WTF was that all about?

That’s also the punch line to a very funny story David Sedaris tells about a slug going door-to-door selling magazine subscriptions, but I digress.

Sunday’s story in the Detroit News gave the distinct impression that the DSO management was prepared to:

…move forward with a newly assembled group of players that would include only those members of the current orchestra who agree to unilaterally presented terms, DSO Vice President Paul Hogle said Sunday.

Without setting a date, Hogle said the time has come for a new symphony model to emerge, an ensemble that not only plays traditional concerts but also fully engages the community as ambassadors, educators and performers…

Hogle said any restructured ensemble would be professional and open to young musicians as well as veterans.

But a story in Monday’s Detroit News reported that:

A top Detroit Symphony Orchestra official said Monday that management has no plans at this time to replace its striking musicians with a newly assembled group of players.

DSO vice president Paul Hogle made the statement to clarify a published report in The Detroit News….

Hogle said the paraphrasing of his words “left the musical world with the impression that there is a plan to replace the current members of the DSO with new players. In fact, the DSO has no such plan. It was only Saturday, two days ago, we learned of the orchestra’s rejection of our final offer….

When talking to The Detroit News on Sunday, Hogle said, “I honestly thought I was talking about what is characteristic for anyone working in an orchestra that is going to thrive and survive….

Asked again Monday if the concept of replacing the current musicians, under any circumstances, was beyond the pale of consideration, Hogle said: “I’ll decline to comment on that, since I don’t have an answer because that has not been discussed.”

And, in an earlier statement today, management claimed that:

Today’s article in The Detroit News by Lawrence Johnson, “DSO: Change tune or be replaced” drew independent and inaccurate conclusions based on an interview with DSO Executive Vice President Paul Hogle. Mr. Hogle did not state that the DSO is “prepared to move forward with a newly assembled group of players.” The DSO has no plans of this nature.

I found that explanation unlikely based on my personal experience with the reporter, Lawrence Johnson, a veteran critic and arts reporter who I knew many years ago in Milwaukee before he moved on to the bright lights of Detroit. But the idea that a senior staff member of a major American symphony would be casually ruminating to a reporter, on the record, about launching the orchestral equivalent of WW III seemed equally unlikely.

And then I realized that there was a third possible explanation. Management could have floated this idea just as Johnson reported it on Sunday with the intention of claiming on Monday that it was all a misunderstanding. But why would they do that?

I can think of several explanations. One is to throw some red meat to hardliners on their board. Another would be to test the waters and see what kind of blowback they got (although the reaction from the musicians, the AFM and ICSOM was so predictable that really no “testing” was needed).

A third, and more likely, reason would be to raise the ante for the musicians without seeming to do so. I doubt that a single member of the DSO really believes that management isn’t thinking about replacing them after Sunday’s article, which is quite possibly what management wants them to think now. But it’s equally likely that management doesn’t want the public thinking that, especially in a state with a tradition regarding picket lines as strong as Michigan’s.

With this little two-step, they get to have the board and musicians thinking one thing and everyone else thinking something else. Very nicely done indeed, except of course for the additional poison added to the post-settlement waters. But they may well calculate that, at this point, a little more is going to make no difference to how awful things will be when the orchestra does go back to work.

Of course, this is speculation, and we all know the old saying about how speculation makes a spec out of u and lation.

Update: the Detroit Free Press also reported on this question this morning, strengthening my suspicion that management knew what they were doing all along:

Parsons said that the possibility of hiring replacements had come up during discussions with donors and community leaders during the strike and was likely to arise in the future as DSO leaders explored ways of operating its business without a resident ensemble. But she said the priority was to find a way to resolve the strike — while also exploring ways to reinvigorate the Max M. Fisher Center by increasing its educational activities, rentals and partnerships.

That’ll be more than enough to keep this pot at the boiling point.