Stirling Newberry noted that, according to a recent article in the
Wall Street Journal, when the Tokyo Philharmonic and New Star orchestras
combine, all musicians will keep their jobs.  Well that's a bit of a
condensation of what the article claimed.  True, according to current
plans, all musicians were- or will be- offered jobs.  Some will be playing
in the "new" Tokyo Philhamonic, while others will be offered positions in
the pit for the opera or ballet.  And To-Phil's chairman claimed that if
some musicians quit because they were unhappy with their new assignments,
well there was not much he could do about that.

Stirling also wondered if orchestras might move to "to a system where
the concertmaster again basically conducts the orchestra, so that the man
on the podium is purely a figurehead who raises money" (Sarah Caldwell
would never approve).  FTR, the WSJ article depicted the chairman of the
symphony, Norio Ohga, - not the conductor- as being the fundraiser in
chief.  The new music director is rumored to be the Korean expatriate
Myung-Whun Chung.  I wonder if it would grate against any Japanese
sensibilities to have a Korean as music director of their premier
symphony orchestra!

As a historical- or cross cultural note- when the NYPO and NYS merged in
the 1920's, all musicians were fired and the fortunate ones were rehired.
In stark contrast, given the inscrutable Japanese way of dealing with such
matters, perhaps some of the musicians will find themselves playing for the
"orchestra" at their local library, or involved with a special project that
will keep them library-bound for many hours a day.

P.S. I don't want to print the entire article here, but if anyone is
particularly curious about the article, email me with the title "Article
Request" and I'll send it to you.  Please include your email address in
the body of your request.

Larry Sherwood
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