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Tassos Kolydas: The repertoire of the Philharmonic Orchestra of New York, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos Selecting the works which consist a concert's program is an important tool for the conductor's artistic vision. In the case of Dimitri Mitropoulos, the formulation of his programs served a specific purpose: to attract the widest possible audience to music, especially music that had not yet become well known. Modern technology has endowed musicology with such a wide range of tools and methods that has facilitated the examination of the sources in a unique environment. Media digitization, data storing in large databases, information sharing through the Internet and compatibility among differnet sources, have enabled the musicologist to work in a way that has never been possible before. The Philharmonic Orchestra of New York is one of the oldest orchestras in operation today. The orchestra is regarded as one of the most significant in the United States with more than fifteen thousand concerts. In the photo we see the members of the orchestra on a ship deck during the first tour in Europe on 1930, with "maestro" Arturo Toscanini in the middle. Data from the archives of the orchestra were recently made available to the public through the Internet.
One of the most important parts of the data provided is a full, cross-checked, catalog of all the concerts of the orchestra including the performances of the works. It deserves the title of the "largest performance history database of its kind". The period examined through this study starts in 1928, when the modern history of the orchestra began, and reaches up to 2009, when its previous conductor's service was completed. Even, at a first glance we can draw some conclusions. We can clearly notice the impact of the great recession which hit the United States during the 1930's, followed by the outbreak of World War II. The involvement of the United States in the war did not affect the performances of the orchestra in a negative way. On the contrary it is associated with a rapid increase on the activity of the orchestra between 1941-1944. It seems that the American audience was rather indifferent toward what was happening in the European continent. From the early '60s up to our time, the frequency of the orchestra's performances was maintained more or less the same, with an average of 195 concerts per season. In other words, between two concerts of the orchestra, there is a gap of less than one day on average. If we take out the time for the required rehearsals and the time spent travelling to different cities or countries during the tours, we realize that the orchestra is in constant activity. At this point, it should be stressed out that none of the charts shown here, was taken directly from the orchestra's archives. Data have been previously processed in some way, in order to generate what is shown here. In the case of the annual number of concerts, for example, the data derived from more than eight thousand programs, which correspond to more than fourteen thousand concerts. The archive contains all the concerts given by Dimitri Mitropoulos with the Philharmonic Orchestra of New York. It is the peak of his career as a conductor, considering the international prestige of the orchestra, the level he had achieved as a conductor and the fact that his cooperation with the Philharmonic was the last permanent contract he ever had. One of the dilemmas that showed up during the process of Mitropoulos repertoire, was related to the evaluation criteria which would be used in order to draw conclusions; what could be used as a standard that would lead to solid conclusions? The most profound way proved to be, that the evaluation criteria should be taken from the archive of the orchestra itself. The artists selected for comparison were the conductors who took a leading position in the orchestra; those who where appointed as directors of the orchestra, principal conductors, or held similar posts. As expected, these conductors had the higher number of appearances with the Orchestra. Moreover, their choices in the repertoire represent the character of the orchestra and the opinion of the Board (that hired them). The conductors examined are the following: Arturo Toscanini, sir John Barbirolli, Artur Rodziński, Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Leonard Bernstein, George Szell, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. As observed, from 1941 when Barbirolli left the orchestra, until 1948 when Mitropoulos took over, many new faces appeared on the podium. The short service of new conductors, the fact that the orchestra had no principal conductor for a time, as well as positions such as "co-principal conductor" and "music advisor" that were invented, if not prove, at least provide evidence that the orchestra was in a constant search. Table 2: Principal conductors of the Orchestra Table 3: Conductors per season During this period, the total number of conductors who appeared with the orchestra each season was significantly altered. During the period 1940-1945, the rapid increase of guest conductors was associated with the war in progress, and the opportunity provided by the United States for better conditions. A different kind of "war" was going on, around the orchestra: it was the struggle of many candidates to take the position of the principal conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra. Table 4: Concerts of the Orchestra, conducted by Mitropoulos, per season Dimitri Mitropoulos was one of those candidates. Throughout the 1940's he conducted the orchestra many times as a guest conductor. Apostolos Kostios has called this period as "the time of Troy's conquest".In December 1948, Mitropoulos was appointed co-director, along with Leopold Stokowski. On the next season, the orchestra's Board decided to keep him with an exclusive contract as the Director of the orchestra. In December 1952 Mitropoulos suffered from a heart attack that forced him to stay away from any activity for three months. The collaboration with the orchestra lasted until the season 1957-1958. In January 1959 he suffered a severe heart attack, which undermined his health. The last time he appeared on the podium of the orchestra was in the early 60s, during the celebrations of the centenary of Gustav Mahler's birth. Overall, he conducted five hundred and four programs during six hundred and eighty-four concerts. The majority of those concerts was given at Carnegie Hall. Therefore, Mitropoulos during his service, had the opportunity to "educate" not only his musicians but also his audience. Table 5: Correlation between programs (dark color) and concerts (lighter color) per season of the Orchestra An important conclusion has to do with the frequency of a program's repetition. Sometimes the same program is performed on more than one concerts. The repetition frequency of the programs, vary by season. There are two distinct periods regarding the repetition frequency of the programs: the first period is until the 1957-1958 season and the second from that season up to our time. It is evident that in the first period the repetition frequency of the same program is less comparing