Jeff Dunn wrote:

>I'm so pleased Alexa Butterworth has made the acquaintance of Marin.
>I have had the pleasure the last five years to experience the excitement
>of her Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California.  She's a great
>admirer of Bernstein, and is as good or better educator.  She's especially
>strong in the American idiom.
>
>I sure hope she gets a big break before long!

Marin Alsop conducted the Long Island Philharmonic for two seasons. Her
repertoire is not my cup of tea or her rather objective interpretations.

But, my God, is that woman a technician, a minor George Szell.  She took
good musicians-in the New York area there are thousands who play in pick-up
orchestras-and transformed them into an ensemble.  They came in on the
cleanest beats I can imagine, not a raggish sound among them.  And she
certainly transfused to them her energy.  They played like one instrument
on a toboggan run.

She might have led a music renaissance on Long Island which certainly
has the financial resources and population to support it.  At first,
the politicians and business community, large innovators like Computer
Associates, pledged to support her and the orchestra.  But then came the
recession of the early 90s which hit Wall Street hard and therefore Long
Island and they bailed out.

Of course, Alsop loves Bernstein.  He trained her at Tanglewood.  But,
interestingly, he must have been large-minded enough to let her go her own
way because there is little of his sensibility in her interpretations.  She
was said to be a great businesswoman and promoter.  Her concerts were all
full and the concert hall is a major city type auditorium with excellent
acoustics that seats over 2000.  She also liked the idea that she could be
permanent conductor of the LI Philharmonic and establish and conduct her
own avant garde ensemble in Manhattan at the same time.

Her power and influence were so great that even after she left the
orchestra continued its high standards under other well-known conductors.
But in a few years it was downhill and now it is just a shadow of what
Alsop made it.

That is partly because the audience has changed.  Even the standard
repertoire isn't standard enough.  More and more, it is musical comedy
stuff and far out modern.  The well-to-do audiences that supported it have
migrated either to Florida or farther afield.  Ah, as Frost wrote "Nothing
Gold Can Stay," not even on Fitzgerald's Gold Coast.

Andrew Carlan from Lawn Guyland