The Plain Dealer, I read in Cool Cleveland, has reassigned music critic Donald Rosenberg from covering the Cleveland Orchestra to covering, well, it sounds like any other musical event in town so long as the Orchestra’s not there.
I’m unsure of how to deal with the Orchestra on this blog for one reason: I used to work there. No, no, not as some spotlight virtuoso as everyone always assumes — as if an orchestra of 100 players can function autonomously. As if the concertmaster puts his own stand onstage, and the principal oboist mails out tickets. As if I would’ve quit.
When I first started at the Orchestra, my dad said I would get to see it “with its pants off.” And I did: this cultural force, profoundly venerable, public faces of which made me weak in the knees, I dove into its human mess. And like any other organization run by humans, it was messy. It was smart, it was dense, it was political, but no matter the mess, I still felt lucky to be there. My respect for the institution remained intact despite lower squabbles, and so I want to avoid delving too deeply into my experience there for all the world to see.
While I was at the Orchestra, Donald Rosenberg had an internal reputation as, essentially, unpleasable. For all the brilliance that we on staff heard over the intercom every day, Franz and friends never seemed able to win him over completely. But as Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun writes, that’s a music critic’s job. He’s not paid to laud; he’s paid to discern. He’s paid — or he should be — to add another level to the concert-goers’ experience, to introduce intellectual perception to what is otherwise mere sensory indulgence.
I believe that for all his detraction, Don’s keen observation of and decades-long dedication to the Orchestra made him one of the organization’s major benefactors. Left alone, classical music seeks an ivory tower. It becomes impenetrable to its patrons because of the singular vision of the talent at the top. Given that some narrow focus is necessary in any artistic pursuit, voices like Don’s are essential if the vision is to remain balanced, realistic, and, as the treasurer/timpanist knows best, sustainable.
It’s a shame the Plain Dealer reassigned Don, and if it was political pressure that did him in, it’s an embarrassment — for the PD, for the Orchestra, and for whatever insular dullards pulled the strings.
