Why don’t conductors do something?

Why don’t conductors do something?

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norman lebrecht

January 02, 2015

The Vienna Philharmonic have announced Mariss Jansons as conductor of their next New Yea’r Day concert.

I will ask him personally, as I have asked others in years past, to request that the ensemble fields at least ten women in the concert. He will smile, and sweetly equivocate. Nothing will change.

Conductors are supposed to have an influence on the musical process. Some of them do. In this instance, they become besotted by the ‘tradition’ of the occasion and become mere time-keepers and masters of ceremony.

The day a conductor refuses to conduct the Vienna Phil until it ends discrimination will be the day the orchestra begins to grow up.

Who’s first?

jansons concertgebouw

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