In Lecture, the Conductor Alan Gilbert Gives Job Description, Lauds New Music

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Alan Gilbert conducting the New York Philharmonic in March.Credit Tina Fineberg for The New York Times

In delivering this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Lecture in London on Wednesday, Alan Gilbert, the music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, lamented the narrow ways in which the roles of orchestras and their leaders are sometimes viewed.

“I read with amusement tempered by frustration the pathetic speculation in the press concerning certain music director positions that are currently open or about to be open, including mine,” Mr. Gilbert, who recently announced that he was stepping down from his position in 2017, said in his prepared remarks.

“Too few of the commentators adequately consider WHAT the orchestras need,” Mr. Gilbert said. “Obviously WHO is primary in importance — musical quality, charisma and artistic magic are still at the top of the list of desirable qualities in a conductor, but I believe that the ability to motivate the wider community is as necessary in order to be a viable music director.”

Mr. Gilbert’s address, titled “Orchestras in the 21st Century; a new paradigm,” touched on the changing roles being embraced by some orchestras as they adapt to new challenges, the importance of forging connections with audiences and communities and how to keep expanding the repertoire with new music without alienating audiences. Along the way he illustrated his points by speaking of the way the Philharmonic had evolved under his leadership, with adventurous theatrical presentations of Ligeti’s opera “Le Grand Macabre” and Stravinsky’s “Petrushka.”

But he cautioned that orchestras must find their own solutions, in a time of what he described as “a kind of industry-wide existential soul-searching in which at least some forces have pushed back, not wanting to see their beloved old-world musical traditions altered.”

“The growing-pains of this seismic shift have led to there being two competing choruses: the chorus of ‘Things must change’ and the chorus of ‘Things must stay the same,’ ” he said. “It’s a little bit like the Matthew Passion gone wrong. However it’s also a bit of an artificial conflict, since clearly things must adapt while we at the same time fight to preserve much of what has characterized orchestras for centuries.”

Mr. Gilbert, who has been a champion of new music and who noted that all the pieces that the Philharmonic is playing on its current European tour date from the 20th century, expect for those which are 21st century, spoke about new music’s important roles.

“It is disheartening how many people are willing to blame new music for an orchestra’s woes,’’ he said. “You actually hear some people prescribe a steady diet of 19th century music as a panacea for classical music’s current challenges — they say that obviously audiences are staying away since there is too much music being played that people don’t want to hear. I am not going to litigate this here — there is too much evidence and good will for contemporary music’s rightful place alongside older masterpieces for that to be necessary, but I would like to discuss some of the ways different groups deal with the issue.”

He warned that one approach — to compartmentalize new music by playing it only in special concerts devoted to it — is too constraining (although he has established an all-new music concert series). He said it would preclude concerts like the exciting one last month in which Thomas Adès made his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic with a program of Beethoven, Berlioz, and Mr. Adès’s own “Totentanz.”

And Mr. Gilbert dismissed another approach, of pairing new works with greatest hits, as the “Bolero” approach — which he defined as: “In a nod to those same people who think that they don’t want to hear new stuff, go ahead and program it, but wash it down with something so enticing that they take a deep breath and go to the concert anyway.”

“Again, not entirely stupid, but very likely backfiring in the long run if the new work is shoehorned into a program that is not organically conceived, in which the not-so-subtle subliminal message is that we think it needs to be balanced out or, to be more jaded, that you can ‘get away’ with new music as long as there is something else on the program that will sell tickets,” he said.

Instead, he recommended building trust with players and audiences so that they are all willing to try new things, and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because of the track record established over time.

“The point is never that every piece will necessarily be a masterwork that will go down in the ages, or that every audience member will love every piece we play,” he said, “but rather that there is always a compelling motivation behind every piece’s placement, and that what we are doing for Music with a capital ‘M’ makes the journey of discovery important to share.”