2024-03-16 14:39:10
World-renowned Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will end his post as music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra after the 2024/2025 season. “Unfortunately, the board of directors and I differ in our views on the next direction,” he announced. In the world of classical music, it’s not often that a rift between an organization’s artistic and executive leadership seeps into the public eye.
Salonen, who has been chief conductor since 2020 and just this week won the Swedish Polar Music Prize, did not want to comment further on the dispute. The general director of the orchestra, Matthew Spivey, explained the connection to the AP agency. “We got into a dire financial situation that could no longer be ignored,” Spivey said. According to him, the San Francisco Philharmonic “will have to take such measures as to be able to face these pressures”.
The first decisions were already made when the management canceled part of the late-night concerts in the experimental space SoundBox, where the musicians tried to attract young people. “However, other measures will probably be necessary. They will lead the orchestra in a different direction than we could have expected in 2018, when Esa-Pekka Salonen was appointed,” adds the CEO.
Other cuts are to be made regarding orders for world premieres, the total number of concerts, and the European tour planned for September 2025 has also been canceled. a dramatic step. I don’t remember anything like that,” the group’s longtime violist David Gaudry told American radio.
According to the New York Times, the financial condition of the orchestra has significantly deteriorated during the pandemic. The latter has previously struggled on the one hand with a decline in subscribers and patrons, on the other hand with rising operating costs. Approximately 83 million dollars are managed annually, which is equivalent to 1.9 billion crowns. During the pandemic, he had to cancel hundreds of shows and lost millions of dollars because of it.
The organization can withstand the current situation, its umbrella foundation had 315 million dollars in its account last year, while in 2019 it was only 273 million, the newspaper continues.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a renowned conductor and composer. | Photo: Andrew Eccles
“However, without fundamental changes to our business model and revenue structure, we will face increasingly uncontrollable deficits in the coming years,” fears CEO Spivey.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the musicians learned of chief conductor Salonen’s departure at a hastily called meeting this Wednesday. Some mourned the news. “It’s overwhelming for the whole orchestra and for me personally,” said double bass group leader Scott Pingel, for example. The conductor’s contract expires in June 2025.
Promoter of contemporary music and non-traditional dramaturgy, Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will celebrate his 66th birthday this year, replaced Michael Tilson Thomas in the position. He led the San Francisco orchestra for a quarter of a century and performed with it several times at the Prague Spring festival, most recently in 2014.
Salonen first worked as chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1995.
From 1992 to 2009, he was the music director of the second well-known ensemble in California, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He made it “one of America’s most innovative orchestras”, wrote the New York Times.
Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. | Photo: Minna Hatinen
In recent years, as in Los Angeles, Salonen has also tried to bring younger people who are interested in culture but prefer movies or literature to classical music.
Among other things, he experimented with the involvement of virtual reality and artificial intelligence, on which he collaborated with the local Silicon Valley. He presented the world premieres of new works, expanded the range of genres by collaborating with composer Nic Muhly or jazz double bassist Esperanza Spalding, and tried to modernize the ensemble in various ways, summarizes the New York Times.
The AP agency adds that with Salonen’s departure, another post will become vacant at the leading American body.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra still hasn’t found a replacement for Riccardo Muti, who quit last season. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is looking for a successor to Gustav Dudamel, who will move to New York after the 2025/2026 season, and the Cleveland Orchestra will need someone to take over from Franz Welser-Möst after 2026/2027.
Video: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Strauss
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the symphonic poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss. | Video: San Francisco Symphony