While my previous contacts with Gerard Schwarz have already been described in the contexts of music publishing and orchestra administration, it was when Laura and I moved to the Seattle area in 2005 that he became a very central figure both in my professional activity as a critic and in our circle of friends.

I think it is no exaggeration to say that, as music director of the Seattle Symphony since 1985, Jerry had raised the orchestra from the status of what was widely regarded as a provincial ensemble to one deserving of national and indeed international respect. Certainly the enormous increase in the number of subscribers, and the orchestra's numerous CD recordings on a variety of labels, support that view, as did the reactions of friends of mine, knowledgeable Philadelphia Orchestra subscribers who came to visit and commented, after a Schwarz performance of Mahler's Seventh Symphony, “We had no idea you had such a great orchestra here.” So quite apart from my personal admiration for Jerry as man and musician, I thought it regrettable that, by the time we became regular members of the audience, his tenure was mired in controversy, with factions in the orchestra—and also among the public—passionately taking sides for or against him. By December 2007, the New York Times was presenting, in an article by Daniel J. Wakin and James R. Oestreich headlined “In Seattle, a Fugue for Orchestra and Rancor,” the picture of a Seattle Symphony that had “carried disharmony to new heights, lurching from crisis to crisis.”

How far was this near-apocalyptic account justified? Not very far, in my view. It is true that statistics from an arguably slanted survey, made public in contravention of a confidentiality agreement signed by both the board's and the players’ representatives, indicated a majority of players in favor of a change in artistic leadership. Given that Schwarz had by then been at the orchestra's helm for twenty-two years, it would be surprising if this had not been so. I have yet to encounter an orchestra, in the United States or Europe, that revealed, after a few years, no rumblings of discontent with “the Maestro.”