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NSO back to square one

Kerry Stratton, left, and Johannes Wildner were unsuccessful in their bids to become the NSO's new music director. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF NSO

In a surprise move on Tuesday, the management of Taiwan's National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) announced that they had not yet succeeded in appointing a new Music Director.

The current Music Director is Chien Wen-pin (簡文彬), and his seven-year contract expires on June 30.

The news followed two "audition concerts" in which the two supposed finalists in the race had conducted the orchestra in varied programs of music, including operatic excerpts, plus one virtuoso concerto item common to both evenings.

The most recent of these events was on Monday, and it was generally felt that the aspiring Music Director who led it, Austrian conductor Johannes Wildner, would be the successful candidate. But it was not to be.

"We will, for sure, invite Mr Wildner in the near future for more concerts," said a member of the management team, adding that the orchestra members had indicated their liking for him. The NSO instrumentalists were asked to mark a card Yes or No after each of the two audition concerts.

Kerry Stratton, left, and Johannes Wildner were unsuccessful in their bids to become the NSO's new music director.

Chien is currently in Dusseldorf, where he spends a significant part of every year with Deutsche Oper am Rhein, one of Germany's most prestigious opera companies. He's due back in Taipei on Monday.

June 29 sees the Taipei premier of Richard Strauss' 1911 opera Der Rosenkavalier. This major event is the fruit of Chien's time with the German opera company. The entire production — scenery, costumes and all the soloists — is being flown in from Dusseldorf, but the orchestral accompaniment will be from the NSO, and Chien will conduct.

The production will be realistic and lavish, and the whole event a fitting conclusion to Chien's pioneering seven years at the NSO's helm, widely held to have been a success story.

In addition, Chien will lead the NSO on a short tour to Japan's Hokkaido next month, where they will play two venues.

Quite how matters will proceed after they return is anyone's guess. Concert schedules will have to be arranged, guest artists engaged, and visiting conductors sought. Some of this will already have been finalized, but with no guiding Music Director in charge, things can at best only proceed on a piecemeal basis.

The NSO will be anxious to avoid the experience of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra which, after the departure of Felix Chen Chui-sen (陳秋盛) towards the end of 2003, struggled on without a Music Director until the eventual appointment of Andras Ligeti over 12 months later. Some critics believe their years under Chen represented a peak of achievement that they have never subsequently managed to equal.

By contrast, the NSO has gone from strength to strength under Chien, becoming the nation's leading producer of opera, and presenting complete symphonic cycles of Beethoven, Mahler and Shostakovich and, most recently, a survey of the instrumental masterworks of Richard Strauss.

Chien's will be a hard act to follow. On the one hand it's understandable that the NSO management wants to come up with as high-profile an appointment as possible. But on the other, a long leaderless period can have unforeseen consequences. Future developments will be watched by the NSO's well-wishers with considerable interest, and not a small degree of concern.
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