Orchestras: Big Five Plus One?

After sitting in on rehearsals last week for the U.S. premiere of his two-hour oratorio, the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ According to St. Luke, Polish Composer Krzysztof Penderecki was exuberant. The conductor, he said, “is excellent. He understands modern music—he has composed it himself. I have complete trust in him.” Penderecki was talking about the musical director of the Minneapolis Symphony, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, 44. Later in the week, Skrowaczewski returned the compliment by leading his orchestra, soloists and local choristers in two austerely jolting performances of the Passion at Minneapolis’ Northrup Auditorium.

Auspicious Strides. That Minneapolis was chosen to play the U.S. premiere of such a major work (TIME, Oct. 14, 1966) is attributable largely to the auspicious strides that Skrowaczewski has taken there in recent years. In 1960, when he was named Antal Dorati’s successor on the Minneapolis podium, Skrowaczewski was the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic and a former avant-garde composer. He had made only a handful of guest appearances with U.S. orchestras and was practically unknown in the States. Nowadays his name is not only familiar and esteemed but also correctly pronounced (Skro-vah-cheff-ski) throughout the American orchestral circuit.

A stern, scholarly type who conducts with angular, storklike grace, Skrowaczewski takes an approach that is exact and exacting. Starting with a unit that was already a leader in the second rank of U.S. orchestras (behind the “big five” of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland and Chicago), he has given it an even finer edge of technical precision. While enriching its sound, particularly in the strings, he has achieved a limpid texture that lets the inner architecture of the music shine through. His interpretations, though vigorous and often intense, do not often reflect great emotional involvement—a trait that frustrates some members of the audience and orchestra. “Sometimes,” sighs one of his musicians, “we wish he’d let himself go more.”

Temper for the 20th. Nevertheless, Skrowaczewski’s technique and temper are ideally suited to the complex music of the 20th century. Of all the programming changes he has made in Minneapolis—expanded season, summer “play-ins” for Minnesota high schoolers, more stress on cycles of thematically unified concerts and less on big-name soloists —by far the most significant is the generous sampling of provocative modern works. Already this season he has conducted the American premiere of a 1957 violin concerto by French Composer Serge Nigg, and in the months ahead he will present music by Alban Berg, William Schuman and Charles Ives. “Contemporary music, on the whole, is as good as what was written ] 00 or 200 years ago,” he insists.

Skrowaczewski’s efforts have convinced Minneapolis civic leaders that, in the words of one symphony official, “it’s now possible for us to have one of the great orchestras of the world.” The orchestra has launched a drive to raise $10 million in capital funds, is planning to enlarge from its current 94 players to 105, and is already underwriting more tours. This month it will airlift the entire production of Penderecki’s Passion to New York City for a performance in Carnegie Hall. “In a sense,” says Orchestra Manager Richard Cisek, “we’re declaring war on the big five.”