Tuesday, November 04, 2003

By Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic

It's not every day a conductor wishes orchestra members and patrons would pay less attention to him. But it's not every day a conductor is under the extra scrutiny of being considered for a top music directorship.

	Conductor David Zinman, who resigned from the Baltimore Symphony five years ago, has not ruled out leading an American orchestra again.

American conductor David Zinman is trying to treat his guest appearance this weekend with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra just as he did his last visit in 2001. But he knows many more eyes and ears will be on him this go-around at Heinz Hall because he's one of the top candidates to succeed music director Mariss Jansons, who leaves after this season.

"I find it unfortunate that you have to work in a kind of goldfish bowl like that, where people are saying, 'Is this the person? Is this the person we want?'" says Zinman from his home in Cape May, N.J.

But that's what you get when you're a big fish in that shallow pond of top conductors. Five years ago, many thought Zinman, one of the best American conductors of his generation, would never lead a U.S. orchestra again.

"I could've given that impression," says Zinman, 67, of the contentious end to his 13-year tenure with the Baltimore Symphony and his success in Europe (Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra).

	Pittsburgh Symphony Program: David Zinman, conductor. Andres Cardenes, violin, Roberto Sierra, viola. Where: Heinz Hall, Downtown. When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets:$19.25-$65.25. 412-392-4900.

Unhappy with its artistic direction, he resigned from Baltimore in 1998, criticizing the orchestra for becoming "more and more conservative." Since this could easily be an indictment of most American orchestras, many assumed he had no desire to come back to native soil. But he never ruled out a return and now is actively considering it.

"If there is a situation that comes along that really is attractive to me and I feel I can do something, then I am interested always."

Might the destination orchestra be Pittsburgh's? Representatives from the PSO approached Zinman this summer about his interest in the position.

"I told them that it really depends on who the new executive director is and who the new board president is," he says. "Then I would be open to talking about it."

The issue for Zinman is not the proficiency of the orchestra: "The personnel of the Pittsburgh Symphony are terrific. It is a matter, at my age, of really finding someone who can make my dreams come true, as far as an executive director is concerned, as far as a board president is concerned."

The recent appointment of CEO Lawrence Tamburri means both positions are now filled (in one person), which has Zinman paying attention. "I have heard very good things about him."

He also told the PSO he was under contract in Zurich until 2007.

"I really have a lot of work with [Zurich], and I know what I am doing through 2006." Indications from within the PSO are, however, that it already concedes that no music director will be in place until at least the 2006-07 season, making the fit possible.

There's no question that the delicate dance that is the PSO's search for a music director, paused during the long search for a CEO, will gain momentum this weekend with Zinman's visit, and later when other candidates arrive, such as Sir Andrew Davis.

"It is very important for the musicians to hear and see them conduct," says PSO chairman Richard Simmons. The evaluation sheets requested from each PSO member after the visit of any guest conductor are crucial to the search process.

It may mean some extra pressure on the visiting conductors, but for the rest of us -- let's just say that if it weren't fun to watch goldfish, there wouldn't be so many aquariums.

Promoter of new music

Zinman has achieved the rare position of conductor as complete package. He has a reputation of being a maverick yet an orchestra builder, of being an innovative programmer yet a solid technician and of being a champion of new music yet an interpreter of the classics. Add the fact that he has had success with American orchestras under economic strain and it's understandable that the PSO, avowedly interested in American conductors, would be attracted to the dynamo from New York.

Zinman took a less beaten path to the top. At the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he could occasionally be seen doing stand-up comedy. At the University of Minnesota, he got a master's degree, not in conducting but in composing, and shared an office with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Dominick Argento.

Granted in 1961, he said, his degree fanned the flames he already felt for new music.

"I wrote a lot of music in the three years I was in Minnesota, but I never wanted to be a composer," he says. "It was a great way of actually understanding how composers compose, and that helps me in my interpretive work."

Famed conductor Pierre Monteux was impressed enough by Zinman at Tanglewood to invite him out of graduate school to be an assistant with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1963, Zinman's career took off with an appearance at the Holland Festival, and it wasn't long before he was guesting at ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra. He took over the Rotterdam Philharmonic from 1977 to 1982 and led the Rochester Philharmonic from 1974 to 1985.

But it was during his tenure in Baltimore, from 1985 to 1998, that Zinman made his name. He's credited as a promoter of new music who built up the regional orchestra into a highly respected, frequently recorded ensemble.

"I tried to think of concerts that people would like to go to," he says with a chuckle. "Not just the same old stuff all the time."

Not that he doesn't love the standard repertory: "I love to go to a concert of a Brahms symphony -- this music transcends everything. We need this music to really realize that we are human beings, that this is the best part of humanity. But there are so many other ways of doing it."

Though Zinman left sooner than he might have liked to, his recording legacy remains. His more than 100 discs with Baltimore and other orchestras have landed him five Grammy Awards and two Grands Prix du Disque. His recording of Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 with London Sinfonietta and Dawn Upshaw is one of the most successful in classical music history.

His catalog has grown considerably as music director of the Tonhalle Orchestra, with whom he has recorded complete Beethoven symphonies and Strauss tone poems, impressive in these days of recording retrenchment. Another Tonhalle CD, of flute concertos by Khachaturian and Ibert with Emmanuel Pahud, has just been released on EMI.

"Unfortunately, the big-name orchestras have stopped recording," says Zinman. "I am actually recording more than most conductors are with their orchestras. I am very lucky. I have a terrific orchestra which is getting better, and I am quite satisfied with what's going on there."

Runs Aspen festival

But Zinman's greatest achievement may be running the Aspen Music Festival and creation of the American Academy of Conducting. Fully confronting the dearth of American conductors in top positions, he works with 20 hand-picked students each year for nine weeks.

"We have a program which is second to none, with an orchestra devoted just to playing for these young conductors."

Whether he wants another orchestra devoted to playing for him, and whether the PSO centers on him as its front-runner will only be answered with time and a series of rehearsals and performances. In either case, patrons will get a reminder that the much-maligned American conducting pool has some pretty good fish in its sea.

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