Five for the Future

By Michael Walsh

American maestros preside over a vibrant orchestral scene

When the Cleveland Orchestra recently chose a new music director, it reached across the Atlantic to select Christoph von Dohnanyi, a German of Hungarian descent who is head of the Hamburg State Opera. It is a familiar story. Once again a major U.S. conducting post has gone to a foreign-born musician. Where are all the Americans?

Ever since 1943, when Leonard Bernstein, then 25, became famous by stepping in for Bruno Walter with the New York Philharmonic, the musical world has been waiting--impatiently--for the arrival of the next comparably compelling American conductor. Bernstein is now 63, and the wait goes on. Lorin Maazel? Indisputably talented, though sometimes willful in his interpretations, Maazel, 52, was born in France to American parents and, apart from his stint as conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra (1972-82), has made his reputation in Europe. This fall he takes over as director of the Vienna State Opera, the most prestigious operatic post in the world.

Andre Previn? The Berlin-born music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Previn, 53, came to the U.S. in 1939, when his parents fled Hitler. First active as a jazz pianist and arranger--winning four Academy Awards for his film scores--he got his start conducting in a post in Houston but attracted wide notice only after he was appointed to lead the London Symphony. Even in Pittsburgh, he is still strongly identified with English music. Another prominent member of this generation, Thomas Schippers, died at 47 in 1977. The music director of the Cincinnati Symphony was an opera conductor with a solid international reputation.

To find the up-and-coming young American conductors today, one has to look beyond the ranks of the "Big Five" orchestras--New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia--to the smaller but highly accomplished ensembles that have nourished around the country away from metropolitan spotlights. It is from their ranks that the next important American music director may emerge. Five top candidates:

David Zinman, 45, of the Rochester Philharmonic. In eight years, Zinman has taken a demoralized, undermanned ensemble and turned it into an orchestra that plays better today than it did in its glory days under Erich Leinsdorf in the '50s. Zinman's strengths are a buoyant sense of rhythm and a flair for orchestral color, which make his Mahler performances hard-driving and vivid. Zinman is the oldest of the group, and his increasing musical maturity makes him a front runner for a top post. But, in the recesses of upstate New York, he may be marooned in what Leinsdorf once called a "completely unmarked dead end."

John Nelson, 40, of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Formerly a choral conductor, Nelson has an easy, fluent way with some of the grandest pieces in the repertory, like the Berlioz Requiem. He first came to attention when he organized an uncut performance of Berlioz's sprawling opera Les Troyens at Carnegie Hall in 1972 and then conducted the work the following year at the Met. An imaginative programmer, he has championed offbeat works like Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15, the composer's enigmatic symphonic valedictory.

Leonard Slatkin. 37, of the St. Louis Symphony. The leader of this first-class orchestra comes by his music loving naturally. Growing up in Los Angeles, Slatkin heard his violinist father and cellist mother play chamber music regularly as half of the Hollywood String Quartet. Slatkin on the podium maintains tight control over his orchestra; his performances are marked by precision and a command of musical architecture that permits him to bring off unwieldly pieces like Rachmaninoffs uncut Second Symphony.

Christopher Keene, 35, of the Syracuse Symphony and Long Island Philharmonic. The most flamboyant of the five, Keene has already held a variety of music directorships, including those of the Spoleto Festival and of Art park, a state park for the arts in Lewiston, N.Y.; he frequently conducts at the New York City Opera. Keene is a master of the grand gesture and can make the sparks fly even in a piece as reflective as Britten's War Requiem. An exponent of new music, he led the U.S. premiere in 1981 of Philip Glass's visionary opera, Satyagraha.

Calvin Simmons, 31, of the Oakland Symphony. When Oakland selected Simmons as its music director in 1979, it found a conductor of enormous potential, whose life has been in music ever since he was a boy chorister singing in San Francisco Opera productions. Simmons is constantly exploring the reaches of the orchestral repertory, programming unusual works such as Hoist's Hymn of Jesus and Bruchner's Mass No. 3. A dynamic opera conductor, he will lead Mozart's Cost Fan Tutte in June with the Opera Theater of St. Louis.

