ArtsWatch

If there is anything people can agree upon, it is Christian Eschenbach's five year tenure at Philadelphia Orchestra makes its quaility much worse than ever.

I beg to differ. Even if there has been some inconsistancy on both sides of the podium, the overall result seems positive to me. There have been some monumentally successful collaborative programs over the years - most recently the Mahler 8th. And Christoph Eschenbach's re-seeding of the orchestra with exceptional 1st chair appointments that are the envy of other ensembles will guarantee the quality of the Philadelphia Sound for years to come. All seems positive for the future and the eventual winner of the music director chair will have a world class ensemble at his downbeat.

I now regularly drive from Baltimore to see the orchestra -- my first concert was the Mahler 6th in November, 2005 -- and I must confess that the presence of Eschenbach was clearly a draw for me (as Sawallisch would have been, had I been paying attention to such things at the time).

I certainly _cannot_ agree with the comment that he made the orchestra's "quaility much worse than ever." I see _all_ of the regional orchestras on a regular basis, including Cleveland and Cincinnati, and Philadelphia is _still_ the cream of the lot, IMHumO. Jennifer Montone is a _brilliant_ horn player, and we _clearly_ have Maestro Eschenbach to thank for her hiring. The other principals play fantastically, no matter _who_ leads them -- e.g., David Kim is one of the best concertmasters on the planet, and Jeffrey Khaner is an amazing flautist. Neither has suffered a smidge under Eschenbach's directorship.

We can always quibble over interpretive choices (the same applies to _every_ conductor), and we can _certainly_ argue vehemently about work ethics (if you want a job done right...), but I most definitely think that the tenure of Maestro Eschenbach has greatly benefitted the orchestra.

I have seen him lead them in Mahler, Bruckner, Mozart, and Brahms, all to my great personal satisfaction. I will be sad to see him go.

Cleveland a regional orchestra? It is routinely considered to be one of the best orchestras in the world. Don't get me wrong, I have my reservations over Franz Welser Most as a conductor, but he has generally been a very good music director (obtaining regular residencies for the Cleveland in Vienna, Lucerne and now Salzburg). Cleveland and Chicago and the top orchestras in the U.S., have been for years and will remain so for years. Whether Eschenbach has been good or bad for Philadelphia remains to be seen. With such a short tenure and how the audition process works for new musicians, I suspect that ultimately there will be little impact. The Philadelphia is still a great orchestra, but it is not one that looks to the future (the programming can be relatively redundant compared to other major orchestras). It is hard to build on the Ormandy lush sound and bring something new to it. That was perhaps Muti's biggest problem in Philadelphia; patrons did not want any change or perhaps the change he wanted was not ultimately convincing at that point in his career. In contrast, in Cleveland the post-Szell music directors have each added something.

For those Philadelphia Orchestra fans in upstate New York, we deeply regret that the Saratoga Performing Arts Center brings the ensemble up every summer simply for bragging rights and name recognition.

This performance of the Mahler 8 is not being repeated up here, just as the Mahler 6 was not repeated here last season. Just as many other distinguished events and artists are not brought up here each summer -- just the Orchestra named Philadelphia.

What a shame that such a unique outdoor amphitheater as SPAC will not see a performance of the Symphony of a Thousand, for which it is so uniquely suited.