By THOMAS J. SHEERAN,Associated Press Writer AP - Saturday, November 1
CLEVELAND - The reassignment of a newspaper reviewer critical of Cleveland Orchestra conductor Franz Welzer-Moest left a dissonant trail of questions about censorship and the risk of panning a hometown arts icon.
The move of Donald Rosenberg off The Plain Dealer's orchestra beat doesn't trump talk about the Browns football team or basketball superstar LeBron James at the watercooler in Cleveland, but reviewers across the country noticed and yelled, "Foul!"
Rosenberg was summoned into a conference room at Ohio's biggest newspaper in September and was told by Editor Susan Goldberg that he was off the beat that he had for 16 years.
Rosenberg, who has written a book about the orchestra and covered 15 of its foreign tours, was reassigned to other arts and entertainment coverage.
Britain's Guardian newspaper said the move amounted to censorship, and The New York Times said the reassignment "is sure to send shivers down the opinionated spines of critics everywhere."
The Music Critics Association of North America appealed to Goldberg last week to reinstate Rosenberg.
"The silencing of a critic not only challenges the foundation of our particular profession, but weakens the foundation of journalism itself," according to the association, which represents about 110 critics. About half, representing newspapers and music publications coast to coast, signed the letter.
The association's president, Tim Smith of The (Baltimore) Sun, said Thursday there had been no response from Goldberg.
Rosenberg regularly praised the orchestra but sometimes questioned Welser-Moest's work, comparing him to a traffic cop who failed to delve into the music's essence. Welser-Moest has been music director of the orchestra since 2002.
Welser-Moest "was conveying very little of the flavor of the music and essentially just duplicating the notes in the score without much character or color or real personality," Rosenberg said in an interview with The Associated Press.
In a review on the orchestra's trip last year to Vienna, Rosenberg said Welser-Moest "lapsed into uninflected routine in the second and third movements" of Mahler's Symphony No. 2. Two days later The Financial Times of London similarly called the movements "uneventful" and said the conductor "can seem aloof."
Goldberg didn't address the reason for Rosenberg's reassignment in comments reported by The Plain Dealer. The orchestra beat went to another writer at the newspaper, Zachary Lewis.
She told the newspaper's reader representative, Ted Diadiun, that the paper never allows complaints against a writer to dictate personnel decisions.
"Our work is regularly, and sometimes harshly, scrutinized by the people and institutions we cover," she told Diadiun. "That's just part of the process of what we do and I work hard to make myself available to people who have issues with our stories. Criticism of our work can provide valuable feedback that helps us do a better, and fairer, job."
Goldberg declined an interview request from the AP. "I've said all I am going to say about this situation, which we consider an internal personnel matter," she said in an e-mail.
Rosenberg, 56, thinks orchestra bigwigs got to Goldberg, who left the San Jose Mercury News for The Plain Dealer in May 2007.
"I told her I thought she was caving in to outside sources including orchestra management and board officials and she would not address it," said Rosenberg, who joined The Plain Dealer in 1992.
Rosenberg said a reviewer needs to have a free hand to responsibly report on the arts, whether negative or positive, and must hold a performing arts company to a high standard when dealing with a world-class organization such as the Cleveland Orchestra.
"There's no way that standards can be upheld if you're acting as a cheerleader all the time _ it doesn't work in politics, it doesn't work in sports and it certainly doesn't work in the arts," he said.
The paper, owned by Advance Publications Inc., has a daily circulation of about 345,000.
The Plain Dealer's publisher, Terrance C.Z. Egger, serves on the orchestra board, as does his predecessor, but Egger said he was unaware of any orchestra pressure to reassign Rosenberg.
"At no time do I recall ever being asked by a member of the orchestra or the board to have Mr.. Rosenberg be reassigned, it just never happened," he told The AP in an e-mail. "Secondly, I never approached Susan on this matter or any subject related to the orchestra. She came to inform me after her decision had been made just to be sure I was aware. And finally, Susan did not even know that I was on the board until I informed her after she had announced her decision."
Welser-Moest and the orchestra executive director, Gary Hanson, were traveling out of the country and won't comment on the matter, according to spokeswoman Ana Papakhian
She referred questions to a statement posted earlier by Hanson on blogs that took up Rosenberg's case.
Hanson said it was false to suggest the orchestra had lobbied for the reassignment. He said he has complimented and complained to the paper about its coverage over the years but said the orchestra understood a paper's right to publish a critic's comments, whether supportive or not.
The reassignment came amid a period of uncertainty at The Plain Dealer, which announced Oct. 7 that it plans to cut 16 percent of its unionized newsroom jobs by the end of the year, further trimming a staff reduced by buyouts. Egger blamed the cuts on worse than expected advertising revenue and a struggling newspaper industry.
The music critics group said the number of critic jobs has dwindled with declining newspaper staffs and Rosenberg's reassignment could make critics worry about the reaction to unwelcome reviews.
Ross W. Duffin, a Case Western Reserve University music professor who says both Rosenberg and Hanson are his friends, said the issue became more important recently when the orchestra gave Welser-Moest a 10-year contract, meaning the conductor could be looking at another decade of unfavorable reviews if Rosenberg kept his job.
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