Jocelyn Wang reacts to the news:

>>CLEVELAND, June 7 (UPI) -- Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Most will
>>succeed Christoph von Dohnanyi as the Cleveland Orchestra's music
>>director in 2002.
>
>What a dreadful choice to lead such a fine orchestra!  I still remember
>the lifeless rendition of the "Eroica" he did with the LA Phil some years
>ago.  It was so bad I will never again attend a concert with him as the
>conductor.  (The fact that he ignored the repeats was only one dismal
>aspect of that awful performance-- not that I want to reopen that thread.)
>
>Surely there must have been someone better who could have taken the lead
>of the Clevelanders.  Then again, perhaps all the wind-up monkeys were
>otherwise engaged.

Jocelyn and I find ourselves so often on different sides of a question,
why should this time be any different? I'm turning handsprings over the
news, since I regard Welser-Most as undoubtedly the finest young conductor
I've heard.  Listen to his recording of Schmidt's Book with Seven Seals -
a piece that would give most conductors conniptions.  Like the German
Requiem, it could break down anywhere.  Welser-Most not only clarifies
its thorny counterpoint, but he turns in a damn dramatic reading besides.
I've also heard him live twice - once with the NY Phil and once with the
Cleveland.  The programs included the Sibelius 2nd (one of the finest
performances I've ever heard), the Saint-Saens first cello concerto, the
Kancheli third symphony, the Mozart Requiem and Masonic Funeral Music, and
Messiaen's L'Ascension.  It was not only well executed, it was excitingly
played.

So he didn't do a good "Eroica." In that case, it's a lucky thing that the
"Eroica" isn't the only piece of classical music there is.

Steve Schwartz