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Just in: Vienna Philharmonic wins $1 million Birgit Nilsson prize

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norman lebrecht

April 09, 2014

The 2014 award, worth 6.9 million Swedish krona, has gone to a woman-averse orch the diva used to admire. Not the most sensitive of selections.

birgit nilsson vienna

Comments

Steve Foster says:

April 9, 2014 at 6:06 pm

Is it an orchestra of men, or an orchestra of musicians who happen to be predominately male? Any oppositional statements could be construed as misandrous.

Nick says:

April 9, 2014 at 6:29 pm

For the life of me I cannot imagine why Madame Nilsson would even want to leave her money only to those at the very top of the profession. What on earth is the point of making already mega rich performers and musical ensembles even richer? A larger number of hugely beneficial scholarships for younger, less established artists would surely have made for a far ‘richer’ legacy!

Anonymus says:

April 9, 2014 at 9:36 pm

You miss the point of these prices. These prices are in effect the attempt by rather meaningless organizations – often in small nations with inferiority complexes – who are buying themselves some popularity by giving the money to some well known entity.

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