Philadelphia Orchestra's quandary (and Yuja Wang)

The Philadelphia Orchestra seems to be stymied no matter which way it turns. While all arts organizations are suffering from financial problems, the Orchestra bears the added burden of being leaderless at a time when decisions are needed. It was without a chief executive for months until Allison Vulgamore was hired last week. It has been without a permanent music director since Christoph Eschenbach stepped down in the spring of 2008, and it will continue to be without one for a while.

Many of the Orchestra's past supporters are deteriorating (both physically and in terms of their support for the orchestra) and empty seats are noticeable at most concerts. My wife regrets that going to the Orchestra does not seem to be the hip thing among her young friends; they're more likely to get excited by an opera, a play or an art opening. I don't enjoy writing this. I'm merely being realistic.

It's hard to know in which direction to go. On the one hand, some knowledgeable listeners have stopped attending because of what BSR's Dan Coren, calls "hopelessly unimaginative repertory." On the other hand, many subscribers love the old favorites, and young newbies seem no more adventurous than their elders.

Ormandy's playbook

The Orchestra's approach to last weekend's series seemed taken right out of the Eugene Ormandy playbook. One can easily imagine the thinking: This is Samuel Barber's centennial year, so let's play his most popular composition, the Adagio for Strings. Then let's continue the Orchestra's multi-season focus on the music of Berlioz and do his biggest hit, the Symphonie Fantastique. For such a repertoire, what better leader could anyone ask than Charles Dutoit? Add a flashy piano concerto (Prokofiev's Second) as a showpiece for the Curtis-trained Yuja Wang, and you have the type of program that used to draw full houses to the Academy of Music.

When I was a kid my elders used to talk ecstatically about Philadelphia Orchestra repetitions of Scheherezade, the New World Symphony, Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Last weekend's program seemed aimed at the ghosts of that crowd, and I found myself a bit disentranced during colorful performances of the Barber and the Berlioz. Despite excellent playing, I felt like Peggy Lee, wondering, "Is that all there is?"

Yuja Wang: Pros and cons

Yuja Wang's playing lifted my spirits a bit. The fast passagework in the second and fourth movements was outstanding. But elsewhere her tone lacked a brilliance that would make it stand out from the orchestra musicians. Her playing of slow sections was accomplished but short on soul. (Not surprising, really, for a 22-year-old; that should come with time and experience.)

Perhaps I've grown blasé. "Standard" musical works became what they are because of some merit, and performances of standards by an excellent conductor and orchestra shouldn't be taken for granted. But Dutoit isn't giving us the type of innovative programming he provided in his young days in Montreal.

My wife, less jaded than I, loved the program. But would her young friends? "Yes," she replies— if they ever came to the concerts.
The question remains: How to draw them in?

Quest for charisma

Playing standard favorites in noticeably personal ways didn't work out so well here recently. Eschenbach led warhorse pieces in unorthodox interpretations, and we see where that got him. When the Orchestra schedules new works, I'm happy, but I hear complaints from many patrons. One good approach would be to have at least one startling piece and one comfortable classic each week.

Another direction would be to hire a music director who's so charismatic that he can convince audiences that anything he plays is, by fiat, worth hearing, as when Stokowski was in charge here from 1912 to 1936. But this is nearly impossible to achieve. Even as the New York Philharmonic begins a promising new era under Alan Gilbert, some Manhattanites have complained that their leader isn't as young and exciting as what Los Angeles got: Gustavo Dudamel.