Guess who’s back in the fold? Atlanta Symphony gets warm and fuzzy with conductor Yoel Levi by Pierre Ruhe

Classical Music

Guess who’s back in the fold? Atlanta Symphony gets warm and fuzzy with conductor Yoel Levi

By Pierre Ruhe | Aug 16, 2010

It took a moment to get over the surprise. Here’s what the ASO’s media relations department posted on Facebook today:

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Happy 60th Birthday to Maestro Yoel Levi, Music Director Emeritus of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra! Still making wonderful inspiring music.

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Levi has been persona non grata with the ASO’s management for most of the past decade. His photos did not appear in ASO publications or on its office walls, although his predecessor’s (Robert Shaw) and successor’s (Robert Spano) were usually prominent. Although Levi had been named music director emeritus, his name had vanished from concert playbills. Rather than celebrate Levi’s role in developing the orchestra, and the fact that he still lives in Sandy Springs and remains embedded in the community, the ASO seemed to hope the conductor would just go away.

That attitude reversed 180 degrees with the arrival of Stanley Romanstein as the ASO’s new president. This is from a June 28 profile:

Romanstein follows in the wide wake left by Allison Vulgamore, who left Atlanta in December after 16 bruising years of exhilarating growth and controversy. She is now president of the Philadelphia Orchestra — one of the most storied ensembles in classical music but suffering, like most American orchestras, from a severe financial crisis.

Romanstein arrived in Atlanta focusing almost entirely on the positive. “When you’re the new guy, you can ask a lot of questions without seeming to have an agenda,” he says.

Among the most heated topics is the noisy departure, after 12 years, of former music director Yoel Levi, some of whose fans accused the ASO administration of anti-Semitism. Levi’s tenure as music director ended in the spring of 2000, and for two seasons after he led a pair of concert programs. Then he vanished, as if he’d never been there. In recent years Levi has conducted the Atlanta Opera several times, worked with his suburban Paris orchestra in France and guest conducted internationally.

“The only blemish on the ASO record came at the tail end of Levi’s tenure,” Romanstein offers matter-of-factly. “I’d like to meet the guy. He played an essential role in shaping this orchestra, and if there was a rift between [the ASO] and Atlanta’s Jewish community, or perceptions of arrogance on our part, we’ll work to repair them. We’ll do it by talking about shared values, about what the ASO brings to the community writ large.” (Everyone interviewed for this article who shared an opinion said the rift was caused by clashing artistic goals or personalities; no one cited anti-Semitism as having played any role in Levi’s departure.)

The ASO in 2010: conductor Robert Spano, president Romanstein and board chairman Ben Johnson

After that profile appeared in the AJC, Romanstein told me he had indeed invited Levi to lunch, and the conductor promptly accepted. What’s so surprising was Romanstein’s openness in discussing the ASO’s strained relationship with Atlanta’s affluent Jewish community, members of which once supported the orchestra financially in a big way — until the Levi debacle.

It’s the most sensitive subject on the local arts scene, and even mentioning it is likely to be misconstrued by some. But with a debt that’s projected to reach $8 million within a year, Romanstein admits that the ASO needs to heal old wounds and cultivate its friends. Hence shout-outs like today’s Facebook message.

As he told me, “There’s a concept in Judaism called tikkun olam, or repairing the world. We have an obligation to try and fix the broken pieces. That’s what social justice is about. That’s what strong leadership is about. I have a fundamental interest in bringing people together, not building walls.” What’s not being discussed is an invitation for Levi to conduct his old orchestra.

5 Comments

BPJ

1

This is good news. Levi played an important role in building this orchestra, and should be recognized and appreciated for that. I recall many wonderful performances during his term. Mahler and Sibelius symphonies in particular, but also a performance of the “Enigma Variations” which was superior to any recording I’ve heard. And a powerful Bloch “Sacred Service” as well.

I think the orchestra is even better now, with Spano and Runnicles, but that’s partly a reflection of the fact I like the healthy repertoire of new music, which was not Levi’s priority. I see no reason not to engage Levi for a weekend in the next year’s season (this upcoming season being already set).

One other point about Levi’s term: he was here 12 years, which is, I think, a longer than average term for music directors nationally. We in Atlanta tend to think in terms of Robert Shaw, whose 22 (?) years as music director (and several more years of performances after that) were the exception. And Shaw’s predecessor, Henry Sopkin, served for about two decades as I recall.

16 Aug
James R. Oxendine

2

One small step for the ASO; one giant step for the arts in Atlanta.

16 Aug
Heide Rice

3

How very interesting that the ASO now finds it “appropriate” to include Mr. Levi once again in its history. As a former ASO board member, I wish Mr. Romanstein much success in his endeavors. However, the ASO will need to do much more extensive housecleaning after the departure of Allison Vulgamore. It should not insult the Atlanta community and Maestro Levi further by expecting that the crumbs of one or two weekend concerts conducted by Mr. Levi will erase the heartache, erosion of community support, and – in the eyes of many – the downgrading of artistic quality since his departure. They also need to realize that Mr. Levi’s support comes not only from Atlanta’s Jewish community but from ALL Atlantans and many other southeasterners who attended his concerts over the years and believed they received a first quality product. Humble pie is the first course of this meal.

16 Aug
cecylia arzewski

4

I applaud Stanley Romanstein for acknowledging Yoel Levi and reinstating the real history of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. As a former assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony and associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra as well as the former concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest conductors in the world and I consider Yoel Levi to be among them. While he was Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 2000, Yoel Levi’s impact on the orchestra was summed up by Gramophone Magazine, as follows: “Yoel Levi has built a reputation for himself and for his orchestra that is increasingly the envy of the big five American counterparts in New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston and Chicago.” As a result of his hard work in building the orchestra, the ASO was nominated as the “Best orchestra of the Year” for 1991-92 at the First Annual International Classical Music Awards.

16 Aug
D Willis

5

I attended the ASO during the years when Sopkin, Shaw, and Levi led it, moving away before Levi left, and never knowing the reason. When he first came, I was disappointed that he fired the concert master and heard there were other problems with some of the musicians. However, Levi himself was fasinating to me as a musical genius, conducting without a score. I wondered what it would be like to experience such a brain. While at the ASO he invited a young man from MN to be an assistant, and this young man gave a course on mid and late 20th century music. There I learned to appreciate, Copeland and his broad fifths, Diamond, Adams, and Glass. In fact I attended a talk given by the latter. I hope by now the rift between the ASO and Levi has been repaired. I think of him now as a little like John McEnroe. I could easily forgive his flaws because I appreciated his genius on the court.

16 Aug

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