But the orchestra had grown accustomed to the larger-than-life presence of Ms. Borda. And while Mr. Woods was credited with raising the Seattle Symphony’s artistic profile — among other things, that orchestra presented the premiere of John Luther Adams’s “Become Ocean,” which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize — and prioritizing outreach, that was a much smaller operation: The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s annual budget, approximately $125 million, is nearly four times that of Seattle.

Another possible challenge: Mr. Woods also inherited the respected senior leadership team that Ms. Borda had assembled, some of whom had been considered as possible successors to her. Gail Samuel, the executive director, who served as acting president during the search, let it be known she was interested in the job. Chad Smith, the chief operating officer, who oversees the orchestra’s adventurous programming, said then that he was happy in his current post. The current contract of the orchestra’s star music and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel, runs through mid-2022.

The orchestra, which announced that its board chairman, Jay Rasulo, and chairman designate, Thomas L. Beckmen, would serve as interim leaders, declined to elaborate on the reasons for Mr. Woods’s departure. Ms. Borda said in an interview that each artistic institution has its own ecosystem and that “a leader who works brilliantly in one setting may simply not be the right fit in another.”

It was, in a sense, history repeating itself. After another strong-willed executive, Ernest Fleischmann, retired from the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1997 after nearly three decades, his successor, Willem Wijnbergen, lasted less than two years in the post.

When Mr. Rasulo was asked about that earlier bungled transition during a 2017 interview with The New York Times, as the search for a new chief got underway, he said that he hoped to find someone who could stand the test of time.