Message #25214

[Dundonnell]

We shall probably just have to disagree about Jurowski.....just as I find it difficult to think of Gerard Schurmann as an "American composer" (to my mind he remains Anglo-Dutch).

On the more substantive point you are quite right to point out the impact jet travel has had on conductors and indeed all musicians. I am not entirely convinced that this has been entirely beneficial as far as conductors are concerned. Some of those who are ostensibly Principal Conductors of a particular orchestra actually spend only a few weeks every year with that orchestra, conducting a handful of concerts, whilst jetting-off to another orchestra or opera-house. That certainly brings them the benefits of wider experience but it must be less than entirely satisfactory for the orchestra to see their principal conductor so infrequently.

I do know that the arrangement by which Donald Runnicles combined the principal conductorship of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Oper in Berlin did not work out very well. Runnicles took on both jobs at exactly the same time (the Autumn of 2009) but is giving up the BBC Scottish SO next year. He is a distinguished conductor and has done excellent work with both his orchestra and the German opera house. The orchestra certainly respected and liked him but they equally felt that they did not see enough of him to establish an even better rapport and even higher standards.

Jurowski will have the London Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio SO and the State Academic SO of the Russian Federation-three orchestras at the same time. He will indeed be doing a lot of air travel ;D