Now Is L.A.’s Time to Pick Up the Baton

Three years ago, a small piece of the Berlin Wall was given to Loyola Marymount University by the city of Berlin. Dutch novelist Cees Nooteboom was at its unveiling and writes in the current issue of the journal Grand Street that “the historical object stood there like an orphan without an orphanage.” For the tourist standing in the Southland sun and feeling the cool breeze from the ocean, this reminder of very dangerous times had been suddenly transformed to “curious, ironic, postmodern detritus.”

That’s L.A. for you, ever the history killer. Berlin, on the other hand, is a history maker, and now we witness the most menacing city of the 20th century feverishly rebuilding itself as a wondrous new culture empire for the 21st. Just one example: The presence of the finest young conductor of our time, Simon Rattle (recently in Southern California to close the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s season and to lead the Ojai Music Festival), would seem to assure Berlin’s continuing musical dominance once he takes over its Philharmonic in two years. Berlin, of course, expects to devastate our claim as city of the future. But, as far as music is concerned, the fight for the future has just begun.

Los Angeles has scored two coups over the past few weeks that should give Berlin, and every other culture capital, reason to pay close attention to the West Coast. Los Angeles Opera’s artistic director-designate, Placido Domingo, named Kent Nagano the company’s first principal conductor, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale selected Grant Gershon to be its next music director. In both cases, these conductors turned down high-profile posts--in Berlin--to make music in Los Angeles.

This is an extraordinary vote of confidence in Los Angeles. So it’s time to dream.

Picture the Performing Arts Center downtown transformed. Frank Gehry’s undulating Disney Concert Hall will be the gleaming new home of the Philharmonic led by Esa-Pekka Salonen and of Gershon’s Master Chorale. Los Angeles Opera, with Nagano on the podium, will expand to help fill the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion calendar. A more youthful, forward-looking, innovative, exciting triumvirate of conductors simply cannot be found anywhere in the country. Salonen and Nagano have stellar careers. Gershon and Nagano are California natives (Nagano surfs!), and the Finnish Salonen has been putting down roots in L.A. Such local ties could provide Los Angeles with an authentic musical identity of its own, something that is increasingly rare in international musical life.

There is every reason to expect that Nagano, 48, will raise Los Angeles Opera to a new musical level. He is an elegant, meticulous conductor. He has great style, and the suaveness of his image, his manner and his musical personality should make the company seem more stylish in all ways. He has an interesting and unpredictable mind. At the Lyon Opera, where he served as music director from 1989 to 1998, he brought the company a new degree of international acclaim by refreshing repertory staples, seeking out interesting neglected works and offering his share of premieres.

He is a star in France and England. In September he begins a major post in Berlin as music director of the city’s second orchestra, the Deutsche Symphonie. It is widely known that he was also offered the musical directorship of the city’s Deutsche Oper, and both posts would have given him a considerable power base in Berlin. But California dreaming is also one of Nagano’s attributes. He still heads the small orchestra, the Berkeley Symphony, with which he began his career 20 years ago. He continues to maintain his home in San Francisco even if he is seldom there.

Los Angeles Opera has, in recent years, done a decent job of attracting audiences and putting its finances in order, but it has made little impact in the opera world at large. Nagano, who has not held a major American post, could change that. He is close to many composers who matter, especially John Adams, whose new biblical passion--with a working title of “El Nino”--premieres in Paris at the end of the year. This summer at the Salzburg Festival, Nagano leads the world premiere of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s opera, “L’Amour de Loin,” starring Dawn Upshaw and Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, directed by Peter Sellars--one the festival’s key events. Nagano’s recording of Messiaen’s “St. Francis of Assisi” was perhaps the most acclaimed opera recording of 1999. In the early ‘90s, shortly after assuming his post as music director at the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, England, he tapped the now exceptionally popular Thomas Ades, then still in his early 20s, as composer-in-association.

As for Gershon, the Berlin post he turned down was assistant to conductor Daniel Barenboim at the other large Berlin opera company, Unter den Linden. Gershon, 39, is an exceptionally versatile musician. He is a quite good pianist and the favored accompanist of such top-name singers as Kiri Te Kanawa. He is a decent singer in his own right. He too has a close relationship with composers, especially Adams. He grew up in Alhambra and served as assistant conductor to Salonen at the Philharmonic for three seasons before moving to New York last year. Salonen has regularly turned to Gershon to help prepare especially difficult works, including Ligeti’s opera, “Le Grand Macabre,” in Salzburg, and Gershon alternated with Claudio Abbado in Peter Brook’s celebrated production of “Don Giovanni” at Aix-en-Province in 1998. He also has a passion and talent for Broadway musicals.

I recall a dress rehearsal in New York a few years ago for Adams’ neo-rock musical “I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky,” which Gershon conducted. One of the principal singers had a cold and was ordered by his doctor not to sing. Gershon, at a moment’s notice, sang the part from the pit while conducting, and he was more impressive than the cast member had been.

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Gershon is capable of bringing historic change to the Master Chorale. Choruses tend to be among the most old-fashioned musical organizations, both in their members and audience. Yet the innovative Gershon is said to be well-liked by the singers; he prepared them, last summer, for Prokofiev’s “Ivan the Terrible” at the Hollywood Bowl, and they sounded spectacular. Both populist and sophisticate, Gershon could help redefine the chorus as a 21st century institution.

The most familiar member of the triumvirate is Salonen, and his value at the Philharmonic is well known. He is perceived as one of the hottest, most exciting, most interesting and most capable conductors in the world, and is that rare music director of an American orchestra still appealing to a major record label (Sony Classical). He is young and shows no sign of having lost his capacity to grow. And given his close relationship with Gershon, his friendly relationships with Domingo and Nagano, we can now anticipate a new spirit of collaboration at the Performing Arts Center, out of which could conceivably grow festivals or other projects that could turn the attention of the world to Los Angeles.

It is a rosy snapshot, but it is not one that will develop spontaneously. A new musical image for Los Angeles will have to be supported and managed by the Performing Arts Center and the resident companies. It just so happens that each one of these organizations has a brand new leader. Deborah Borda took over at the Philharmonic in January; Domingo’s office will be ready for him in a week’s time; the Master Chorale has recently named Terry S. Knowles as its new executive director beginning in July as well; and the Performing Arts Center appointed Joanne Kozberg president in March. But they have their work cut out for them and that work will cost plenty.

To improve the opera orchestra and perform demanding work is expensive. To update the Master Chorale, which has a dedicated audience that is content with light classics mixed in with standard repertory, could be risky. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has been having trouble lately drawing audiences and is in debt. And not everyone in Los Angeles will welcome change or feel that a youth movement is such a good thing.

Many classical music lovers expect to hear tried-and-true masterpieces performed as they always have been performed. For them, the standard repertory offers a respite from the world and a defense against the noisy new. If the letters to this newspaper loathing new music are any indication, there will be opposition to these talented young men.

But the world turns, and most people in the business recognize that classical music must turn with it to survive. Individually, Salonen, Nagano and Gershon are three of the best candidates anywhere to help fuel revolutions. Taken together, they have the potential to make Los Angeles the launching pad for a rocket of 21st century music. It will be up to us to keep it aloft.