Fair enough, Chris. After the terrible position the players have been put in, one would hope they will always be proactive and take nothing for granted. Nevertheless, they did their job, and it was the job of management to bring in funding and protect the endowment. This is where the failure lies, it seems to me; but nobody is asking that they take pay cuts.
Obviously, the paradigm has failed. Something that will work in the 21st century with all of its new technologies, markets, changes in the public’s tastes and access to entertainment needs to be developed. The NYPhil, for example, was originally a player-cooperative orchestra. If everyone agrees that the players are the orchestra, or that, surely, without them, there is no orchestra, then I don’t think an evolution of a new ‘business model’ is an impossibility at all.
In fact, maybe there ultimately is no other choice.
Le Chant du Rossignol...(song of the nightingale) 