In Thursday’s (3/31) Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed writes, “Cities do not put up monuments for arts administrators, Los Angeles Philharmonic President Deborah Borda noted Tuesday afternoon in her remarks before the unveiling of a monument to an arts administrator. … Musical luminaries from around the world—Pierre Boulez (in very cool mirrored aviator sunglasses), Esa-Pekka Salonen, James Conlon, John Williams, John Mauceri, many others—sat on folding chairs in front of Walt Disney Concert Hall for the ceremony naming the corner of 1st Street and Grand Avenue Ernest Fleischmann Square. … Fleischmann, who was managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1969 to 1998, died in June at 85. He gave us Disney Hall. He gave us generations of great conductors whom he mentored and monitored. … Tuesday’s Green Umbrella Concert, with free tickets for those lucky enough to jump the day they became available, featured three generations of conductors close to Fleischmann. Boulez conducted his 1998 masterpiece ‘Sur Incises’ four days after his 86th birthday. Salonen, whom Fleischmann hired as the L.A. Philharmonic music director in 1992, chose Stravinsky’s ‘Renard.’ Lionel Bringuier, the orchestra’s associate conductor whom Fleischmann discovered, selected Franco Donatoni’s ‘Arpège.’ The Los Angeles Children’s Choir gave the U.S. premiere of Salonen’s ‘Dona Nobis Pacem.’ ”
Posted March 31, 2011
