New Deadline Set in Minnesota Orchestra Labor Dispute Without a new contract agreement by then, the orchestra's management said Wednesday, it will not be able to call the musicians back to work in time for them to prepare adequately for a pair of crucial concerts at Carnegie Hall in November. The orchestra's music director, Osmo Vanska, has threatened to resign if the Carnegie concerts are canceled. Mr. Vanska said in the statement released by the orchestra on Wednesday that to be ready for the Carnegie Hall concerts, the musicians would need to be in rehearsal by the week of Sept. The new deadline is actually a little later than the previous one. Mr. Vanska had written, in a letter to the orchestra's board in April, that the orchestra would have to start work again by Sept. 9 "at the latest." The musicians have been locked out since October, when the players rejected a proposal for a 32 percent cut in base pay and declined to offer a counterproposal. The dispute forced the orchestra to postpone recording the next two symphonies in its acclaimed Sibelius cycle, which had been scheduled for the week of Sept. Blois Olson, a spokesman for the musicians, said in a statement that the musicians had recently accepted a mediator's proposal that management rejected. "Under the mediator's proposal, all of the key deadlines for the fall season would be met, negotiations would begin again, and in fact, the musicians would be back to work next week, thus ensuring the Carnegie residency and Osmo's tenure," he said. The upcoming Carnegie Hall concerts are scheduled for Nov. 2 and 3.