Orchestras, and the specialization route

I recently read a very interesting interview with Alan Gilbert, in which he said something that left me thinking a lot about the current role of orchestras...

Gilbert, perhaps best known as the former music director of the New York Philharmonic, is about to embark on his first season as the chief conductor-designate of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, for which he has ambitious plans in terms of expanding the palette of its sounds.

I have always felt that Gilbert’s tenure with New York City’s main ensemble left some sort of bittersweet taste. While most critics -at least the most influential- celebrated his bold choices in programming, a few members of the orchestra’s Board and many of its most reputable donors were very vocal regarding their distaste for what Gilbert proposed.

The timing of his departure was also somewhat unfortunate: he left in the brink of a necessary -yet intimidating- renovation of Avery Fisher Hall, so even when this was evidently out of his control, his exit seemed to leave a disappointing trace. Even when he reigned the orchestra for eight years scoring a few undisputable triumphs, Gilbert did not manage to become a remarkable conductor -to the eyes of New York’s demanding and often relentless cultural audience.

On a personal note, I was able to enjoy his first two years on the podium and I have to say that I absolutely loved them. I really liked what he did with the Ligeti, Janacek and Stockhausen productions, and I also thoroughly enjoyed his very competent take on Haydn, Brahms and even Mahler. I was fortunate to see the orchestra played in a wide range of venues: Central Park, Carnegie Hall, even in Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and I was nothing but delighted.

That been said, I am very excited to see what he brings to the table with his new orchestra, a decidedly modern ensemble. His new home seems, from the get-go, very receptive to his ideas on what a contemporary orchestra should sound like. Nonetheless, this particular duty is what prompted me to write this reflection. In the interview, Gilbert argued that orchestras should be versatile.

At first, I agreed with this statement, but after giving it more thought I found that ambition excessively wide-ranging -or rather ineffective.

Let me be clear on this: I would love to go to a classical music concert and hear a concerto written by a living composer, and then close that evening with a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica, but what if an orchestra, instead of trying to cover it all, would be able to specialize on one or the other side. Wouldn’t that be a more focused trait?

Take the notoriously conservative Vienna Philharmonic, for example, an institution that have their Austrian and German repertoire instilled in their veins; they know their Beethoven, they know their Mahler. Should they also tackle Messiaen, Adès or Xenakis? What about an obvious counterpart like the Orchestra of St. Luke’s or Los Angeles Philharmonic, both known to offer exciting takes on contemporary works: should they master Brahms, Beethoven or Mozart?

My concern mainly relies on the “should”... Should orchestras really have to encompass it all? Why not just focus on what they really love to play, or rather on what they really know how to play? Wouldn’t that be a more realistic and effective approach for playing music today?

I applaud Gilbert’s efforts to broaden the repertoire of this new ensemble, don’t get me wrong, but I have to admit that the specialization route would help bring what I have always considered to be the most important feature of any cultural institution nowadays: excitement.