Derek Lim writes:

>>At the risk of sounding ignorant (which I am), who is this guy? He just
>>conducted a Brahms Fourth with the SIngapore Symphony Orchestra which
>>I found thoughtful in every respect, with the first two movements even
>>Furtwanglerian.  Any recommendable recordings?

to which Scott Morrison answered:

>If I'm not mistaken, he was, for a time, conductor of both the Utah
>Symphony and the Denver Symphony.  And he was conductor of one of my
>all-time favorite concerts: he did the Allan Petterson 8th Symphony
>with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perhaps fifteen years ago.

Glad to hear that news!

He was Music Director of the Denver Symphony briefly before they caved in,
I think he was not their last conductor (Entremont may have been).

He guest conducted in Oklahoma City 1977-78 when I was assistant conductor
there.

Program: Rossini, William Tell, Mendelssohn, Italian Symphony, Dvorak 8th.

Pleased to hear that he evolved into a thoughtful conductor of Brahms and
that he learned a piece as complex as Petterson 8..

I would not have expected it from the concert with us, which was very
slick, memorized flawlessly, devoid of any stylistic sense (all sounded
like provincial Rossini) and quite unmusical.  Hell for me to take over
the Dvorak and Mendelssohn for tour concerts a few weeks later on short
preparation; I do them both quite flexibly and basically slower.

At the time I heard stories from the places he had been before and after
his visit to us that his concerto accompaniments were inadequate, and that
in one other instance he had cancelled an engagement due to a last minute
change in soloist and concerto, which he was unable to learn in ten days
(Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 instead of No. 2, I think).

Never a dull moment!

Joel Lazar
Conductor, Bethesda MD
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