The NYTimes Returns to the BSO

Opinion / Editorial.

In its first reporting since the abrupt announcement of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s unilateral dismissal of its Music Director Andris Nelsons in March, The New York Times—perhaps catching wind that The Boston Globe is preparing an in-depth story later this month—has sought to find reasons, not so much for the firing, as for its abruptness and subsequent shock and backlash from musicians and concertgoers. President and CEO Chad Smith, whom insiders report maintained a low profile after the firing, tells The Times, “It was certainly not our intention for this to be rolled out in this manner.”

Which begs the question, so what was your intention? The musicians have maintained publicly that they were not asked for their input on his dismissal. They are also concerned that the board may have been led to believe the players were in agreement with the decision—or had at least been informed of it. They were not, as witnessed by their publicly expressed outrage and desire to get their beloved maestro back.

That won’t be happening either, says Smith.

“That’s off the table,” he tells The Times. Nelsons isn’t being rehired and Smith isn’t quitting. Clearly he has the backing of the board of directors, or more pointedly, its Chairman Barbara Hostetter, wife of multi-billionaire Amos Hostetter and among the most elite of the Boston elite.

The players have attempted to ask what the board was/was not told about their agreement in Nelsons’s dismissal. There has been no response to this question. But they point out that they were required to start negotiating a new contract (the current one expires at the end of August) the very month Nelsons was fired. With that fact in hand, the timing of Nelsons’s dismissal looks pre-planned. Was it a coincidence or was it meant to handcuff the players from open discussions going into negotiations? 

The BSO opens its Tanglewood season in two weeks. Firing a much-beloved music director without proper input from and preparation for those he directly impacts has created a toxic web of distrust. “It’s almost a kind of vandalism” principal flute Lorna McGhee tells the Times.

The New York Times