This surfeit of audience opposed to hall seats is a first in the 80-year history of the TSO, which in the past few years has experienced great traumas. It all started when Sir Andrew Davis left his post as conductor in 1988 after serving the TSO for 13 years. The very competent German conductor, Günther Herbig, replaced him but the audience somehow never warmed to this new man and his sober manner. He departed in 1994. That year the Finnish Wunderkind, Yukka-Pekka Saraste, replaced him. Sadly, this young, but non-magnetic conductor, failed to live up to Toronto audiences’s expectations. While his conducting often showed vigor, it remained uneven. Also, his lack of personal charm had a cooling effect on his listeners. In addition, his outspokenly anti-North American attitude turned many against him.

One wanted to like the man and his ideas, but as soon as he opened his mouth very early on during his tenure in Toronto, he offended many. He pronounced on national radio that in his opinion Canada had no worthwhile composers. He began to bring artists from his own country and introduced listeners to Finnish composers. In itself, not a bad idea. To open the audiences ears to new artists and new music is important. But, as it turned out, his singers, musicians and composers had no edge on their Canadian colleagues. This put-down of the indigenous performers and creators, however, showed very bad form.

He earned applause for appointing a resident composer advisor, Gary Kulesha, to the TSO. This ensured new Canadian works made their appearance in the programs. Unfortunately, he usually placed these mostly very short compositions at the beginning of a program and so gave the appearance of "let’s get this over with." One doubts that they made much impression on the audience, which usually looked forward to main event.

Saraste, although part of the management team of the TSO in his capacity of music director, took sides in the disastrous musician’s strike that crippled an already ailing orchestra. This was less than prudent on his part. He envisaged a European-style, subsidized program for the orchestra and openly berated the North American system, which expects orchestras to find funds on their own. Although he had brought with him a contract for several CD recordings from Finlandia Records, these cost the TSO more than the company took in. His European tours with the orchestra brought some acclaim, but also helped to throw it into monetary disarray. Of course, a generally bad management style at the TSO helped little. Saraste cannot be blamed for all of the woes that befell it.

Why dwell on the past? It is because one does not wish to raise hopes too much too  early. Peter Oundjian is still fairly new at the game of conducting, although not new in the world of music. This first Canadian to be named director of the TSO since Sir Ernest MacMillan retired in 1956, has a lot of expectations riding on him. One does not envy him the task, but he does appear to be well suited to the mood and tenor of Toronto.

The new music director's accent might be described as Mid-Atlantic, being a mixture of British and New England speech. He makes his home with his schoolteacher wife and two children, aged 10 and 12, in Connecticut. He teaches at Yale University. At the moment, there appears to be no intention to move the family here. There is talk of weekend commuting. That is a definite minus, because one does not get a sense of commitment to Toronto from this current arrangement. But, at least, he has a sense of what North Americans are like, unlike his predecessor. He has a casual note about himself, which is appealing. During the January 30 concert, he expressed no objection to anyone wishing to clap at the end of a movement. He, thereby, broke a taboo long held in symphony playing, and spared newcomers to symphonic music the embarrassment of clapping when no one else does.

The maestro, who for many years was the principal violinist in the New York-based Tokyo Quartet (an injury forced him to stop playing this instrument) makes no bones about his love for sports cars. He owns a Maserati Bora and an Aston Martin DB5, the same model driven by 007 James Bond in his early movies. One can sympathize. The Aston Martin certainly is a great car, and is a personal favorite. Here he shows the flair everyone had expected of his predecessor, but never displayed. He also has, in keeping with his British public school upbringing, a love for cricket and soccer. Mmm! One worries that if – as he has expressed a desire to do – he wants to relate to young Canadians, he won’t get far on those two sports. He will also have to learn to get a bit passionate about baseball, hockey, basketball and football (the North American kind), and maybe even lacrosse. When one talks to youngsters about music, one also has to be able to talk about their other activities. These won’t include cricket, and as for soccer, while girls play it a lot, not too many boys take it seriously.

Is he a showman at heart? Oundjian certainly demonstrated an outgoing nature at Toronto’s City Hall, when he had Mayor Mel Lastman blow a tuba. It made for good laughs, and showed he has no aversion to get some air time on TV. It is all in good fun and for a good cause, namely to get the TSO’s name into the living rooms of the city. The TSO needs to increase its subscriber base. That there is a hunger for classical music in the city is no secret, and January 30 proved this. But, unfortunately a hunger does not necessarily translate into bottoms in seats at Roy Thomson Hall.

One is also pleased that he unwilling to offend the more conservative tastes of his audience by pushing minimalist and 12-tone music down listeners ear tubes. This most totalitarian form of music is not to everyone’s liking. Not that one doesn’t want modern compositions, but moderation is needed to win over Toronto. One is also relieved that he shows no enthusiasm for period performances. In other words, Toronto may be spared from excessive exposure to performances using period instruments for 18^th century music. Oh, how one dreads those harpsichord Handel, Bach etc. performances. There are reasons why the piano became supreme. The same applies to other instruments.