TIME OUT NEW YORK
July 18, 2002

HOME IMPROVEMENT
Kurt Masur exits the New York Philharmonic after restoring its sound and sprit

by Steve Smith

Finally, it all comes down to this: On Thursday 18, Kurt Masur will mount the podium at Avery Fisher Hall for his last local appearance as music director of the New York Philharmonic. World premieres by Lukas Foss and Siegfried Matthus promised for the concert didn't materialize; instead, the program, which marks Masur's 75th birthday, will offer showpieces meant to demonstrate the orchestra's prowess and spotlight its principal players.

That's okay: Masur loaded his final subscription concerts in May with weightier fare. He's earned the right to bask in the glow of his considerable accomplishments. The concert concludes a mission he embarked upon 11 years ago, if not exactly completing it.

When Masur came to New York in 1991 after a 26-year tenure with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the standards and reputation of the Philharmonic had suffered during the previous decade. Before he could move forward, Masur first had to establish a sense of camaraderie with the wary ensemble.

"In the beginning, the orchestra had a mistrust of conductors," Masur recalls. "This was the barrier I had to overcome, and I knew it needed time [with] an orchestra which was sometimes mistreated—not, I have to say absolutely clearly, by [Masur's predecessor] Zubin Mehta, but by guest conductors who were not of the same quality."

Masur honed performance standards with a firm hand, but made it clear that he was also intent on restoring the orchestra's dignity. More than simply patching the Philharmonic's sound, he salved its spirit. "The technical ability was always there," he says, "but an audience can only understand what the music means if the entire orchestra shares the same sense of commitment to each other."

Among the many achievements of his tenure, Masur takes particular pride in having reclaimed the music of Bach at a time when it was virtually unheard of for a modern orchestra to play Baroque music. He also feels that he has fostered greater acceptance of contemporary music among Philharmonic audiences through such programs as "Messages for the Millennium."

Beyond those internal changes, Masur restored the orchestra's public profile, recording frequently until the industry took a nosedive, and bringing the Philharmonic back to local and national radio. Investing in the future, he increased the orchestra's cooperation with conservatories and young conductors.

Despite those achievements, much-ballyhooed conflicts with the Philharmonic's board and former executive director—characterized by the press as a clash between an Old World autocrat and a democratic American institution—eventually led to Masur's contract not being renewed. Even critics who had been equivocal about Masur's performances decried the condition that compelled his departure.

As the denouement to this undignified drama, Masur has been feted with an impressive ten-CD box set of live recordings made during his tenure (an accompanying book reads like an extended valentine) and three weeks of valedictory programs that focused on his favored repertoire. At the final subscription concert on June 1, the Philharmonic named Masur music director emeritus—the first conductor to be so honored since Leonard Bernstein.

However awkward and belated, those gestures were clearly genuine. As Masur turns his attention to the London Philharmonic (where he is principal conductor) and Orchestre National de France (where he becomes music director in September) the New York Philharmonic knows that it is a much better orchestra for his having been here.

"We grew together, and we worked hard to make sure that the orchestra was better known in New York," Masur says. "It was the only way to achieve what we did: The orchestra is proud and aware that it is highly respected. Thus, without a doubt, I would say it is among the five best orchestras in the world."