January 30, 2001
Maazel to Lead Philharmonic; Will Succeed Masur as Director
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL / NYTimes
The New York Philharmonic ended a difficult three-year search for a
new music director yesterday by naming Lorin Maazel, a 70-year-old
American conductor, composer and violinist, as the successor to Kurt
Masur, 73, starting late next year.
Mr. Maazel, who has held prime podiums in Berlin, Cleveland, Vienna
and Pittsburgh and will leave his current post as music director of
the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian State Radio next year, had
been a front-runner for weeks while orchestra officials insisted that
they were still considering other candidates.
Mr. Maazel, reached on tour in Spain, said he was "totally happy" to
accept the job as the orchestra's 24th music director in a line
stretching back to 1842 and to return to New York, the city of his
parents' birth, where he promised to nurture new composers as well
as to tend to the classics.
"As Stravinsky said, revolution means turning the wheel," Mr. Maazel
said from Madrid, where he was performing a Brahms violin and piano
program with Yefim Bronfman.
Paul B. Guenther, the Philharmonic's chairman, and Zarin Mehta, its
executive director, would not release Mr. Maazel's salary in the
four-year contract beginning with the 2002-03 season - and Mr. Maazel
himself declined to discuss it - but judging from accounts of what
he has been paid in Munich, his annual compensation may be well above
Mr. Mazur's $1.5 million. Like Mr. Masur, they said, Mr. Maazel will
make New York his conducting focus, playing 10 weeks of subscription
concerts the first season and 14 weeks for the next three seasons,
while also taking the orchestra on tour.
As recently as Jan. 17, denying an article in The Washington Post
stating that Mr. Maazel's appointment was imminent, Mr. Guenther said
that any decision was "a minimum of weeks if not months away." But
yesterday, in response to questions, Mr. Guenther said that on the
night of the 17th, he and William McDonough, head of the Philharmonic's
search committee, met with Mr. Maazel over dinner in Manhattan, giving
the appointment a strong forward push.
The decision was further cemented a week later, Mr. Mehta said, when
he met with Mr. Maazel in Munich after the Philharmonic's tour of
Spain and found the conductor "so excited about coming to New York."
"This all happened in less than two weeks," continued Mr. Mehta, who
also had been telling reporters that he was considering other
candidates.
Asked yesterday if Mr. Maazel was his particular choice, Mr. Mehta
said, "It was a choice of a variety of people involved in the picture."
But he said that Mr. Maazel's nationality certainly did not hurt.
"He is an American, and this is the oldest American orchestra," he
said.
On Sunday night, when "it became evident that Lorin was getting the
nod," Mr. Mehta said, he notified the orchestra committee representing
the players. The public announcement was made after the Philharmonic
board approved the appointment at a meeting yesterday.
Mr. Guenther said the Philharmonic was delighted with Mr. Maazel's
appointment. "Under his artistic leadership we look forward to a
vibrant and adventurous collaboration, linking the future to our
orchestra's long and majestic history," he said.
The players, who have been unabashed admirers of Mr. Maazel since
he led them last November in a series of concerts, seemed equally
delighted . "I'm hopeful we have the most virtuosic conductor in the
world about to engage the most virtuosic orchestra," said Joseph
Robinson, the principal oboist. He called Mr. Maazel "a young 70."
Janos Gereben/SF, CA
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