with the second, where we observe an "industrialization of production." The fact that the change occurred at the same time with the termination of Mitropoulos direction, might not be irrelevant. The narrow "path" observed in the period 1939-1945 is due to the large number of guest conductors, which was discussed earlier; as expected, the programs of guest conductors had a small number of repetitions. It seems that during the Mitropoulos direction, emphasis was given in presenting original programs. Table 6: Repetition of the same program This assumption is confirmed by comparing the repetition frequency of programs among the other principal conductors of the orchestra. Mitropoulos holds the lowest rate, with an average of 1.36 repetitions per program. The originality of the Mitropoulos programs certainly required a larger number of rehearsals. If we also take into account that the maestro directed the works from memory, we conclude that Mitropoulos was one of the hardest working conductors of the orchestra. However, hard work and dedication to his "mission", had a fatal impact to his health. Alas, fifty years later, his country was going to be stigmatized for laziness. Mitropoulos' preference of not repeating the same program is revealed in the frequency distribution, where the majority of his programs are played once, or repeated for a second time. In an extreme opposite case, Pierre Boulez preferred to perform the same program for three or four times, when he had the option. Table 7: Repetition frequency distribution between programs by Dimitri Mitropoulos (left) and Pierre Boulez (right) Table 8: Number of composers in the conductor's repertoire The compilation of a program holds extreme importance for the conductor in order to achieve his goal. Therefore, the examination of works and composers contained in Mitropoulos programs, reveal his intentions. In his repertoire we discover the largest number of composers, measured in absolute values. It goes without saying, that his attempt to present the work of many young composers was a risk. The critics opposed his efforts to promote works not established in the concert programs. Table 9: Number of works in the conductor's repertoire Similarly, the number of works included in his repertoire was very large, occupying the third position among his colleagues. Given that most works were written by contemporary composers, the required efforts for the presentation of the program were even greater: the musicians were not aware of the works and not properly trained to the style of each composer; what is more, the works were not in the orchestra's library and they should be acquired in some way, while the cost of rent and the preparation from the copiers were significant.
Table 10: Composers in Toscanini (left) and Mitropoulos (right) repertoire on the ⅔ of executions The frequency of a composer's appearance in concert programs, is a valuable source of information about the conductor's intentions, the taste of the audience, the opinion of music critics, the orchestra's Board etc. Mitropoulos aimed to meet all these, in a remarkable balance. In order to evaluate his attitude we must previously outline the context in which he acted. We will compare it with the repertoire of Arturo Toscanini, the representative of an older school, who had held the position of the director, two decades before Mitropoulos. In Toscanini's preferences, the works of Wagner and Beethoven stand out by far. If we sum the performances of Beethoven's works together with the excerpts from Wagner's operas, we conclude that one third of the works performed under Toscanini came out from the pen of the two composers. The range of Toscanini's repertoire appears rather narrow, given that on the two thirds of the performances, only twelve composers are included.In the case of Mitropoulos, at the same rate, twice as many composers are included. On the mode, we see the undoubtedly most popular composer of symphonic music; Beethoven. But his percentage is much lower than in Toscanini's repertoire. In the first five positions we recognize the "three Bs": Bach, Beethoven, Brahms. Also, the distribution among composers is much more equal. More opportunities to be performed were given to composers of the 20th century like: Prokofiev, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, de Falla, Mahler, Gould, Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Schoenberg etc. Table 11: Composers in Boulez (left) and Maazel (right) repertoire on the ⅔ of executions After Mitropoulos left, and especially during the 1970s, the programs were based heavily on avant-garde music. During the direction of Pierre Boulez, the top rank in the composer's graph was radicaly redistributed. Beethoven sank to the 11th position with a percentage of only 3.5%. At the top appear composers such as: Stravinsky, Bartók, Webern, etc. Three decades later, the new millennium would bring back music of the romantic era. In the repertoire of Lorin Maazel, the music of the century that had just finished was ranked in second place after the music of the 19th century. Composers such as Brahms and Beethoven returned on the top positions. Table 12: Mahler's performances in the repertoire of the Orchestra The performances of Mahler's work by Mitropoulos, has attracted the attention of musicologists. The orchestra's archive reveals that Mitropoulos did not include Mahler's works with greater frequency than other conductors who were active before or after him. For example, Mahler's performances by Mitropoulos (1.52%) hold a lower percentage than Bruno Walter's (4,45%). Therefore, the strong impression that was given to the public and the critics by Mitropoulos' performances of Mahler, should be searched elsewhere and not in numbers. Furthermore, Mitropoulos presented the first performance of the 6th and 10th Symphonies of Mahler, and thanks to him, the New York audience re-discovered the 3rd, 4th and 7th Symphony, many years after it's previous performance. Finally some of the most interesting findings about the configuration of the programs are the following: The three works performed with greater frequency by Mitropoulos were " El sombrero de tres picos" by Manuel de Falla, from which he often played the second or the last part, the introduction of "Der Freischütz" by Carl Maria von Weber and the Symphony No. 5 by Sergey Prokofiev. 81.5% of the programs include at least one symphonic work. 58% of the programs contain a "concerto"; of these, 80% combine a Concerto with a Symphony. Each program typically includes three to five works. As far as the structure of the programs is concerned, the first work is usually some kind of introduction (for example overture), with usually one break in the program.The composers with the most appearances in the beginning of the program are: Bach, Mozart and Weber, and at the end, Brahms, Beethoven, and de Falla.
Bibliography Howard Shanet, Philharmonic: A History Of New York's Orchestra, New York 1975, Doubleday Apostolos Kostios, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Athens 1985 Apostolos Kostios, "The 'War of Troi' / the time of 'Troy's conquest' ", I Kathimerini, Athens 26.5.1996, pp. 14-18 New York Philharmonic Archives, http://history.nyphil.org, 2011 |
