Downsizing and mergers are old hat in the world economy, although always a jolt for those getting downsized or merged out of their jobs. Arts organizations are not immune to these phenomena, and arguably are at greater risk, because of their non-profit nature. One such manifestation is to occur next fall in Germany, with the merger of the Southwest German Radio (Sudwestdeutsche Rundfunk, or SWR) Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg (SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg) with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR), under the umbrella name of the latter. A lot of controversy attended to this merger, and alarm, since this was in Germany, after all, one of the core nations for orchestras and classical music. The merger decision went down in 2012, but 3CM brings it up now for the standard reasons that regulars can guess. Namely, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg made its debut this past Wednesday night at The Proms in London. However, as the intro implies, this was not only the orchestra’s first appearance there, but also….
…..its final appearance there. This was their program(me):
Pierre Boulez: ... explosante-fixe ...
Gyorgy Ligeti: Lontano
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Sophie Cherrier, flute soloist (Boulez)
SWR Experimental Studio (Boulez)
SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg
François-Xavier Roth, conductor
Pretty heavy duty on the modern stuff, although the only work by a living composer was the Boulez, and he's 90 this year. My understanding was that the audience was pretty small, although rain that day in London may not have helped, for those who queue for standing room outside to get the cheap standing places at £5. Even with good weather, the audience size might have been small. You can listen for another 4 weeks or so via the BBC iPlayer as follows:
(a) Part 1
(b) Intermission feature to introduce Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra
(c) Part 2
I don’t claim to understand all the politics behind the scenes of the moves to merge the two orchestras, although it’s easy to imagine that the “party line” reasons always have to do with money, and economizing (i.e. "why does our radio network support so many orchestras? What do they bring in?") One German-language article by Götz Thieme in the Stuttgarter Zeitung here postulates that the SWR Intendant (lead administrator), Peter Boudgoust, timed this proposal such as to give parties in Stuttgart and Freiburg not enough time to come up with good ideas to try to keep both orchestras alive, so as to catch the broadcast council at an optimal time for ‘austerity mania’. I don’t read German, and I was trying to work quickly from a Google Translation of Thieme’s article, so I don’t doubt that I’m missing a lot of nuances. Maybe audiences have fallen off for that orchestra in recent years. Maybe there really is financial stress, and economization is needed to some degree. I don’t know.
But the point is that the damage is done, as posted by the SWR here (again, brush up your German), where the SWR pooh-bahs made their decision in September 2012 to merge the two orchestras. Thus in September 2016, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden und Freiburg name will disappear, after 70 years of existence. It’s a shame, because this orchestra has quite the history for premiering new music and advocating for 20th/21st century music. One of the works that this orchestra premiered was Ligeti’s Lontano, so it was fitting to feature it on this Proms concert. (If you think you haven’t heard this work, if you saw Martin Scorsese’s film Shutter Island, you actually have heard a bit of it.) Reviews of the concert are available from:
1. Andrew Clements, The Guardian
2. Peter Quantrill, The Arts Desk blog
3. George Slater-Walker, bachtrack.com website
4. Doundou Tchil, Classical Iconoclast blog
Having listened to it on iPlayer, IMHO, this was a good, though not necessarily great, concert. I’m always open to hearing contemporary music, even if I sort of know that I might not like it after giving it a shot. Sophie Cherrier did a great job in the Boulez, that I could tell, but for me, too much of it stayed in the same dynamic range for too long stretches at a time. Even more than usual with live orchestral music, it probably sounded a lot better live in the hall. The Ligeti Lontano sounded very good, as it should with this orchestra’s history with the work, although I don’t know the work from recordings well enough to compare it to anything. In other words, everything seemed to be in place, and nothing seemed out of whack.
The Bartók is much more familiar ground for classical geeks like self, of course. Here, again, things sounded fine, but not earth-shattering, again IMHO. One quirk of Roth’s interpretation was that between the 1st and 2nd movements, and also between the 3rd and 4th movements, he had the orchestra pretty much dive into the next movement virtually without a break. Normally, there are distinct breaks between the 5 movements, but this was obviously Roth’s “take” on the structure of the work. I prefer having the breaks, since there’s enough contrast between each of the movements that I like a mental breather. But it’s his choice, so there we are.
After the happy ending of the Bartók, and the audience applauded, Roth, the orchestra's principal conductor, made a speech, where he mentioned the merger. The speech is all the more touching for being in slightly fractured English, as is often the case. You can listen to it towards the end of the Part II iPlayer link above, but for convenience, here’s a transcript:
"It's lots of emotions for us tonight, because it's the very first time this orchestra visits The Proms. And the programme of tonight is exactly what this orchestra did for 70 years, to be equally on the avant-garde of the repertoire. And this piece that you heard, the Ligeti, was premiered by this orchestra, and so many more. And as it is a great emotion to be for the first time, it's a very big sadness to be for the last time, because this orchestra will be merged with another orchestra in Germany. And that to say, all the pieces that we played tonight were for the utopie of arts. But for the arts, we need orchestras."
