“One hundred twenty-three musicians in the Berlin Philharmonic met for 11 hours on Monday to try to elect a new chief conductor and artistic director, but failed to agree on a candidate to succeed Simon Rattle when he leaves the post in 2018,” write Michael Cooper and Katarina Johannsen in Monday’s (5/11) New York Times. “The Berlin Philharmonic is unusual in the orchestra world because it is self-governing, and its musicians have the power to choose their chief conductor—an illustrious post that has been held in the past by titans.… But winning the position requires getting the votes of a ‘clear majority’ of the orchestra’s musicians, which proved elusive after an all-day voting session on Monday. ‘There were positive and lively discussions and several rounds of voting, but unfortunately we were unable to agree on a conductor,’ Peter Riegelbauer, a member of the orchestra’s board, said in a statement, adding that the decision could take up to another year…. While there were no clear front-runners, speculation had centered on about a half-dozen conductors, including Andris Nelsons, the 36-year-old music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Christian Thielemann, 56, the principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden.”
Posted May 12, 2015
