The Lost Accord
NEW DAY. There is a revolution going on in the world of the symphony orchestra. There was a time when musicians would sit quietly in their seats and play music without uttering a peep. Those days are gone forever. Musicians today want to call their own tune, and if they can’t get what they want from a symphony orchestra they’ll go where they can. Universities are dangling all kinds of attractive bait to woo the nation’s best talent into their ivy-covered halls: More security, better salaries, tenure, status, sabbatical leaves, and the freedom to play what and how they want to. Time magazine carried a piece this fall about four top Philadelphia Orchestra musicians bolting for the greener pastures of the University of Washington. Former concert master Anshel Brusilow left at the end of last season, too, to conduct the newly formed Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia, and took two orchestra men with him. During the strike unrest, first chair men confided they were applying for university and other positions. As they got hungrier, some of them began to beef up programs for chamber groups that had been more-or-less a hobby before, and promoter Aurelio Fabiani backed a splinter Philadelphia Sinfonietta in spite of protests from some of the men that this would divide them and prompt the unemployed to leave the city for good.
Even though it didn’t look as if the orchestra would hold together, it fortunately did. But if Philadelphia’s already high rate of turnover is accelerated by the troubles that promise to linger on now that the labor dispute is settled, the results will be serious. It’s not just the loss of first desk men that hurts. In this orchestra even the last chair men are usually better than the first section men in other orchestras.
"There’s still a need for symphony orchestras in cities that can support them," says dynamic young conductor Brusilow. "Musicians now expect 52-week contracts, good payment plus shorter hours. It’s terribly difficult to balance the budget. They’re pricing themselves out of the picture."
His 36-man chamber orchestra — with one third the number of players — only needs one third of what a big symphony orchestra has to get for a performance, They can offer the classical symphonic repertoire written for smaller ensembles as well as the contemporary works being increasingly scored for smaller groups. The Chamber Symphony’s 110-concert season also gives it time to rehearse complex modern music. Because the Philadelphia Orchestra can’t take the necessary hours to prepare much new music it has to program heavily with the same old tired war horses. Brusilow also gives his men a chance to take solo parts, a much cheaper arrangement than the costly artists Ormandy imports in increasingly large numbers, and another attractive plus for the new breed of musician who sees himself as a frustrated soloist.
