That's been the backstage rumor lately at the Philadelphia Orchestra - that the Washington, D.C. ensemble is set to name Eschenbach its next music director. It certainly added credibility to the rumor that Nigel Boon, the National's artistic chief, recently stopped by the Kimmel Center to hear several Eschenbach concerts. Now, lots can happen between courting time and sign-on-the-dotted-line time. But Eschenbach will conduct the National in February in a special benefit concert; that might be a good time to expect an announcement.
The NSO recently named Ivan Fischer to a two-year interim position starting in 2008-09 while its search to replace Leonard Slatkin continued, as explained in an article in the Washington Post.
Eschenbach is in the last few months of his contract as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His deal officially ends August 21.
Addendum: Eschenbach didn't take up the Inquirer on a offer to talk about the NSO rumor. But the Philadelphia Orchestra's spokeswoman says: "I’ve spoken with Christoph and with his management about the rumor/blog posting and have been asked to convey back to you that the rumor is untrue and Christoph doesn’t wish to comment on it."
« About Face for City's Office of Arts and Culture | Main | The True Artist Helps the World »
Christoph Eschenbach to the National Symphony Orchestra?
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blogs.phillynews.com/inquirer/mt-tb-trythis.cgi/4801.
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Christoph Eschenbach to the National Symphony Orchestra?:
» eschenbach to national symphony? from daily observations
Apparently the rumor mill at the Philadelphia Orchestra is buzzing with news that Christoph Eschenbach is due to be named music director of the National Symphony - Peter Dobrin of ArtsWatch reports:
That’s been the backstage rumor lately at the... [Read More]
The Author
Peter Dobrin has been writing about classical music and the arts for The Inquirer since 1989. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
He’s grateful for news tips, willing to engage in a certain amount of back and forth with readers, but is unfortunately unable to remove old LPs from your basement or post photographs of your cat.
Search
About
This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on January 17, 2008 8:31 AM.
The previous post in this blog was About Face for City's Office of Arts and Culture.
The next post in this blog is The True Artist Helps the World.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
Movable Type 3.35
Comments (1)
Either as a visitor or conductor of its orchestra,it is difficult to imagine Christoph Eschenbach in Washington, DC. There the great art resides mainly in museums and the people who pay to experience it are mostly tourists. The NSO is a competent ensemble,but its performances have no history of greatness and national recognition comes only once a year when Eric Kunzel conducts it during the Capital's Fourth of July excretion. It fulfills instead a political role of appearance rather than substance. The job of leading this orchestra has proven to be a Loreley for conductors who, lured perhaps by the glitz and glamor of political power, have found themselves forgotten by the world's music community. Unless they get out of town in time to resuscitate their careers-Slatkin-or are known primarily as performers-Rostropovich-they will be relegated to a career of artistic ambivalence. That's not Eschenbach.
Posted by robin engelman | January 19, 2008 12:43 PM
Posted on January 19, 2008 12:43