Guardians of Public Value by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030517014
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Balancing Artistic and Commercial Interests

During the reign of Haitink’s successor Riccardo Chailly (1988–2004), tensions between commercial and artistic interests were stretched to the limit. The post-war orchestra had become strongly subsidy-driven. As long as the state and the city’s money continued to flow in, the orchestra contentedly accepted it without thinking of alternative funding. When faced with fiscal crisis in the early 1980s, Dutch authorities began to curb spending drastically. The ensuing subsidy cuts hit the orchestra hard. Contributions from sponsors and donors were needed to save the orchestra from bankruptcy. In the foundation board, thoughtful lawyers and public administrators made way for entrepreneurs and executives from the financial world. They knew how to bind companies and banks to the Orchestra.

Business Director Willem Wijnbergen, who in 1992 had joined the orchestra following a career at Procter & Gamble, set about ‘cleaning up’ what he considered to be its dusty and tired back office. He also pursued a strong foreign presence for the orchestra, intensifying its international touring commitments. By virtue of higher fees paid by foreign concert halls and numerous CD recordings, he managed to reduce the deficit on the orchestra’s budget. The orchestra remained dependent on subsidies but now for slightly less than half of its annual budget—around 29 million euros today. Over time, the financial reserve built by Wijnbergen in those years laid the foundation for an endowment whose revenues were used for the purchase of expensive music instruments and the pursuit of special projects.4

At this time, the Concertgebouw building’s finances were in better shape than those of the orchestra. Its Director, Martijn Sanders, who had worked in the movie theatre business, had managed to win the support of top businesses, authorities and individuals for the ailing institution with an American-style fundraising campaign. Twenty million euros were spent to put the sagging building on a new foundation, modernize it and add an extension, a new cellar and modern technical installations. The concerts continued during the renovations.

The building’s executive board pursued event programming policies that gave more airtime to other musical acts. It featured a series of ‘World famous symphonic orchestras’. It also set up an endowment to benefit the preservation of the monumental building as well as projects in the field of music education and involvement. One thing remained unchanged: the endemic tension between the operating logic of the building and that of the orchestra. For example, legal wrangling regarding the settlement of the division of the assets between building and orchestra continued four decades after the 1951 act of separation between the two.

The Orchestra’s artistic integrity remained intact. The arrival of Riccardo Chailly in 1988 initially brought in a new era with much late Romantic, twentieth century and contemporary work. Chailly—in his thirties and the first foreign-born chief conductor—was a mediagenic maestro who eagerly positioned himself in the tradition of Mengelberg. He sharpened the orchestra’s artistic profile. His choices forced the orchestra to study many complex parts within a short period of time. On top of that,

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