The Philadelphia Orchestra

My wife and I used to have season tickets to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The tickets were for 6 concerts over the course of the season. The first time we went, it was the last concert in the old concert hall. The new Kimmel Center had just been finished and the orchestra was moving in. It was just dumb luck really, but it was nice to hear one concert in the Academy of Music before they moved.

It also turned out to be Wolfgang Sawallich's last year with the Orchestra. Health problems forced him to retire. Christoph Eschenbach replaced him the next year. He had a 5 year contract and he only lasted 5 years. I'm not sure what the problem was. The music he selected was different than Sawallich's and perhaps the powers that be in the orchestra didn't care for it. Also mentioned was a lack of chemistry. I guess it really doesn't matter.

Another problem we had was during his last 2 years. The orchestra had scheduled a special 4 concert series of more modern music for those who like that sort of thing. But they apparently didn't want to just play these concerts one time. A waste of good practice time, I guess. So they scheduled a second series of these 4 concerts which unfortunately, were 4 out of the 6 concerts that we attended. Perhaps some people liked them. We didn't like them at all. So when they did it again the next year, we immediately exchanged those 4 concerts for 4 others. Fortunately, you could do that.

That was probably the best season we went to under Eschenbach, because we were able to pick the 4 concerts we really wanted to see. However, when we went to the 2 concerts from that season that were programmed with more traditional music, we found that the concert hall was virtually empty. Most of the people that listened to this music the first season simply cancelled or switched series instead of changing individual concerts. This was also Eschenbach's final season.

The next season, of course, they cancelled the series altogether and we had to select a different night.

For a lead conductor, they brought in Charles Dutoit. The NY Times says he has a "caretaker role" as chief conductor and music director, and that his contract is for 4 years. We attended for his first 2 seasons but didn't like the choice of music in those seasons so we aren't going back this year, and probably not next year either.

I hope they find someone that selects music that is more to my liking. I'll miss them over the next couple of years.

Where is Wolfgang Sawallich when you really need him?

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There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself. - Johann Sebastian Bach