New York’s Cross-town Rivalries Flare

We're not talking about the Yankees and the Mets. Or even the Met. It's the New York Philharmonic that has grabbed the front pages in New York (and around the world) with its sudden announcement that it will leave Lincoln Center and move to Carnegie Hall.

For weeks before Armando Benitez left a home at Shea Stadium to Yankee pinstripes and the Bronx, New York was abuzz about a high-profile defection: the Philharmonic, which has been an anchor of Lincoln Center for 40 years, is moving back to Carnegie Hall. The Philharmonic surprised its current landlord with the news, which will return the oldest orchestra in the country to its original home as early as 2006.

In recent days the plan emerged in public as an actual merger of the institutions, not just a tenancy agreement.

Carnegie Hall chairman Sanford Weill (also the outgoing chairman of CitiGroup) said, "I've worked on a lot of mergers, and I've never seen a fit as perfect as this." Carnegie Hall gets the stable revenue stream of the Philharmonic's large subscription audience, and the Philharmonic gets an acoustical upgrade from Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. Further, as partners to each other and not merely landlord-and-tenant, the two institutions would combine formidable artistic and financial resources (their endowments together would total about $350 million).

Lincoln Center officials were surprised by the announcement, calling the loss of their original tenant a "form of cultural cannibalism." Another key tenant, the New York City Opera, is contemplating a move downtown, perhaps to the planned Ground Zero redevelopment. Although the Philharmonic's dominance at Carnegie will limit availability of that space to other ensembles, many of whom will seek more time at Avery Fisher Hall, the Center may find itself struggling to proceed with planned renovations and upgrades across its campus. These plans already have been vastly reduced in scope because of hard economic times and a competitive market for classical music audiences.

The merger plans are still in flux, and news continues to come in almost daily on these developments. In addition to front page coverage in the New York Times, and extensive news and commentary in that paper's arts sections, articles have surfaced from around the world. Writers in organizations as diverse as the Wall Street Journal and the World Socialist Party have found it significant enough to weigh in on the meaning of the move.

Visit the New York Philharmonic

Visit Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall

Read the joint statement of the merger plans

Read a New York Times article about the merger plans and subsequent revision of the plans [registration required, fee as article moves to archives]

For a sampling of rest-of-world reaction, read the Pioneer Press (Twin Cities) account, and the World Socialist view of the brouhaha