I don’t subscribe to the Star-Telegram, so I didn’t see their Sunday feature story on Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra until yesterday morning. Of course, it came out four days after my story on the subject, but clearly Andrew Marton did a good deal of work prior to that. The sheer length of the Star-T’s story suggests that it wasn’t something rushed into print as a response.
A couple of observations: Marton landed some big names for his story. Anthony Tommasini, Mark Swed, Justin Davidson, and Anne Midgette are all heavy hitters among classical music critics. Marton also snagged quotes from world-class performers who’ve worked with Maestro Harth-Bedoya, though it’s not clear if those quotes are left over from previous years.
One of my favorite singers, Dawn Upshaw, was in the story praising Harth-Bedoya. She sang at that magical Golijov concert (which also featured Ginastera, Milhaud, and Canteloube — now there’s a program!) that I mentioned in my story. I still have the autograph that she gave me when I met her in the late 1990s.
The other thing that Marton did well was point out that the “major” orchestras have pretty much filled their music director posts in recent years. When I asked Harth-Bedoya to speculate on his options, he didn’t mention having his eye on other orchestras with vacancies. For the moment, it appears that there aren’t any greener pastures to tempt Harth-Bedoya away from Fort Worth.
