纽约爱乐乐团早些时候宣布这个month that its next music director would beGustavo Dudamel, the Venezuelanformer wunderkindwho currently leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In a single stroke, two of the nation’s major orchestral hubs found their musical profiles rearranged.

New York made the latest and most credible effort in its long struggle to hire a music director worthy of the orchestra’s reputation. At the same time, an enormous vacancy opened up in Southern California, where Dudamel — and the San Francisco Symphony’sEsa-Pekka Salonenbefore him — have helped create a dynamic and forward-thinking organization.

Much of the reaction to this has emerged from the two cities involved, and can be roughly reduced to: “What does this mean forus?”

New Yorkers, along with their neighbors along the Eastern seaboard, speculate about the Philharmonic’s future under Dudamel. In Los Angeles, prospects for the other Philharmonic are suddenly shrouded in mystery. Here in San Francisco, meanwhile, we probably don’t have much of a dog in this fight (although, who knows?), so we can afford to take a more synoptic view of the matter, which is going to unfold in comparatively slow motion — Dudamel’s New York appointment doesn’t begin until 2026.

From that perspective, one thing seems clear. The level of innovation and adventure that has been largely concentrated on the West Coast over the past decade or two promises to be more widely distributed across the continent. And that’s a positive development for everyone.

During the long period during which California’s two leading orchestras have been led by exciting, thoughtful music directors — Salonen and Dudamel in Los Angeles,Michael Tilson Thomasand now Salonen here — theGolden Statestaked its claim as the locus for exploration.

The two orchestras pursued ambitious agendas to broaden the concert repertoire, both through commissions of new work and the rehabilitation of forgotten and overlooked work from centuries past. They cultivated an image of energetic exuberance, as well as a vibrant engagement with the cities they occupied. They forged new paradigms for operation, befitting the new century.

Meanwhile, too many orchestras elsewhere in the U.S. continued to operate in accordance with the same old models — stodgy, Eurocentric, repetitious.

In traveling eastward, Dudamel promises to bring that dynamism with him. He will join Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the brilliant and tireless young French Canadian conductor who has overseen a remarkable period of rejuvenation at the Philadelphia Orchestra (and simultaneously, somehow, serves as the music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York).

其他人可能会效仿。理想情况下,可以我an a more exciting and forward-thinking approach to orchestral life throughout the country.

What’s particularly interesting about this announcement is that everyone knew Dudamel was likely to end up in New York. And no one knows who’s going to succeed him in Los Angeles.

Both of those blanket statements are only slight exaggerations. It was Deborah Borda, the visionary former CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who rocked the orchestral world with her 2007 decision to hire Dudamel — then just 26 years old — as the orchestra’s music director. When shetook the reinsin New York in 2017, most observers figured it was just a matter of time before she succeeded in bringing Dudamel there as well.

From the New York perspective, the appointment makes nothing but sense. Despite being perhaps the nation’s most famous orchestra — a status that owes something to the simple fact of inhabiting the nation’s largest city — the Philharmonic has not reliably lived up to its billing for decades.

Leadership has been sufficiently weak and desultory to make errors that are detectable from a continent away. A long series of music directors have proven successively underwhelming, each in his own way.

The organization’s most recent golden era was the 1960s, when Leonard Bernstein brought a combination of artistic grandeur and show-biz charisma to the post. Clearly, the Dudamel appointment is an attempt to recapture some of that magic — and not a moment too soon.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, has become a glorious opportunity for ... someone. I’ve been assiduously asking everyone I can find, industry insiders and outside observers alike, who they think will take up the baton there, and getting nothing but mystified shrugs in reply.

If I had to make a prediction, the most likely choice would probably be the acclaimed Lithuanian conductorMirga Gražinytė-Tyla, who recently gave up her post with England’s City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She would bring youthful panache and clarity to the role. She also spent time as an assistant and associate conductor in Los Angeles, and those organizational ties often count for a lot.

The counterargument is that she’sexplicitly statedshe’s not interested in a music director’s post. But then again, that’s a thing conductors say, the career equivalent of “I’m not looking for a relationship right now.” Salonen saidthe same thingnot long before he signed on in San Francisco.

Finnish conductorSusanna Mälkki, the orchestra’s former principal guest conductor, also might be a candidate. Bay Area music blogger Lisa Hirsch proposes someother possibilities, including Los Angeles native David Robertson and the Colombian American conductor Lina Gonzalez-Granados.

In any case, the decision won’t affect San Francisco audiences — unless it does.

A perversely impish voice has been whispering in my ear recently, speculating about whether Salonen might be interested in a second go-round.

Aside from Thomas’ 25-year lovefest here, there have been few recent pairings of orchestra and music director as obviously close-knit as that of Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The orchestra and its gleaming modern home, architect Frank Gehry’s marvelous Walt Disney Concert Hall, always seemed like a perfect fit for Salonen’s coolly analytical style.

Salonen’s ambitious plans for San Francisco, conversely, have gotten off to a rocky start because of COVID-19. There’s still plenty of time to get things moving on their anticipated course, but there might also be something attractive about relocating to a more familiar environment.

Do I really think that’s going to happen? Probably not — and also, heaven forbid. But I’ve been surprised before.

Reach Joshua Kosman: jkosman@sfchronicle.com; Twitter:@JoshuaKosman