MAHLER, KAPLAN AND THE DEATH OF COURTESY

A pile of invective has been spat onto the internet over the last few weeks about Gilbert Kaplan, the businessman and spare-time conductor, after his New York Philharmonic performance conducting Mahler’s second symphony, known as the "Resurrection", at a charitable concert for the players’ pension fund in December. Whether or not we’re getting smarter, we seem to be getting a lot less professional.

The discussion that’s been bouncing between blogs and forums of varying levels of credibility asks bluntly whether Kaplan is qualified to conduct Mahler’s second symphony. Though he "is acknowledged as the leading technical authority" on the piece (according to The Economist), and has conducted it for more than a quarter century, some are making serious claims against his credentials (and critics rarely forget that Kaplan is a very wealthy man). The seed for the argument is a philippic written by the New York Phil’s own trombonist David Finlayson on his personal blog:

My colleagues and I gave what we could to this rudderless performance but the evening proved to be nothing more than a simplistic reading of a very wonderful piece of music... As a conductor, he can best be described as a very poor beater of time who far too often is unable to keep the ensemble together and allows most tempo transitions to fall where they may.

Finlayson's unabashed vilification of Kaplan has been heralded as courageous--a prime example of the plucky honesty that can surface in this "age of the tell-all blogger". It became news on December 17th in the New York Times and was then picked up elsewhere. The vultures on Amazon.com's classical music forum were quick to smell blood. ("It reflects a lot of what I've thought about Kaplan over the years, and I confess that I enjoy a good roasting.")

But what’s happening here? A trombonist publicly excoriating his guest conductor; a New York Times writer elevating pettiness to the front-page of the Arts section; a music reviewer (of the same paper) qualifying and reprinting his original praise in long form on the internet? In all the hyperlinking and insulting, it’s hard to decide whether this is a triumph for free speech, or material for a children’s sandbox.

The Economist’s Books and Arts editor interviewed Kaplan the morning after the concert. I sat on a very comfortable ottoman, holding the microphone. Exhausted from the night’s performance, Kaplan received us graciously into his beautiful Manhattan apartment. As a longtime Mahler-phile, I was delighted to listen and learn from a man who knew so much and cared so deeply for this composer. I wasn’t struck by an ego, but by a man who had the means and the passion to make his love public.

That zeal for music rings true to me. Mahler rings true to me. What doesn’t is blogging disdain for one’s guest-boss, and defending it by claiming a more genuine musical passion. That’s not music, it’s ego, and it’s unprofessional. ~ COLIN BAKER