Jansons and Gergiev put Daniele Gatti back on track

Jansons and Gergiev put Daniele Gatti back on track

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norman lebrecht

October 14, 2018

The Italian music director fired by the Concertgebouw orchestra over #Metoo allegations is conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchetsra in Munich this weekend.

The invitation came from his Amsterdam predecessor Mariss Jansons.

Gatti’s next stop, it is reported, will be St Petersburg where Valery Gergiev has offered him dates.

Levine next?

 

Comments

  • Anon says:

    Good. A few #metoo, which could have been swiftly dealt with, means we don’t lose this excellent musician. Nobody used to complain about Solti, Bernstein etc..in the “old days” making disparaging remarks to female orchestral musicians. Not acceptable I know, but this has gained so much momentum that anything can be misinterpreted as #metoo. Good on Gergiev and Jansons.

    • Brettermeier says:

      I wonder if you’d say the same about a mediocre conductor. But you’re part of the problem here: “excellent musician” outweighs “A few allegations” in your world.

      So you’d be be ok if I groped your daughter (with no witnesses, of course) as long as I’m an excellent musician? It would only be one allegation then, not a few, wouldn’t it. So that’d be cool, in your world, right? (Of course, not because that’d be TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!!11! 😀 I hate you people.)

    • Jack says:

      “The old days’? Maybe that’s why #metoo had to happen. Duh!

  • Gatti’s actions were far more than mere comments. If we are to set new professional standards then we must hold the line against a few old European patriarchs who do not realize that the world has changed.

    • Anon says:

      Tell that to IMG, CAMI, Intermusica, Askonas Holt, Harrison Parrot etc…the musicians are fodder!

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      “Setting professional standards” is fine, especially if you enshrine this in contracts. But if women want to be respected by men – especially the younger generation – first they need to cover up their wares, use appropriate language, stop falling down drunk and vomiting in the streets and, finally, claiming equal opportunity for licentious behaviour through the womens’ movement. Do you see (well, probably not) how men can easily get the wrong message when women behave like slappers? It takes mutual responsibility to ensure high standards of behaviour. A difficult concept for the Left to grasp, I know, but it’s the way things are.

      • Bart "Boofer" O'Kavanaugh says:

        “But if women want to be respected by men – especially the younger generation – first they need to cover up their wares, use appropriate language, stop falling down drunk and vomiting”

        Look, I like beer!

        Thank god for women like you who let us men to be drunkards and still vote for us. That calls for drink, don’t you think?

      • Jack says:

        Any of the things you allege in a hypothetical way do not give me — as a man — license to rape a woman. Sorry, but that’s not where the ‘mutual responsibility’ gets drawn in my world.

      • Chris says:

        I suppose the obvious question is whether the women who have made the allegations against the well-known names, WERE behaving in the way you describe. Or were they being taken advantage of because the alleged perpetrators knew they wanted to further their (the accusers’) careers.

    • Tristan says:

      Gatti is one of the most overrated conductors around, he only likes it loud (horrible Elektra in Zurich and Salzburg, disastrous Meistersinger there under the useless Pereira years which were among the worst ever in Salzburg, poor La Scala!!) not a huge loss all in all.
      Levine is more or less finished indeed
      ‘Abtreten die Leut’ –

      • Pikeperch says:

        I cannot agree more! And he is trying to [redacted] everywhere in the world, except Paris! Because his wife was there, disgusting!!

  • Yes Addison says:

    With regard to your closing question: I doubt it. Had Levine’s Met downfall had come about in 1995, he might have reestablished himself somewhere else, but today he has too much in the negative column.

    Whatever one thinks about Gatti as a musician or an interpreter, he is a vigorous and seemingly healthy man of middle age. Levine is about 20 years older and in poor and declining health. He was just getting through performances with an orchestra that knew him very well, and even that was only happening with at least three other people agreeing to go beyond their usual in-performance responsibilities to make the performances happen (see various articles by Michael Cooper in the New York Times, 2016).

    The most debilitating of Levine’s several medical conditions is of a progressive nature and affects both movement and cognition, and the medication used to control it brings its own effects. By Levine’s own account, he has had this condition for more than 20 years, and players were finding him difficult to follow as far back as 2004 (“At the Met, Concerns Over the Maestro’s Health,” Robin Pogrebin, NYT, 2004).

    Levine”s name and reputation were what made him seem worth the risk, trouble, and expense. Now he just makes no sense. The (poor) Met Verdi Requiems of late 2017 may well be the last time he is before any orchestra.

  • Bruce says:

    To be fair, he did issue a public apology, saying (as I recall) that he thought everything was consensual at the time and and he will learn from his mistakes. That’s more than most of them have done.

  • Pedro says:

    Very, very good news!

  • Pedro says:

    And the Munich concerts were already in the season program when it was announced several months ago..

  • Caravaggio says:

    Disgusting. If indeed Gatti was booked with the BRSO before the allegations then he should be replaced.

    • Brettermeier says:

      I agree.

    • Alain Louy says:

      Vous n’avez aucun titre à vous appeler Caravaggio.
      Les accusateurs anonymes sont méprisables.

