Leonard Slatkin is on board.

I hope to write more about this in the coming weeks in the paper, but I wanted to post a quick response to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's hiring of Leonard Slatkin as principal guest conductor.

This is a great appointment for the PSO. When the orchestra was searching, I actually thought Slatkin could make a good music director for the PSO as an American conductor leading an American orchestra, so getting him as a principal guest seems almost a steal.

He will lend his considerable expertise of the non-musical affairs of American orchestras from his experience at the National and St. Louis SOs. He understands American audiences and how to reach them, and that too will prove indispensible, especially as the PSO music director designate, Manfred Honeck, doesn't yet have that kind of experience. And it doesn't hurt to have a well-known name like Slatkin on board when Honeck is yet unknown in the U.S. (that will change shortly, I think).

Slatkin has a great ear for contemporary music and also has become a better conductor of the standard rep as he ages. His mastery of American music has now been coupled with some fine sensitivity in the canon. If he hasn't been exhibiting that as much at the NSO, it may be a change of scenery has done the trick. But for whatever reason, he clicked with the PSO last year.

I had the opportunity to hear him conduct many times and talk frequently with him last summer on the European tour and was impressed by the depth he was reaching at times, the manner in which he worked with the orchestra and his breadth of musical knowledge.

Gotta say it: The artistic future of the PSO seems bright in 2008 and beyond with Honeck and Slatkin at the helm.

First Published: June 15, 2007, 7:45 p.m.