Christoph Eschenbach

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Christoph Eschenbach (born February 20, 1940 in Breslau, Germany (today Wrocław, Poland) is a noted pianist and conductor. He was orphaned during World War II. After the war, he studied the piano, and later won numerous first-place piano competition prizes^{[citation needed]}.

Contents 1 Musical career 2 Tenure with The Philadelphia Orchestra 3 Recent critical tour reaction 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Musical career

In 1964 he made his first recording (of Mozart) for Deutsche Grammophon and signed a contract with the label. Eschenbach learned the art of conducting from George Szell, with whom he worked for more than three years. In addition, Herbert von Karajan was his mentor for nearly twenty-five years.

In 1981, Eschenbach became principal guest conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and was chief conductor from 1982-86. Other posts include music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1988-99), where he still holds the title of Conductor Laureate; chief conductor of the Hamburg NDR Symphony (1998-2004); and music director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1994-2003). He has made more than 80 recordings both as piano soloist, conductor, or both, has appeared in several television documentaries, and made many concert broadcasts for different European, Japanese and U.S. networks. Since 2000, Eschenbach has been the Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris.

He is credited with helping and supporting talented young musicians in their career development including soprano Renée Fleming, pianists Tzimon Barto and Lang Lang, and soprano Marisol Montalvo.

[edit] Tenure with The Philadelphia Orchestra

In January 2001, Eschenbach was named the seventh Music Director of The Philadelphia Orchestra, effective as of 2003. This was a controversial appointment because at the time of the announcement, Eschenbach had not conducted the orchestra in over 4 years and there was a perceived lack of personal chemistry between him and the musicians prior to the appointment.^{[1] [2]}. In a 2004 article, Eschenbach tried to downplay such statements, and noted his own particular style of interpretation:

"I prefer to have flexible tempos and not be fixed. Quicker tempos tend to court superficiality."^[3]

Partway into his tenure, his initial 3-year contract was renewed to 2008.

However, in October 2006, the orchestra and Eschenbach announced that he would conclude his tenure in Philadelphia at the close of the 2007-2008 season. In the weeks prior to his departure, Philadelphia Inquirer music critics Peter Dobrin and David Patrick Stearns had contrasting articles whether or not he should be retained, with Dobrin suggesting that Eschenbach should move on^[4] and Stearns arguing that Eschenbach should remain^[5]. Other harsh criticism of Eschenbach's tenure in Philadelphia has been aired^[6].

Following the announcement, Dobrin in the Inquirer wrote that Eschenbach's tenure in Philadelphia has been difficult for many musicians:

"In three seasons, Eschenbach and the orchestra have produced a handful of brilliant concerts. More often, though, his rehearsals and performances have elicited a long list of complaints from musicians: getting lost in the score at concerts; leading disorganized rehearsals and then asking for overtime; and insisting on a peculiar rushing and slowing of tempos."^[7].

The paper also cited a number of accomplishments including a new recording contract and the appointment of nine musicians, four of whom were principals. In addition, Eschenbach has received praise for his work in fund-raising for the orchestra^{[8] [9]}.

Following the announcement and Dobrin's Inquirer article, The Philadelphia Orchestra Association posted a letter on its website, dated 27 October 2006, which also was sent by e-mail to orchestra patrons. A quote from this letter condemned Dobrin's criticism:

"We, and many in the community, feel that in recent press coverage there have been personal attacks on Maestro Eschenbach, along with negative innuendo about his relationship with The Philadelphia Orchestra. ...These types of comments about Maestro Eschenbach and our orchestra are ridiculous, offensive and defamatory. Our entire orchestra family is profoundly disappointed when reporters report the news in such an ungracious way."^[10]

Dobrin, in turn, responded in a 29 October 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer article by quoting one of his 2001 Inquirer articles around the time of the Eschenbach announcement:

"....let me quote from something I wrote in March 2001 that might be an important reminder about how we got to this dangerous place:

It hit many musicians like the dull thud of pragmatism, this decision in January to hire Eschenbach as the orchestra's seventh music director, starting in September 2003. At a meeting announcing the decision, players responded with silence. No applause, no excited stamping of feet. Silence. And then the resentment poured forth. One musician used the word "underwhelmed." Another said he felt "betrayed."...²

This contrasts with earlier reports of how the musicians "had input" in the choice of the previous Philadelphia music director, Wolfgang Sawallisch^[11]. In addition, the new orchestra president (as of 2006), James Undercofler, had spoken with orchestra musicians, and had told Eschenbach this summary of his discussions with them:

"-that 80 percent of the musicians did not agree with his artistic interpretations;
-that 80 percent of the musicians left concerts feeling great anger;
-and that the orchestra was a "ticking time bomb."^[12]

