{"id":1595,"date":"2008-12-18T22:31:05","date_gmt":"2008-12-19T06:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1595"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:10:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:10:49","slug":"lebrecht-on-kaplan-flap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/18\/lebrecht-on-kaplan-flap\/","title":{"rendered":"lebrecht on kaplan flap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norman Lebrecht has weighed in<\/a> with his opinion of the blog post<\/a> by the New York Philharmonic’s bass<\/span> second trombonist David Finlayson<\/a> which expressed in no uncertain terms Finlayson’s low regard for the conducting prowess and musical fitness of amateur conductor Gilbert Kaplan.<\/p>\n

Read the Lebrecht posting<\/a> and digest your initial reaction for a bit – it’s ok, the rest of this post will be here when you return…I don’t want to react directly to Lebrecht’s article, partly because as he’s writing in the defense of a friend I feel that he has a right to his opinion, and I don’t want to impune his motives for doing so.\u00c2\u00a0 Lebrecht takes his usual approach to writing on this issue and shows that his knives are sharp and expertly wielded, and he makes some valid points, for what they’re worth.\u00c2\u00a0 As usual, he gets some stuff right, and some stuff very wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll leave it for Finlayson to defend himself, or one of his colleagues, since I don’t have any direct experience with Kaplan.<\/p>\n

For me the crux issue of Finlayson’s posting is not what he said, but whether those things should have been said in a public forum.<\/p>\n

I have to say that when I read Finlayson’s blog post I was a bit amused, and ultimately left with the feeling that at least a musician managed to get a couple good swings in when faced with the daily trials of being a member of an orchestra.<\/p>\n

But the question that I keep coming back to is – would I have done what he did?\u00c2\u00a0 For me, the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic no.<\/p>\n

My reasons for this are both pragmatic and philosophical.<\/p>\n

Practically speaking, I’m not in one of the really big orchestras.\u00c2\u00a0 I might (though it’s looking increasingly unlikely) want to move up to a bigger gig someday, and it’s not a good idea to rock the boat and get a reputation as a troublemaker, especially with conductors.\u00c2\u00a0 [Ask me how I know – I’ve already shot myself in the foot once with this blog, and I won’t make the same mistake again.]\u00c2\u00a0 I can speak in generalities about artistic concerns in my orchestra and elsewhere, and to me it serves the same purpose of shedding light on the inner workings of my profession as it would if I named names.<\/p>\n

Philosophically speaking, I like to get along with as many people as I can.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not confrontational.\u00c2\u00a0 I try very hard to figure out why people decide to do things that I disagree with, and then I attempt (often unsuccessfully) to reconcile my own take on the situation with theirs.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake: I love to bitch and moan (the official recreational activity of orchestral musicians) behind closed doors. But I also remember one of my teachers, Roberto D\u00c3\u00acaz (who was the principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra and is now the president of the Curtis Institute of Music) telling me that he just didn’t like to talk trash about other musicians, either publicly or privately.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve never heard him say anything bad about anyone, musically or personally, in all the years that I’ve known him. It’s a very high standard, and one that I try<\/em> to adhere to, but often fail to attain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 initial reaction for a bit […]<\/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":[148,225,299,186,115,2],"tags":[86,1192,91,738],"class_list":["post-1595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-bloggers","category-conducting","category-labor-issues","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-conductor","tag-gilbert-kaplan","tag-new-york-philharmonic","tag-norman-lebrecht"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-pJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1624,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/21\/nytimes-reviewer-blogs-about-kaplan-concert-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":0},"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":1634,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/23\/additional-thoughts-on-kaplan\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":1},"title":"additional thoughts on kaplan","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been (in between watching marathon stretches of House MD on dvd) thinking a bit more about the flap over Gilbert Kaplan conducting the New York Philharmonic.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that there are two diverging views of the situation, both of which are misguided, or at least misappropriated. Kaplan #1 is\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":499,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/20\/lebrecht-gets-spanked\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":2},"title":"Lebrecht gets spanked","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It appears that some dodgy fact-finding on the part of critic\/writer Norman Lebrecht may have gotten him into trouble - his publisher has withdrawn all unsold copies (in the United Kingdom) of his most recent book on classical music and will have them destroyed. All as a result of a\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":1606,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/19\/more-kaplan-responses\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":3},"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":39,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/05\/11\/random-thoughts-about-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":4},"title":"random thoughts about music","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are some thoughts that have passed through my head during the last couple of days of rehearsals: Mozart really is a great composer (Norman Lebrecht notwithstanding) Composer John Adams just might have the best copyist in the business Choruses will, without fail, laugh at all the conductor's jokes Playing\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":5976,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/15\/a-terrible-loss-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":5},"title":"a terrible loss","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Music allows us to really find our inner self, to be free to search for those things that we normally don't have the opportunity or the time to search for. It opens up many, many doors within us. It opens the doors to our soul, to our feelings, to humanity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Yakov-Kreizberg-6-OPMC-Marco-Borgreve.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595","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=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}