{"id":1563,"date":"2008-12-18T08:27:18","date_gmt":"2008-12-18T16:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:10:17","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:10:17","slug":"kaplan-strikes-100-nerves-in-ny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/18\/kaplan-strikes-100-nerves-in-ny\/","title":{"rendered":"kaplan strikes 100 nerves in NY"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Sam Bergman weighs in with his take on the situation<\/a>, along with some helpful facts to clear up some misconceptions about the hiring of conductors.\u00c2\u00a0 He also notes that the NY Phil did not attempt (it seems) to muzzle one of its musicians breaking silence on his blog – which, for me as a musician in an orchestra who blogs, is gratifying to see.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was only a matter of time – the backlash against Gilbert Kaplan, the rich amateur conductor who only conducts one work: Mahler’s 2nd Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 The irony is that this critique didn’t come from the esteemed pen of a New York Times<\/em> critic, but from the keyboard of one pissed-off New York Philharmonic trombonist.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t think that I’d have the cahones to write something like this out in the open, but it has clearly brought the discussion out in to the open.\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s a snippet of the complete post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Having not previously heard either of Mr. Kaplan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two recordings of the symphony, nor having seen him conduct, I came to our rehearsals with an open mind. My initial impression was that Mr. Kaplan displays an arrogance and self-delusion that is off-putting. As a conductor, he can best be described as a very poor beater of time who far too often is unable to keep the ensemble together and allows most tempo transitions to fall where they may. His direction lacks few indications of dynamic control or balance and there is absolutely no attempt to give phrases any requisite shape. In rehearsal, he admitted to our orchestra that he is not capable of keeping a steady tempo and that he would have to depend on us for any stability in that department. Considering his Everest-sized ego, this admission must have caused him great consternation upon reflection.\u00c2\u00a0Mahler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wonderful use of the off stage brass in the fifth movement gave Kaplan much tribulation. One would think that after more than fifty performances of the work, even the most plebeian of conductors would have some understanding of how to bring together musicians that are separated by great distance. In the performance, these haunting moments of the symphony slipped away like some wayward musical slinky.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ouch!<\/p>\n

Today the New York Times<\/em> (as seems to be the case with a lot of print journals these days) took a look at the blog entry above and decided that there might be something to it<\/a> (as well as word of an angry hour-long meeting between the musicians and NYP management regarding Kaplan’s engagement with the orchestra).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Sam Bergman weighs in with his take on the situation, along with some helpful facts to clear up some misconceptions about the hiring of conductors.\u00c2\u00a0 He also notes that the NY Phil did not attempt (it seems) to muzzle one of its musicians breaking silence on his blog – which, for me as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[225,299,183,115,135,2],"tags":[1192,91],"class_list":["post-1563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloggers","category-conducting","category-contemporary","category-music","category-soloists-recitals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-gilbert-kaplan","tag-new-york-philharmonic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-pd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1606,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/19\/more-kaplan-responses\/","url_meta":{"origin":1563,"position":0},"title":"more kaplan responses","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"More responses are coming in to the original blog post that started the online bickering over whether or not Gilbert Kaplan is a charlatan or a conductor - sometimes I ask myself, what's the difference? ;-) - here's a sampling: At A Musical Rampage we get the opinion that Kaplan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1624,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/21\/nytimes-reviewer-blogs-about-kaplan-concert-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":1563,"position":1},"title":"nytimes reviewer blogs about kaplan concert, review","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Steve Smith, music editor for Time Out New York and a freelance reviewer who often writes classical music reviews for the New York Times, writes about his review of the Gilbert Kaplan led performance of Mahler 2 with the New York Philharmonic here.\u00c2\u00a0 Interesting reading, and it shows how critical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1647,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/24\/philharmonic-not-blameless\/","url_meta":{"origin":1563,"position":2},"title":"philharmonic not blameless","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was dismayed to read this comment on David Finlayson's blog from a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir (which performs all choral works with the New York Phil) on the behavior of the Philharmonic musicians - if it's true, and I have no reason to doubt it, then it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1595,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/18\/lebrecht-on-kaplan-flap\/","url_meta":{"origin":1563,"position":3},"title":"lebrecht on kaplan flap","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Norman Lebrecht has weighed in with his opinion of the blog post by the New York Philharmonic's bass second trombonist David Finlayson which expressed in no uncertain terms Finlayson's low regard for the conducting prowess and musical fitness of amateur conductor Gilbert Kaplan. Read the Lebrecht posting and digest your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":977,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/18\/ny-times-muti-wrong-for-new-york\/","url_meta":{"origin":1563,"position":4},"title":"NY Times: Muti wrong for New York","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Anthony Tommasini, writing in today's New York Times, is as bemused as I am by the hand-wringing from the players of the New York Philharmonic on not getting Riccardo Muti as their new music director: ... after the recent news from Chicago, miffed Philharmonic players wrung their hands and stumbled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/03\/24\/condi-talks-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":1563,"position":5},"title":"condi talks music","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I found this fascinating interview via Alex Ross, who found it by way of Phillip Bush. Did you know that Condi Rice (our Secretary of State) started out her collegiate career as a music major on piano? An interesting talk about her musical beginnings and current tastes with host Gilbert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}