Word: slatkin
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...Slatkin will need more than patriotism to transform his new orchestra into the national standard-bearer both he and Wilker envision. The Kennedy Center concert hall's acoustics are extremely poor, and the orchestra's playing is not much better. The most recent program that Slatkin conducted underscored both problems. A joyless, hurried reading of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto featured the prodigy violinist Sarah Chang, 16, who cluelessly bowled her way through the war-horse, leaving Slatkin and the orchestra to catch up as best they could. The Brahms Fourth Symphony was better, benefiting from the sturdy, muscular interpretation that...
...maestros too. After 17 years as music director in St. Louis, during which he transformed a regional orchestra into one of the finest in the country and established himself as a leading proponent of American music, Slatkin, 52, has gained the bully pulpit he has long both desired and deserved. As for the 56-year-old Domingo, an able conductor and pianist, the move to Washington offers an opportunity to prepare for the future as his singing career winds down over the next seven or eight years. Both men have moved quickly to reinvigorate their companies and to reach...
...Slatkin, a baseball fan since childhood whose greatest sacrifice in moving to Washington has been giving up his St. Louis Cardinals season tickets, pointedly devoted his entire opening concert to music by such American composers as Bernstein, Howard Hanson and the Washington-born jazz icon Duke Ellington. "Because you are called the National Symphony," he says, "you have an obligation, not just out of a sense of duty but out of real love, to present the music of your own country. We should be thinking of our own repertoire in the same way that the Austrians view Mozart...
...Slatkin is equally committed to being an active spokesman for the arts in the capital. He acts as host of a weekly show on the local classical radio station, has taken the orchestra to area churches and, most unusual for a big-name conductor, has been handling many of the children's concert's himself rather than assigning them to an assistant. "I think it is crucial that the message to the young people comes from the person in charge of the organization," he says. Privately, he is lobbying Hillary Rodham Clinton on behalf of all American cultural institutions...
Just as in politics, the air in Washington these days is filled with talk of bi-partisan cooperation, and no one would be surprised to see Domingo, who has thus far largely limited his conducting to opera, waving a baton in front of the National Symphony. Indeed, Slatkin has already agreed to conduct an as yet to be determined opera with Domingo's company next fall. "We will have many collaborations," notes Domingo, "with Leonard coming to the opera and me going to the orchestra. I hope that at the end of the Slatkin-Domingo era, something special has happened...