestras . 
Of course, conductors are not elected the way politicians are in America ,by democratic ? elections ,
but the concertgoing public tends to react to music directors of orchestras in a similar way that citizens react to politicians . 
Thye same conductor with a particular orchestra will divide concertgoers and listeners in general the same way politicians divide the public . When so and so is chosen to become m.d. of a top orchestra , some music lovers are ecstatic and predict that he or she will do a great job, and others are angry and even horrified because they can't stand his or her ocnducting, and predict the maestro will do a terrible job in that post .
Music critics tend to do this especially . If a critic or fans hate the conducting of the new m.d.and admire the conducting of the previous one, ,they will claim that the playing of the orchestra has declined seriously under the new one and hope or even demand that the new one be fired and replaced .
If they hated the old m.d.'s conducting and admire the new one, they will say that the orchestra's playing has been transformed under the new conductor and improved vastly. 
If you hate a paticular conductor, you will complain about his programming., and complain about neglect of new music even if that conductor has been a staunch champion of contemporary music, and if a conductor you admire takes the orchestra over, you will conveniently ignore the fact that he hasn't done diddly squat fo rnew music .
Critics and fans also speculate endlessly about who might become the next music director of an orchestra the same way citizens and political pundits s[eculate about who might run for President or other political offices .


----------



## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

superhorn said:


> Of course, conductors are not elected the way politicians are in America ,by democratic ? elections ,


Nae always...

There _are_ orchestras that arrange for _votes_ for their would-be Music Director. Sometimes they're advisory, sometimes maybe a little more than that...

When Abbado & Barenboim were vying for the top-post in Chicago, the fact that Barenboim won the orchestra-vote was cited as a factor that worked in Barenboim's favor...


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think the analogy holds. I don't envy a conductor's job. But like politicians or anyone else in a leadership or managerial position it involves working with people at the head of an organisation. So what you do affects many people, not only who work for/under you, but also your clients (in this case, listeners). Or in the case of a politician, your electoral constituency. Or in the case of a company, your shareholders. So basically you have to know your employees, know their strengths and weaknesses, know what potential they have (and build upon it), know how to extend and push them (but not to breaking point). You got to know how to allocate scarce resources, do more with less (esp. these days - everything is audited!). You got to justify your decisions. You got to make hard decisions but in some cases be flexible and maybe take a risk or two. You got to know your context, have leads out to the wider community (not be sealed in a 'ivory tower' type effect). All this and more! 

To the young musicians on this forum, maybe thinking of a conducting career (even remotely), this is what you have got to look forward to! & I haven't said much about music. The egos, the primadonnas, people who are good with people, people who aren't (this is irrespective of whether or not they're good musicians - to work in an orchestra, that's a given, of course), the different styles of conductor (same as in management - you got top down more authoritarian models, but also the more commonly acceptable one nowadays, more team focussed, team building type models).

The other thing is that working in an orchestra can be draining and antisocial. We as listeners see when they shine on stage in the concert for maybe 2 or so hours. But what we don't see is the hours of preparation. On the same day of the concert, they've usually already been there preparing way before the patrons fill the hall, for like 2-3 or more hours. Sometimes 2 rehearsal sessions on the day of the concert. It can be gruelling.

So maybe its easy for us who are just fans to dish out the criticisms. That's easy from our rather detached viewpoint. But to be in the orchestra, part of it, let alone be on management, be a conductor - its extremely difficult.

& to come back to politicians, similar thing. Most of them work very hard. When things go good, they get the glory. When they go bad, there's a stuff up, everyone comes down on them like a tonne of bricks. I don't love pollies by any means, but even I sometimes think some people come down too hard on them. Esp. the media, they often do one sided stories on them. But that's public life I guess. Gotta take it all - the highs and lows of it, the good, the bad and the ugly.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

The musicians certainly have a major say in who becomes their music director, but the final descision is basically that of the management . Sometimes, the management chooses a conductor most of the musicians do not like, and this cna be disastrous . 
When Lorin Maazel was appointed to follow George Szell in Cleveland ,most of the musicians were opposed ,and the marriage was often a rocky one . The overwhelming majority wanted Istvan kertesz, but unfortunately he drowned while swimming on a beach in Israel in 1973 . Kertesz had been a very popular guest conductor in Cleveland .
The Boston symphony management chose Serge Koussevitzky to become music director in the 1920s, and he had never even appeared there as a guest ocnductor . His conducting technique was notorioulsy shaky , and he was very imperious and the musicians did not like him at all at first, but he was a glamorous name conductor . Eventually,they became accustomed to him, and his technique improved somewhat, but the BSO management's decision was a very risky one.
However, the Berlin Philharmonic is a self-governing orchestra, and the musicians appoint their chief conducdtors . They would not only refuse to appont a conductor they disliked , they would not even invite him back to guest conduct !


----------



## IBMchicago (May 16, 2012)

I'm still reeling from 2006 when Barenboim announced his departure from the CSO. Apparently, he had a great political ally in the prior CSO president Henry Fogel, but began butting heads with Deborah Card when she took over and offered up a more fan-friendly approach to increase ticket sales. To her credit, though, average concert-going age has declined slightly.


----------

