Eschenbach Experiment Shows Musicians Now Rule: Norman Lebrecht By Norman Lebrecht Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Christoph Eschenbach may go down as the last conductor of a major orchestra to be appointed above the heads of its players. When Philadelphia announced Eschenbach as its music director in January 2001 sour faces could be seen all around the front desk. The shaven-headed German, a decade-long success in Houston, Texas, had not conducted the elite Liberty Bell ensemble in five years and the musicians had not liked him much at the time. But Philadelphia was in a race for new batons with New York and Boston and its impatient chairman demanded a recognizable name on the podium for the year's big opening -- the $265 million Verizon hall at the Kimmel Center, a mall-type 21st-century upgrade on the quaint old Academy of Music. Although the musicians had a representative on the search committee, his voice went unheard. When a canny agent sparked rumors that Eschenbach was on New York's shortlist, the deal was done within days, with the conductor to take up his post in September 2003. The hall, which opened in December 2001, turned out to be an acoustic letdown with poor sound diffusion and some fuzziness on stage. Lawsuits flew, the orchestra's manager departed and Eschenbach's bad start went gurgling into a black hole. When the orchestra announced last week, amid the usual affirmations of mutual esteem, that his contract was not being renewed after the 2007-8 season, Eschenbach became the first maestro ever to be bounced by Philadelphia and the closeted world of music management got a wake-up call. Mismatch Why did it unravel so fast? Was his Debussy too prissy, his Haydn too sweet? There was adverse criticism aplenty in the local papers, but if bad reviews ever drove a player out of town no football club would be able to field a full team. The trouble lay in the original mismatch. The Philadelphia Orchestra has a high opinion of itself, and rightly so. Leopold Stokowski formed a crack outfit in World War I and exploited electric recording to trademark the Philadelphia Sound. His successor, the physically unprepossessing Eugene Ormandy, preserved that sound in aspic for half a century as the highest- selling maestro in America. Riccardo Muti, the La Scala chief (until toppled last year by a musicians' revolt), maintained a high profile through the 1980s and early 1990s; Wolfgang Sawallisch, a pedigree German, tended the flame to general satisfaction. Eschenbach was an outsider, not of the same league, and that stacked against him. Podium Ballet Many of the players in Philadelphia are professors at the Curtis Institute. They have a low tolerance for showiness and resented Eschenbach's designer outfits and balletic leaps. Their faces were often a tableau of discontent. At a concert of fifth symphonies by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky at the BBC Proms this summer, it was noticeable how little some of the musicians looked at their notional master. "I look upon my past three years as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra with satisfaction and great pride," said Eschenbach, 66, last week at the parting of ways. "I am proud of particular accomplishments, such as the appointment of nine musicians including four principals." The orchestra's chief executive, James Undercofler, said of Eschenbach that "being able to work with him closely, albeit for a short time, has deepened my respect for him." Top of the musicians' wish list is Vladimir Jurowski, 34, the Glyndebourne and London Philharmonic chief who has been asked back twice after an impressive debut. Other names may come into the reckoning but Philadelphia will listen closely to its players. In the days of great dictators such as Toscanini and Koussevitzky, Solti and Karajan, musicians were seldom asked for their opinion and did as they were told. In the era of instant communications, they expect first and final say in who conducts. The failure of the Eschenbach test has confirmed who's paramount. (Norman Lebrecht is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own [and those of the Mayor of New York City].) To contact the writer of this story: Norman Lebrecht at [log in to unmask] . Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]