Music: Is There a Maestro in the Wings?
Rumors, of course, have crisscrossed the Academy, from the Ballroom social set to the Amphitheater longhair listeners, ever since Ormandy had a major hip operation in the summer of 1971. At that time, most people didn’t speculate about whether or not Ormandy would be replaced, but by whom. The smart money was on four young, brilliant, and relatively available up-and-coming conductors who were then guesting at the major orchestras throughout America and Europe. These, the creme de la creme of the new generation of conductors, were Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Istvan Kertesz, and Loren Mazaal. One Philadelphia Orchestra board member reports that tentative offers were placed before two of these conductors (my guess is Ozawa and Mehta), and both men indicated that they were interested in taking the post if Ormandy should step down.
Contrary to most expectations (and some hopes), Ormandy made a complete recovery and firmly took over the podium once again. Mehta, of course, went on to accept posts at the Israel Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Symphony, while Ozawa now conducts the Boston Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony; both men are locked into long contracts, and even if they were offered Ormandy’s position tomorrow, it would be years before they would be able to come to Philadelphia.
Although Ormandy is still conducting with the same gusto that he used in his prime, he isn’t getting any younger. Nor, in the opinion of some, any better either. So the questions still remain: if, when, and by whom will Ormandy be replaced? But there is another, more basic question that most Philadelphia music lovers have neglected to ask: is there really anybody on the Orchestra board of directors who is trying to find answers?
ALTHOUGH THE ACADEMY of Music was first opened in 1857, the Philadelphia Orchestra wasn’t founded until 1900. The Orchestra’s initial conductor was a respected German named Fritz Scheel, who spoke very little English but helped establish the Orchestra in its first fledgling years. In 1907, Scheel began to go around the bend, and was quickly hustled off to a sanitarium where he died of pneumonia. When Scheel died, the Orchestra’s first flutist, August Rodemann, pinch-hit as conductor (there wasn’t an assistant conductor at the time). Then, the Orchestra board hired an Italian conductor named Leandro Campanari to succeed Scheel. When Campanari showed up to conduct his first concert of the waning 1907 season, Rodemann sabotaged the performance and then gave him such a tongue-lashing that poor Campanari left town and never returned. The Orchestra board next offered the post to another German, Karl Pohlig, who distinguished himself as a lackluster conductor of no particular talent or even affability. No one liked Pohlig, but since no one else seemed to be available, he stayed with the Orchestra until 1912. Then his contract was cancelled and he was paid a full year’s salary just to go away.
