Back in the first part of 19th century Mendelssohn began to conduct in his
20's, and Liszt and Schumann in ther 30's.  Major groups were run by 40
year olds.  Since people died younger in those days, one did not have to
spend as long schmoozing, making connections and so forth.

Right now we have had a wide chasm of major posts open up.  It is clear
that the requirements that various factions have demanded for conductors
- primarily that they be politically correct with regard to playing
hackademic music and that they be able to raise dump trucks full of money
- have narrowed the field below the number of posts available.  Gone are
the days when what mattered was conducting.  Being a music director is much
closer to being the satrap for a distant empire that cares more about the
flag than the state of culture.

Hence we will get some old men appointed, and a few young men who have
seen more summers than Mozart, Schumann, or Chopin.  There will be general
rejoicing in how progressive we.  Every age needs its illusions, ours is
that our artistic establishment is one bit different from the artistic
establishment of 1890.

Because there is no hope that anyone like me would recieve such a post, or
even have their envelop opened, this program for the reform of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra is meant to please no one but myself.

A symphony orchestra of the size of the BSO must be able to reach beyond
any faction of music, it must be a center of activity.

1. A reorganisation of the concert season.

Three new concert series would be created.

The first would be a series devoted to Historically Informed Performance,
it would use methods, instruments and idioms of the time period of the
pieces, the concert program would be modelled on those of the time period
- overtime be damned.  When possible it would be done in the dress of the
period as well.  This series would cover from the baroque to the early 20th
century.  Specialists would be invited as soloists.

The second would be an unmixed series devoted to teh avant-garde.  Nothing
more accessible than Scheonberg's Pierrot Luniare would be played.  The
first year would be anchored in a complete cycle of the Carter Concerti and
Ives polyrhythmic work - highlighting the interconnections which show the
development of thought from Ives to Carter.  Also on the programs would be
Varese, Stockhausen, Boulez, Cage, Ruggles and orchestrations of Nancarrow.
The hardest of the hard core without any other works.  Enough rehearsal
time would be scheduled so that the results are not second cousin to a
drunken sight reading party.

A "beginners" concert series.

The other concert series would be centered around more mainstream
repertory.

2. Change in priorities.

The music director would receive a salary of 200,000 dollars, and would
take no other positions.  The money otherwise spent on salaries and perks
would go to commissions.  These commissions would be premiered in two
concert programs at the end of the year.

I would personally knock their heads together until Micheal Strauss and
Bradley Pennington buried their personal differences and agreed to prepare
2 *fully staged* opera productions per year.

Reassertion of Boston's place as the premiere Russian/French tradition
orchestra in the US.  A complete survey of Debussy's music, Ravel's music
and the associated composers of the turn of the century Franco-Iberian
schools - Dukas, Bizet.  Bring this forward to include Villa Lobos and
Piazolla.

A more agressive touring schedule.

Form a private label to issue performances of the BSO from the archives,
doing whatever it took to get the musician's union to agree to it.

Make music videos specifically to promote the BSO

An annual waltz/tango Ball.

3. Change Tanglewood (BSO's summer festival)

Two new, and one old -

A festival of young conductors.  Condutors under the age of 30 would be
invited to conduct programs at Tanglewood.

A major cycle per year.  Mahler symphonies the first year, Schostakovich
the second.

Return of the Beethoven festival.

The contemporary music festival would play no work older than a decade.

4. Cross cultural works

This would include joint ventures with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and
also theatre groups to present plays with the incidental music as written
for them.  Peer Gynt and Egmont come instantly to mind.

Stirling S Newberry
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