Andrew Davis in Toronto

[LMcD]

I hadn’t really followed his career after he moved to Indianapolis. I remember wondering why someone of his stature—he seemed to be issuing at least one recording a month—would work in such a backwater. The obituary fills in some of the gaps.
The Indianapolis Symphony was conducted for many years by Flavian Savitsky. He was the nephew of Serge Koussevitsky, and his prominent uncle had arm twisted him to change his name to avoid confusion between them. Savitsky and the Orchestra made many trail blazing recordings

Some people wondered why Andrew Davis went off to Toronto. It didn't seem to do his career any harm.

[Richard Tarleton]

Toronto is three times the size of Indianapolis. It is also a diverse, intellectually vibrant town, easily the Cultural Capital of Canada. Indianapolis is Indianapolis.

There does seem to be a bit of a musical hub at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University - one of the world's top lutenists, who also happens to be English, has been a professor there for a while (I have a pile of his CDs)...Xenakis....one or two names spring out, an awesome list of present and past faculty members (Slatkin, Starker, Vaness, McNair....)...Bernstein worked on his last opera there.... No idea what this has to do with Indianapolis, though

[LMcD]

Toronto is three times the size of Indianapolis. It is also a diverse, intellectually vibrant town, easily the Cultural Capital of Canada. Indianapolis is Indianapolis.

Well-informed and accurate as your put-down of Indianapolis doubtless is, the point of my posting was that, rightly or wrongly, it was felt at the time that AD was perhaps unwise to move to Canada when he might have found a more prestigious post in, say, Europe or the United States.

[Bryn]

Well-informed and accurate as your put-down of Indianapolis doubtless is, the point of my posting was that, rightly or wrongly, it was felt at the time that AD was perhaps unwise to move to Canada when he might have found a more prestigious post in, say, Europe or the United States.

Perhaps AD's agent shared Donald Trump's grasp of geography and had Toronto, California in mind.

There again, when Ozawa's recording of Turangalîla-Symphonie was released in 1968, it did give the (Canadian) Toronto Symphony Orchestra a bit of a boost, internationally.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've moved posts to this new Thread in order to keep Raymond Leppard's memorial Thread for comments on the late conductor's life & work.

The main difference between Davis' move to Toronto and Leppard's move to Indianapolis, it seems to me, is that Davis was 30, and at the very beginning of his career when he became Chief Conductor of a Symphony Orchestra in a major city in Canada, whereas Leppard was 60, and already internationally renowned when he moved to Indianapolis.

[richardfinegold]

Perhaps AD's agent shared Donald Trump's grasp of geography and had Toronto, California in mind.

There again, when Ozawa's recording of Turangalîla-Symphonie was released in 1968, it did give the (Canadian) Toronto Symphony Orchestra a bit of a boost, internationally.

Davis, per Wiki, became the Toronto MD in 1975. Besides the aforementioned Ozawa, let us not forget that Karel Ancerl had preceded him in that post until his sudden death a few years earlier. Toronto may not be on the radar of many in the U.K., but if anyone is planning a visit to North America, I urge you to place it on the itinerary, it is one of the World’s Great Cities.
Leppard apparently had a great tenure in Indianapolis, and no doubt raised the profile of the Orchestra. My point was that he somewhat disappeared there. Very few recordings, and I can only remember one occasion hearing the Orchestra on an NPR radio show that would replay concerts from around the country. It reminds me somewhat of Pierre Monteux two decades in San Francisco after he got tossed from Boston, except that Monteux resurrection was facilitated by the postwar recording boom, whereas Leppard went from being a high volume recording artist to settling down in a provincial American city.
Indianapolis has a very nice Childrens Museum. One of the issues is that it is located in a part of Indiana where people are still fighting the war of Northern Aggression, with plenty of Confederate Flags displayed on the windshields of pickup trucks. In fairness, it’s been a few years since I have been there so things may be different, but they did have Mike Pence as their Governor, so I suspect not to many changes...

[DracoM]

AND the Opera House is truly worth a night out as well.

[Once Was 4]

AND the Opera House is truly worth a night out as well.

A month ago now I was in Winnipeg and had the pleasure of hearing their orchestra in a programme of Mozart, Korngold and Brahms (1st symphony). Please let us not write off orchestras which are far away and of which we know nothing. One of the WSO's recent MDs was Bramwell Tovey - a Londoner. Under their MD, the Russian Daniel Raiskin (of whom I had never heard but, judging by his CV in the programme he has an impressive track record on continental Europe), they produced a big 'North American' sound which they could vary from work-to-work (I can think of one very famous British orchestra which is not so good at that) with characterful wind soloists; accurate but musical brass, percs and horns; and a well-drilled string section (the leader has apparently been there donkey's years and is clearly a very fine violinist in her own right).

