Finances Hamper Strides Made in Talmi’s 1st Season

Looking back over his first season as the San Diego Symphony’s music director, Yoav Talmi alternated between moods of extreme satisfaction with the orchestra’s musical progress and distress over a perpetually tight budget.

“All of my frustrations are really tied to the financial situation,” Talmi said with a sigh. “According to the agreement I had when I came here, we were supposed to do two recordings every year. We will do one this season and one next season--that’s all. I was hoping to start in my second season a California tour with the orchestra. It is vitally important to play outside of your own hall, to compete against other orchestras and to be criticized by other people who hear the orchestra afresh.”

At this point, the costly luxury of touring appears unlikely in any season in the near future.

“We struggle just to balance the budget every year, and we are extremely relieved and happy if indeed we manage to balance the budget.”

Although Talmi would like to have the financial freedom to take more artistic risks, he also acknowledges that a major goal for the symphony is to raise the salary level of the players.

“We are losing some of our best players,” Talmi noted. Over the last season, three players, including the principal contrabass, left the San Diego Symphony for positions in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“We will keep losing our players to better-paying orchestras. When we have auditions, we get excellent players, but we fear they will come for one or two seasons and then they will leave.”

(According to a table published in February, 1991, by the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, the annual minimum salary for the 1990-91 season of a San Diego Symphony player is $25,080. By comparison, the minimum salary of the Chicago Symphony is $59,280; the Los Angeles Philharmonic, $58,240; the St. Louis Symphony, $50,780; the Atlanta Symphony, $43,680; the Houston Symphony, $41,990; the Milwaukee Symphony, $39,597. Even orchestras in smaller cities such as Columbus, Ohio, and Buffalo, New York, pay significantly more than does San Diego.)

Although tight finances exasperate Talmi, the orchestra’s musical performance has been a source of satisfaction and even pride. He praised the musicians for the strides they have made over the past season, which ends with a pair of concerts Thursday and Friday.

“The progress I saw being made during this season was faster than I had expected. In some areas, especially the violins, there was a dramatic change--much faster than I had envisioned. And for that I am very happy. As you know, I can’t do anything without the orchestra. The greatest effort comes from the musicians.”

Talmi attributed much of this musical progress to the rapport he enjoys with the orchestra members.

“It enabled me to ask a lot of them and to get a lot in return.”

Quiet but firm, Talmi asks rather than demands. He clarified his preference for the subtler approach.

“A conductor can demand and get results out of fear. You’ll get results that may stand for that evening, when people are scared to death. But those results will not hold later on. I’m trying to build a consistently higher level of playing, one that will extend for any (conductor). Even if a guest conductor turns out to be not as good as we expected, the orchestra then will not allow its playing to fall below a certain level. This is clearly the case with the orchestras in Chicago and Cleveland, for example.”

Despite critical acclaim of Talmi’s work on the podium, the less-than-overwhelming response of ticket sales in his first year pains him.

“Sometimes, just by the appointment of a new music director, there is a boom of ticket sales. It did not happen in this orchestra.”

Once the orchestra’s subscription season is over, Talmi will not return to San Diego until the fall. The summer Pops, organized by executive director Wesley Brustad(CQ), is outside of his area of responsibility. One suspects this stripe of programming falls also outside of his sphere of musical interest.

“I have nothing to do with the summer season,” he said with discreet finality.

During the summer months, Talmi will conduct in music festivals held in New Jersey, Norway, and Switzerland.

New symphony appointments. Following two weeks of auditions, the San Diego Symphony has filled several vacancies. Matthew Zory, who has served as acting principal contrabass since Oscar Meza left to take a position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is now principal contrabass. Section member Jonathan Green is the new associate principal contrabass, and John Moore will fill Green’s place in the section.

Sheryl Lynne Renk, a clarinetist from Sacramento, will be acting principal clarinet in the 1991-92 season while David Peck takes a year’s leave of absence to play in Houston.

Navroj Mehta, a member of the orchestra’s violin section since March, 1990, will become associate principal violin II when the summer season begins next month. The position of assistant principal/utility trumpet has been awarded to Rodney Mack from Philadelphia.