Andrys Basten <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Here are two stories that indicate most of the musicians did not want this
>and that this move will harm the orchestra tremendously for various
>reasons.

 From a short term perspective, this is true.  But in the long run, this
could prove beneficial to the orchestra.  Again, the question is to find
an excellent new (and hopefully young) conductor...  I attended dozens of
MSO concerts during the 1990s, and my understanding is that Dutoit - when
playing in Montreal - gradually lost his "magic touch" during that decade.
In fact, the real excitement was brought by some guest conductors (Zinman,
Wit, etc).  Strangely enough, Dutoit never invited a successful guest
conductor twice.  And there is good reason for that!  Again, this is only
my perception of the whole thing...

I have read at least 15 articles dealing with this story, both in French
and in English.  It's true that the union leader went very far, and that
many musicians of the orchestra never wanted Dutoit to leave.  Dutoit
sudden departure is the outcome of many, many misunderstandings...

>By the way, in the 2nd article, what is so awful about testing whether
>orchestra members were actually following him instead of playing by rote,
>during rehearsals???

If you do that only to harrass musicians, I think that's stupid.
The two MSO players I know really *hate* Dutoit, and for good reason...
But I suppose this is something common in the little symphonic world!
And I will ask this question to people who actually play in a symphonic
orchestra: do you hate your conductor?!  I'm sure that some answers will
prove interesting ;-)

Daniel