Each of these men has the talent to direct a Big Five orchestra. But there is more to being a music director than being a top conductor. Says Thomas Morris, general manager of the Boston Symphony: "An orchestra looks for someone who will devote his attention to the job's administrative aspects, who is willing to lead the institution, who will be a member of the local community, who can deal with personnel and who will be a creative programmer." Further, says Morris, a conductor who already has a recording contract with a major label--a kind of dowry--is an even more attractive candidate, for recordings today play a vital role in a major orchestra's financial health.

Even if an American has all the qualifications, does he have a chance at a top post? "If you have two people at the same point in their careers, then there probably is an advantage to being European," says Gideon Toeplitz, executive director of the Houston Symphony. "In America, there's a mystery behind being Indian or Japanese or European that contributes greatly from a marketing point of view." Adds another major orchestra manager: "Orchestras are always looking for that extra presence that leaps across the footlights, charisma. The foreign element may add to that."

The five Americans understand how the system works--and that it is not likely to change soon. "I never in my wildest dreams thought an American would go to Cleveland," says Zinman. Observes Keene: "If you want to find the American conductors, you have to go beyond the ten largest orchestras. At the secondary level, Americans seem to have plenty of appointments." Slatkin--the only native-born American leading an orchestra whose annual budget ( lion) is among the dozen highest--thinks the grass-is-greener philosophy extends to other countries: "Look at England. None of the big London orchestras has an English conductor."

Still, the American conductor faces special problems. In Europe, an extensive network of regional opera companies in cities such as Aachen and Graz has traditionally provided training for young conductors. Many of the greatest Europeans--Herbert von Karajan and the late Karl Boehm--learned their art this way. To be sure, the U.S. has its regional and community orchestras, but historically they have not led to posts with major organizations. Further, European record companies--like Philips of Holland--are willing to give young countrymen a push. Edo de Waart, 40, now music director of the San Francisco Symphony, first gained recognition in America as the director of The Netherlands Wind Ensemble through some records issued by Philips.

With limited opportunities at home, some promising Americans have packed their scores and set off for Europe. Dennis Russell Davies, 38, won praise as the leader of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra but left in 1980 to direct the Stuttgart Opera in Germany. James Conlon, 32, recently was named music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic--succeeding Zinman, who spent much of his early career in The Netherlands. Michael Tilson Thomas, 37, after an eight-year stint as the Buffalo Philharmonic's music director, now spends his time guest conducting both here and abroad. Perhaps the most successful of all the young Americans is James Levine, 38, who holds the powerful job of music director at the Metropolitan Opera. In demand throughout the classical spectrum, Levine has emphasized his career in opera. He makes his Bayreuth debut this summer in Wagner's Parsifal and will conduct operas in Salzburg and Vienna as well.

The consensus among the five conductors who have stayed home, though, is that American orchestras are technically superior to European orchestras. Says Keene: "The truth is there are three or four European orchestras at the top that play very well. But there are 20 or 30 American orchestras that play better than European ensembles at the next level. Yet people automatically discount those orchestras. We assume European is better."

While any one of the five would no doubt accept an offer from Philadelphia or Boston, each professes to be happy with his current situation. Slatkin cites the example of Cleveland, where George Szell turned a regional ensemble into a crack musical regiment: "If it can be done in that city, it can be done in St. Louis." Adds Simmons: "I'm not even thinking about leaving Oakland. Here, I am able to build something that is basically my own instrument. Why go somewhere else and start over again?"

For each conductor, success has resulted from a combination of talent, work and luck, all supported by a large ego that allows its owner to stand in front of a group of musicians, wielding his baton and his will. "When aspiring conductors ask me for advice," says Slatkin, "I tell them what [conductor] Walter Susskind told me: Learn everything, and be ready to conduct everything. Everyone gets breaks along the way. You just have to make the best of them." All five are ready. Who will get the major break? No one wants or expects any chauvinistic favors. As Nelson puts it, "If and when an American gets one of those jobs, he'd better be damn good."

--By Michael Walsh

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