The Lost Accord

"The kids who’ve come out of Curtis and Juilliard today are all disappointed soloists," says Harry Schmidt, a still-vigorous practicing violinist who was forced to retire four years ago at 65 after 43 years with the orchestra. When he studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory his ambition was to be a second violinist with a string quartet, but he also learned orchestra work.

"It used to be that we had a lot of immigrants who’d spent their youth with local opera and symphony groups. This is what they were used to and they knew what they were doing," Schmidt reflects.

"I hated solo work," he’ll tell you. "But these kids today are trained to be soloists."

This new breed of musician has an acute need to assert his individuality and ambitions by playing with smaller groups and by teaching. The Boston Symphony has encouraged this activity, not only as a source of extra income, but to keep the players happy. The pull away from orchestras is increasing at an alarming rate. Somehow the board of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association hasn’t gotten the urgency of the message.

Balis says, "We’ve taken a big leap forward in the last five years. When they try to go too far too fast, it jams the machinery. Better working conditions are evolutionary."

Now that the painful strike has been settled, the tendency of the board of the Orchestra Association will be to try to forget it all happened, even if the Citizen Sponsors Committee and the Friends of the Philadelphia Orchestra continue in their roles of self-appointed gadflies. But if the Association doesn’t take steps to reach new audiences and hold first-class artists, if it doesn’t try fresh ways of climbing out of the economic doldrums, it might find itself with a very extinct dinosaur on its hands.

To meet the new conditions it will take some bold initiatives, not a stubborn grip on the status quo. A prominent figure in the local music world says, "We have to get a board with brains — never mind whether they have money or not. The present board will have to surrender to people who can recognize talent, promote it and give the public a greater opportunity to listen to it."

Until that happens the forecast is for still more discord.