Principal trumpet Esteban Batallán has been telling Dennis Polkow why he left the Chicago Symphony for Philadelphia last year… and came back six months later.
Batallán: ‘Somehow, I wanted to make sure I had a good understanding of what the situation was here when Muti left. There was an uncertain time with the horn-section situation and with the trumpet section and with the trombone section as well. So, without getting really into detail, I think I needed to get some time away for myself….
‘When Philadelphia came up with the idea of my going there, I wanted to go and try and see how other places do things. The reality is that if I really felt that Philadelphia was a dream, I probably would stay there. But it was not a dream. My dream was still here. That’s why I decided to come back.
‘There were some situations in Philadelphia over the seven months that I was officially there that kind of were dragging me down a little bit. Some unfortunate situations between colleagues and some behaviors and things that I was fighting against here. So, my energy or my hope was kind of coming down in terms of Philadelphia.
‘Honestly, what I expressed to the CEO and [music director] Yannick [Nézet-Séguin] was that I was not ready to say no to the CSO with all these problems. Besides, I saw that things were working properly here by then. They understood from the beginning that [Chicago] was always my dream. They knew when I left to come to Philadelphia that it was potentially a temporary situation. I never lied to them. I said, ‘Look, this is the situation. It’s not new. Everybody knows this. I cannot hide my feelings. That’s been publicly said many, many times. So, let’s see how things go.’
Read the full interview here.
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