lebrecht on kaplan flap

Norman Lebrecht has weighed in with his opinion of the blog post by the New York Philharmonic’s bass second trombonist David Finlayson which expressed in no uncertain terms Finlayson’s low regard for the conducting prowess and musical fitness of amateur conductor Gilbert Kaplan.

Read the Lebrecht posting and digest your initial reaction for a bit – it’s ok, the rest of this post will be here when you return…I don’t want to react directly to Lebrecht’s article, partly because as he’s writing in the defense of a friend I feel that he has a right to his opinion, and I don’t want to impune his motives for doing so.  Lebrecht takes his usual approach to writing on this issue and shows that his knives are sharp and expertly wielded, and he makes some valid points, for what they’re worth.  As usual, he gets some stuff right, and some stuff very wrong.  I’ll leave it for Finlayson to defend himself, or one of his colleagues, since I don’t have any direct experience with Kaplan.

For me the crux issue of Finlayson’s posting is not what he said, but whether those things should have been said in a public forum.

I have to say that when I read Finlayson’s blog post I was a bit amused, and ultimately left with the feeling that at least a musician managed to get a couple good swings in when faced with the daily trials of being a member of an orchestra.

But the question that I keep coming back to is – would I have done what he did?  For me, the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic no.

My reasons for this are both pragmatic and philosophical.

Practically speaking, I’m not in one of the really big orchestras.  I might (though it’s looking increasingly unlikely) want to move up to a bigger gig someday, and it’s not a good idea to rock the boat and get a reputation as a troublemaker, especially with conductors.  [Ask me how I know – I’ve already shot myself in the foot once with this blog, and I won’t make the same mistake again.]  I can speak in generalities about artistic concerns in my orchestra and elsewhere, and to me it serves the same purpose of shedding light on the inner workings of my profession as it would if I named names.

Philosophically speaking, I like to get along with as many people as I can.  I’m not confrontational.  I try very hard to figure out why people decide to do things that I disagree with, and then I attempt (often unsuccessfully) to reconcile my own take on the situation with theirs.

Make no mistake: I love to bitch and moan (the official recreational activity of orchestral musicians) behind closed doors. But I also remember one of my teachers, Roberto Dìaz (who was the principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra and is now the president of the Curtis Institute of Music) telling me that he just didn’t like to talk trash about other musicians, either publicly or privately.  I’ve never heard him say anything bad about anyone, musically or personally, in all the years that I’ve known him. It’s a very high standard, and one that I try to adhere to, but often fail to attain.