Mark Seeley wrote:
>Orchestras, of course, prefer that No. 2 isn't aware that he or she
>is No. 2. Something to do with brides and bridesmaids. But things
>don't always work out as planned. Sometimes they end happily. In
>the fall of 1981, for instance, Sir Colin Davis declined Cleveland's
>offer to become music director. Several months later, a relatively
>unknown German conductor named Christoph von Dohnanyi made his debut
>at Severance Hall, and the rest is history.
It's on occasions like these that it might be well to remember that J.S.
Bach was the congregation's third choice for cantor of the Thomaskirche in
Leipzig.
Walter Meyer