ORCHESTRE DE PARIS
But in early 1989 Barenboim was suddenly fired from his job as music director of the new Bastille Opera, an episode Barenboim would sum up as “a chapter of lies and breach of contract.” Whatever the outcome of the mounting Paris controversy, one thing was sure–his appointment as music director of the CSO would give him more power in the negotiations. So the decision was made to move up the public announcement of his Chicago appointment, which Solti, not looking forward to being a lame duck in his final years here, had wanted to keep quiet for as long as possible. But even Solti could see that his friend was in trouble, and he used the announcement to cut his already short time in Chicago next season by two weeks (down to six). Solti decided, in effect, to share his music directorship with Barenboim for two seasons until Barenboim takes over in the fall of 1991.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Although Richard Thomas, chairman of the Orchestral Association, actually made the announcement, he was flanked by Solti, who canonized the controversial decision. Solti used the opportunity to praise his friend and the choice, and made reference several times that week to the fact that Barenboim, who is 46, had done a marvelous job refining the French orchestra that Solti had given up on and handed to Barenboim 14 years earlier. “You will hear what a first-class orchestra he has formed there when they come here next month,” he boasted. There it was–a musical icon offering a public-relations face-lift to a conductor generally thought of as immature and to an orchestra generally thought of as second-rate.
But what of Barenboim’s programming ability? If this concert is an indication, it is disappointing. What does it accomplish to have a huge overdose of Debussy, regardless of how well the works are performed? As an item on a symphonic program–particularly one that is well stuffed with the meat and potatoes of central European tradition (the Austro-German repertoire)–a large work of Debussy can clear the palate between works, or serve as a scrumptious dessert. A whole evening of Debussy has the cumulative effect of eating a box of napoleons. Even some Ravel or Faure would have offered the relief of a chocolate eclair.
In conducting the Debussy program–at least Images, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and La mer–Barenboim adequately solved all the performing problems of balance, articulation, and dynamics, although his sense of ensembling, especially among the strings, was consistently weak. This is the same problem that was so obvious in his October concerts with the CSO, although it was less pronounced in this program because the often nebulous character of Debussy can conceal inexact execution. I asked him about this problem at last month’s press conference, but he dismissed it as a matter of opinion. Opinion has nothing to do with it. Either the strings are playing their lines together as written by the composer, or they are not. It is not a question of whether or not a listener agrees with a chosen tempo or a style of interpretation, but whether a conductor can keep a section together. But perhaps this is a problem that Barenboim will strive to correct, even if he couldn’t admit it in public.
