Together at Last

Conductor: I want to commend you for coming to all my rehearsals.

Orchestra Member: You're welcome, maestro; I'm only sorry I can't make the concert.

Apocryphal or not, this well-known two-liner has long exemplified the anarchy that is the Parisian orchestra. Symphonic life in Paris has almost always been a laughing matter for the rest of the world. Underfinanced, undertalented and underrehearsed, the city's three major, privately backed, week-to-week orchestras (Lamoureux, Colonne and Pasdeloup) slog through their Sunday afternoon old-hat concerts with all the esprit de corpse of Napoleon's army after Moscow. Parisian conservatories turn out some of the best instrumentalists in the world, but they have very little incentive to remain at home. Arturo Toscanini once remarked that France could have the best orchestra in the world if it were willing to spend the money.

Last June, France finally decided to spend the money, and last week a major step was taken to prove Toscanini's theory. Financed jointly by the French and Parisian governments, a new orchestra made its debut--not on Sunday afternoon but on Tuesday night. It was obvious before Conductor Charles Munch's first downbeat at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees that the Orchestre de Paris was a striking departure from the Parisian norm. Its 110 members were predominantly young (average age: 35). They were dressed alike in midnight blue Pierre Cardin tails with shawl collars and burgundy sashes. And wonder of wonders, they played together, and beautifully, too.

Organized by Marcel Landowski, music director of Andre Malraux's Ministry of Culture, the Orchestre de Paris chose its members as a cordon bleu chef would select truffles. All are conservatory prizewinners, including Bulgarian-born Lubin Yordanoff, 41, who left his first chair in the Monte Carlo National Orchestra to join the Paris group as concertmaster. Fifty-two of its members are from the recently disbanded Paris Conservatory Orchestra, an above-average ensemble in its day. The salary range, high for Paris, runs from $620 to $820 a month, counterbalanced by an exclusivity clause in each contract forbidding the players from working with other ensembles.

The opening program was typical of Munch's cautious adventurousness: Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Debussy's La Mer and Stravinsky's recent, brief Requiem Canticles. At 76, Munch brought a remarkably youthful enthusiasm to the podium; and this, as much as anything, may explain the new era of clarity, precision and musicianship reborn in Paris through its new orchestra. As one astounded member noted after a rehearsal, some of the men even take their music home to practice.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.