Ridiculousness at the New York Phil

I had missed this miniature brouhaha over at the New York Philharmonic until I was getting caught up over at the Feast of Music.

The story starts with New York Phil trombonist David Finlayson speaking out on his blog:

Impersonators, alas, still seem to rise to the surface. I contend that the story of another impersonator is continuing to be written. It is the story of Gilbert Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan is a self-professed scholar and conductor of Mahler’s great second symphony, The Resurrection. ...

On December 8, 2008, Mr. Kaplan took the podium in front of the New York Philharmonic. My colleagues and I gave what we could to this rudderless performance but the evening proved to be nothing more than a simplistic reading of a very wonderful piece of music.

Yow-zoo-eee! Watch out over there!

The key assertion is that Gilbert Kaplan was allowed to conduct the Phil because of his generous contributions record. Nice work if you can get it, I guess.