The audience gave very warm applause after Roth’s first sentence of the speech, as you can imagine, and there were a few quick claps when he mentioned that this orchestra had premiered
Lontano. Right after Roth mentioned the merger, on the audio, you can hear scattered groans and shouts of "Shame" from the audience. At the very end, after Roth said "we need orchestras", you can also hear cries of "Hear, hear" and more applause.
The bloggers had more room than Clements in his Guardian review to comment on the merger (this isn’t Clements' fault, as Guardian reviews are generally capped at something like 300-350 words, and he has a known sympathy for contemporary music). While some of the comments sound a bit hyperbolic, the sentiments are understandable:
Slater-Walker: "To see the musicians walk off stage hugging each other and walking off stage arm in arm was genuinely tearjerking. The loss of the orchestra that premièred Lontano and which has, for 70 years, proselytised passionately for new music will be keenly felt by the classical music world."
Tchil: "When bureaucrats win over musicianly excellence, even in Germany, it's a blow against art. Those who stand by watching the BBC being dismantled, from within as well as from without, would do well to ponder. The SWR Symphony Orchestra isn't just another orchestra. It was founded by Hans Rosbaud in 1946, as a statement of faith in the renewal of Europe after the barbarism of the war years. Its demise is thus one of the many symptoms of the anti-intellectual, destructive fundamentalism that's sweeping the world over."
Quantrill noted one touching final send-off from the Proms audience (
emphasis mine):
"Tears were shed, and after they had played the first section of Schubert’s Rosamunde interlude for an encore, the musicians were applauded off the stage. In my 25 years of Proms attendance, this has occurred once before, with the first visit of the Berlin Philharmonic. We would have applauded them back on, had they more music to play. More than sentiment lay behind the warmth of their reception and the bitter regret of their departure. They will be missed, most of all by the composers who will not now gain a hearing, or an expert reading, and the rest of us will be poorer for it. Who will play the new music?"
Quantrill actually answered his own question at the start of his review:
"The only reasonable explanation for the all too belated arrival at the Proms of the SWR Baden-Baden and Freiburg Orchestra is that the festival’s house band, the BBC Symphony, is the one other ensemble reasonably entitled to claim the title of best orchestra for new music in the world."
Of course, the subtext of Quantrill’s question is “Who will play the new music in Germany?” Germany has the Ensemble Modern, for one, and no doubt there will remain scattered performances of new works by various German ensembles, including those not affiliated with any German radio networks. We shall see.
The other subtext of this story is the implications for the BBC, especially given the touchy situation of funding, the license fee, etc., such as blogged at DK by Lib Dem FoP here. The new Controller of Radio 3, Alan Davey, is undoubtedly aware of funding crisis concerns, as reported in The Guardian by Stephen Moss last month:
‘Is his budget – reckoned to be more than £60m, though he says it’s hard to enumerate exactly because some costs are split across stations – safe in the current chilly climate? “I have no reason to believe it’s not,” he says. Are all five orchestras safe when radio bands across Europe are being cut? “I’m under no pressure to get rid of one.”
You hope he’s right, but as the BBC’s funding comes under increasing pressure, it is likely that the station and the other parts of Davey’s empire will be forced to take a hit. He will need all his civil service-bred dexterity and diplomacy to protect his domain – no doubt one of the reasons he was chosen in the first place.
'Radio 3, the Proms and the performing groups are a cultural institution at the centre of the BBC’s mission to educate, entertain and inform,' he says. 'If we end up with significantly less income then, yes, protecting these cultural jewels will become harder. That’s why we have to fight to make sure the settlement and charter really do work for the BBC; otherwise our ability to broadcast the range of works we do may be endangered.""
One can only hope. Fingers crossed for the BBC, Radio 3, and especially the musicians of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden und Freiburg who won't be part of the combined orchestra (and for the musicians who will be part of the combined orchestra also). There is one final summer for the orchestra in 2016 before the merger, and it’s probably much, too much to hope that someone at the BBC Proms thought ahead, and booked them a 2016 summer date as a last hurrah. Again, extremely unlikely, but maybe, just maybe?
With that, you can:
(1) Maybe give the concert a listen, and comment on it; or
(2) Observe the standard SNLC protocol.
Or just comment generally, i.e. none of the above :) .