Their concert hall, although showing signs of wear and tear externally, has an impressive feel to it and they obviously have a very advanced idea about programming - something of interest for most people throughout the year.

[LMcD]

A month ago now I was in Winnipeg and had the pleasure of hearing their orchestra in a programme of Mozart, Korngold and Brahms (1st symphony). Please let us not write off orchestras which are far away and of which we know nothing. One of the WSO's recent MDs was Bramwell Tovey - a Londoner. Under their MD, the Russian Daniel Raiskin (of whom I had never heard but, judging by his CV in the programme he has an impressive track record on continental Europe), they produced a big 'North American' sound which they could vary from work-to-work (I can think of one very famous British orchestra which is not so good at that) with characterful wind soloists; accurate but musical brass, percs and horns; and a well-drilled string section (the leader has apparently been there donkey's years and is clearly a very fine violinist in her own right).

Their concert hall, although showing signs of wear and tear externally, has an impressive feel to it and they obviously have a very advanced idea about programming - something of interest for most people throughout the year.

You might be interested in the 'Lesser-known orchestras' thread, which has been dormant for a while.
I notice that a Hong Kong Orchestra has recently won a 'Gramophone' award.
'Through The Night' often features performances by orchestras some of which should perhaps receive more attention than they have done previously.

[Richard Barrett]

their MD, the Russian Daniel Raiskin (of whom I had never heard but, judging by his CV in the programme he has an impressive track record on continental Europe)

Raiskin is principal guest conductor here at the Belgrade Philharmonic so I've seen him conduct quite often, and I've found him particularly strong in Russian repertoire (last concert he conducted was Shostakovich, Schnittke and Tchaikovsky).

The last time I saw Andrew Davis perform, on the other hand, was with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra five years ago in Mahler 1 and Vier letzte Lieder. I'd heard the MSO on a number of occasions over the years but - whether due to Davis's influence or not - the standard of playing in this concert seemed to be on a significantly higher level than when I'd heard them previously, and would certainly bear comparison with most orchestras I've heard around the world.

What should be remembered here is that conservatoires everywhere are turning out large numbers of highly accomplished players year after year, so that orchestras have never had a richer pool of musicians to choose from.

[Nick]

Three points regarding the above comments. As noted, we should remember that AD was only 30 at the time of his going to Toronto. Until just two years beforehand, he had been the Assistant Conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra. Although that orchestra had and was in future to have some very fine Assistant Conductors like Alexander Gibson and Simon Rattle, AD was far from a known figure in international musical circles at that time. Let's also bear in and that the Board had probably started considering him soon after Ancerl's death in July 1973, a full two years before AD assumed the post. I had heard at some stage through the grapevine that the Board wanted to consider Alexander Gibson but he was too involved with the SNO and Scottish Opera at that time. For AD it must have seemed a plum posting, the more so with it being a jumping off point for work with US orchestras.

Secondly, the Hong Kong Philharmonic did indeed win not only any old Gramophone Award but its Orchestra of the Year Award. This was partly on account of its very fine recorded Ring Cycle conducted by its MD van Zweden. After 8 years under Edo de Waart and then Jaap van Zweden since 2012 the Hong Kong Philharmonic has become probably the finest now in Asia - and Asia has some very fine orchestras.

Lastly Leppard did indeed seem to fall off the radar after he assumed the post at indianapolis. That probably was due to the fact that he moved his home there and on his retirement from the orchestra he became an American citizen.

[rauschwerk]

Catching up with this thread, I have been trying to recall which musician said, "'Career' is not a musical term."

Raymond Leppard was by no means just a conductor - he was also a fine accompanist. I believe that Janet Baker sang with him more than with any other pianist. He must have known that recording opportunities would not come his way in Indianapolis, but perhaps he was not too keen on recording? And it would seem that he was not obsessed with pursuing a 'career'. Good for him.

[richardfinegold]

Pristine Audio released a trove of recordings a bit back , after this thread was started, made in the forties by the Indianapolis Symphony led by Fabian Savitsky.
(Savitsky real name was Koussevitsky, and he was the nephew of Serge, the long time MD in Boston. Serge apparently prevailed upon his Nephew to change his name).
So apparently the Indianapolis Symphony has a long, storied tradition, and Leppard helped continue that.