Word: conductor
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...almost a half-century, the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Conductor Eugene Ormandy was one of the most gloriously distinctive in music. Inheriting a spirited ensemble from his flamboyant predecessor, Leopold Stokowski, Ormandy refined it until the strings turned to silk, the woodwinds to amber, the brass to gold. If Ormandy's interpretations of safe repertory standards such as Beethoven and Brahms symphonies were not always individual, the ravishing tonal beauty of his orchestra was often reward enough. "The Philadelphia sound -- it's me!" Ormandy said proudly, and it was less a boast than a statement of fact...
After an extraordinary 44-year tenure, the Hungarian-born Ormandy was succeeded in 1980 by Italian Conductor Riccardo Muti, now 44. Musical standards had slipped during Ormandy's last years, but under Muti things began to change. Out went the creamy, homogenized textures Ormandy had favored; in their place came a greater technical precision and attention to style in a vastly widened repertory. Out also went the monogamous relationship Ormandy and the city had enjoyed. Muti, conductor laureate of London's Philharmonia Orchestra, declared that Philadelphia would have to share his services with other leading musical organizations; indeed, later this...
...orchestra has won widespread praise for transforming itself from a hidebound institution into a more flexible, even innovative ensemble. Still, some listeners ask: At what price? Along with its former way of playing, has the orchestra also shed its soul? The musicians say no. In fact, they sing their conductor's praises so enthusiastically that they are referred to in musical circles, only half jokingly, as "Muti's Moonies." "Muti has been touched by God," says Concertmaster Norman Carol, who has held the post for 20 years. "He has given us all new musical life." Music Critic Daniel Webster...
Undeniably, Muti has revitalized the orchestra. "This is one of the very few orchestras in the world that can do all kinds of music with great achievement," says the conductor. "Now, when the orchestra performs four different pieces, it sounds like four different orchestras...
...that the orchestra has lost its soul are those who wanted it to remain the same way forever. This has been a great orchestra from the time of Stokowski. But Stokowski's personality was much different from Ormandy's, and it is natural that with the change of the conductor, the orchestra, having another experience, will also change. When I took the orchestra, my purpose was not to destroy the past but to continue the chain...