In a 2007 article, Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times has written about the Eschenbach/Philadelphia Orchestra situation:

"{Eschenbach} is one of the world's finest musicians and widely recognized as such. He has ideas. He has sophisticated tastes. He is cosmopolitan. He is an exciting interpreter. Colleagues speak of him warmly, and he is a favorite accompanist for singers.....So what's wrong? Just about everything. It is well known that the orchestra opposed the hiring of Eschenbach. He hadn't conducted in Philadelphia for five years when the appointment was made, and a memo was leaked to the press with 75 players' signatures asking management to hold off any decision until the orchestra got a chance to work with him. From the beginning, the relationship started off on the wrong foot...But the Philadelphia orchestra has not been exactly transformed by Eschenbach. I've been hearing reports of players looking bored onstage. Audiences walk out during performances. Even two years ago, at my last visit to Verizon Hall, the atmosphere was palpably unpleasant."^[13]

[edit] Recent critical tour reaction

Prior to the recent announcement of Eschenbach's departure from Philadelphia, Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra received both positive and negative reviews during the Orchestra's European Festivals Tour in 2006.

"The members of The Philadelphia Orchestra played as though their lives depended on it. The strings are both sturdy and responsively supple to Eschenbach's calculated spontaneity; their woodwind soloists, particularly the liquid-amber principal clarinet, are to die for." ^[14]

"[In Hamburg, Eschenbach] was in what might be called Leopold Stokowski mode, drawing out climaxes with apparent spontaneity, sometimes reaching a nearly unbearable state of tension, and handling the tricky transitions with a daring that bordered on brinksmanship." ^[15]

"The Philadelphia Orchestra, under its Music Director, Christoph Eschenbach, commended itself completely unostentatiously as one of the leading orchestras not only of America, but of the world... One listens to this masterfully delicate playing in near amazement... They are masters of sound." ^[16]

"Christoph Eschenbach's monumentally slick account of Beethoven's Fifth took the shock of the new out of the shock of the old...The sense of striving in the piece was nowhere. It sat smugly, contentedly, in a comfort zone of its own making.....{Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5} was rendered merely showy by Eschenbach's portentousness."^[17]

"Christoph Eschenbach....evinced a passion that was communicated through the orchestral playing as well. In Tchaikovsky's Fifth, there was a mellifluous continuity of thought....In Beethoven's Fifth, Eschenbach exercised similarly good judgment."^[18]

"Christoph Eschenbach...gave this over-familiar classic {Beethoven's Symphony No. 5} newly minted status in a reading that never overstepped the line between vehemence and exaggeration.....Tchaikovsky's Fifth followed: the playing reinforced the Philadelphia's reputation as a virtuoso ensemble, with a particularly fine exposition of the second movement's famous horn solo. But Eschenbach's interpretation was less secure, inconsistently maintaining the level of nervous energy needed to fire the symphony's momentum and motivate its grand rhetoric."^[19]

"The sound this orchestra makes is legendary...Whether the results are so convincing interpretatively is another matter. The articulation in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was vigorous, if not downright oppressive....A predilection for idiosyncratic gestures became even more pronounced in Eschenbach's reading of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor.....Such idiosyncrasies are unexceptionable, even welcome, when well motivated and provoke reappraisal. Here they seemed perverse....Great sound. Shame about the rest."^[20]

Among Eschenbach's awards are the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, presented by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres (June 2006), the Legion d'honneur presented by French President Jacques Chirac (October 2002), the Officer's Cross with Star and Ribbon of the German Order of Merit (August 2002), the Commander's Cross of the German Order of Merit for outstanding achievements as pianist and conductor (1993), and the Leonard Bernstein Award (1993) presented to him by the Pacific Music Festival, where he served as co-artistic director from 1992 to 1998.

[edit] External links

• Official Website of Christoph Eschenbach
• Website of The Philadelphia Orchestra
• Website of the Orchestre de Paris

[edit] References

Preceded by Gerd Albrecht	Chief Conductor, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra 1982–1986	Succeeded by Hiroshi Wakasugi
Preceded by Sergiu Comissiona	Music Director, Houston Symphony Orchestra 1988–1999	Succeeded by Hans Graf
Preceded by Herbert Blomstedt	Principal Conductor, North German Radio Symphony Orchestra 1998–2004	Succeeded by Christoph von Dohnányi
Preceded by Christoph von Dohnányi	Music Director, Orchestre de Paris 2000–	Succeeded by incumbent
Preceded by Wolfgang Sawallisch	Music Director, Philadelphia Orchestra 2003–2008	Succeeded by Charles Dutoit (chief conductor and artistic adviser, designate)