      • Brettermeier says:

        Is it mix’n’match with languages today? Great. Aaaalso:

        Ja klar, es ist eines der großen Rätsel unserer Zeit, warum Betroffene anonym bleiben wollen, wenn sie stattdessen doch auf internationaler Bühne ein weiteres Mal gedemütigt werden können!

        (Habe ich heute schon erwähnt, dass ich Menschen hasse?)

    • Saxon Broken says:

      Er…he can not be “uninvited”. That would be breach of contract. The BRSO were stuck with letting him conduct.

  • Clóvis Marques says:

    I think his career should not be destroyed. It’s enough if someone makes the necessary amendments, if this is the case, the offensed parts go for reparations if they feel the need and the rest of us can just sit back and enjoy the music, especially from an artist and a profissional of this standing. Holly shit, let’s be reasonable!

  • Pikeperch says:

    Really disgusting! A lot of people in the business know what he did, and this was not only “talking”. I cannot understand the BRSO to let him conduct, it’s very disappointing. And this wasn’t Jansons idea, it was planned long before the allegations. It was the managements decision. Poor

  • Alain Louy says:

    Levine next
    Insinuation triviale.
    On ne sait rien de ce qui est reproché à Gatti. à Amsterdam.
    Ce sont ceux qui violent la présomption d’innocence qui doivent être condamnés.
    Il faut lire la critique des journaux allemands :ils ne s’interessent même à des accusations sans preuves.

  • Caravaggio says:

    As for Levine, the man is toast. Finished.

    • Alain Louy says:

      Vulgaire

      • jaypee says:

        Levine? Et comment.
        Tout le monde savait depuis au moins trente ans ce qu’il faisait en toute impunité…
        Prétendre le contraire est soit de l’hypocrisie, soit de l’aveuglement.
        Vous faites partie de quel camp?

        • Alain Louy says:

          D’abord je vise Gatti et non Levine.
          En tout état de cause je privilégie la présomption d’innocence.Ke Droit.

  • Leo says:

    Actually, #metoo is a great thing. It strips West of its best musicians (there is not much sense in accusing mediocre ones) and hopefully brings them to the East, where demand for classics is higher and quality of musicians is lower (formerly famous Soviet school is in ruins), Personally I do not give a damn whom they f///cked and how it was received on the other end. I am interested in their music only.

  • Brettermeier says:

    “Personally I do not give a damn whom they f///cked and how it was received on the other end. I am interested in their music only.”

    And I wouldn’t care if you’d get hit by a car, because I am interested in the driver’s musical skills only. (But may I assume, you would care? See what I did here?)

    Such hypocrites, it’s just stunning.

    • Mark says:

      Brettermeier, your logic is rather childish – if someone is deliberately hit by a car, it’s a criminal offense. If Levine or Gatti or Dutoit did something criminal, let it be proven in a court of law. In the absence of such a conviction, I, like the poster above, don’t give a damn about any discarded lover’s feelings.

      • Brettermeier says:

        “if someone is deliberately hit by a car, it’s a criminal offense”

        You’ve much to learn, comrade. If someone is sexually assaulted, it’s a criminal offense, too!

        But I like your Russian way of thinking! No wonder why you elected Putin for your president. 😉

        Спасибо за вашу услугу, товарищ!

        • Mark says:

          Well, I get it now, you are a miserable old spinster, who
          simply abhors these terrifying creatures known as “men”. Yes, sexual assult is a crime, but it has to be PROVEN. Allegations do not a crime make. Ironically, only in places like Soviet Russia, accusations were sufficient to convict a man.
          Now, back to your knitting …

          • Anson says:

            Nevermind, I guess, that no one here is seeking to “convict” Gatti.

            There are lots of things I can do that aren’t crimes but will nonetheless cause me to lose my job.

          • Fritz says:

            There are so many situations, which happened with Gatti and women, if you are in the business, you should have heard of it. Sometimes difficult to prove, because this happens only in his dressing rooms. And some of the victims really don’t want to have a public trial because they have kids they want to protect! That’s why he didn’t do anything against his termination in Amsterdam. Because he and his expensive lawyers are clever.

  • Luigi Nonono says:

    Far too much care and attention is being paid the feelings of female musicians. They must take responsibility for how they choose to feel. Women can turn anything into a perceived assault if they want to. #MoveOnfromMeToo.

  • Mark says:

    This only increases my respect for Mariss Jansons.

    May the resumption of Gatti’s career and the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh in the US sound the death knell for the #MeToo nonsense.

  • MacroV says:

    I don’t understand Gatti’s actions were on a comparable level to those of Levine. The Concertgebouw may have been right to fire him but I’d still support an opportunity for redemption.

  • Women Conductors Rule! says:

    The MeToo movement will help women rise up to the top of the conducting profession.

  • Jack says:

    This points to one of the difficult questions of #metoo, specifically what is the next chapter in the career/life of people who have been shown to have done these things.

    If the transgression is bad enough, there are legal remedies, both criminal and/or civil. If criminal acts can be proven, there are consequences for that. If civil suits can bring financial recompense, then there is that. But once that is done, what is the next chapter?

    Should that conductor, actor, artist, etc. be forever banned from practicing their art? I realize that Levine is probably at the end of his career now, but if he had been outed twenty-five years ago, should one of the (arguably) greatest opera conductors of this or any other era be banned from doing what he does so well and set free to pursue a career as an insurance salesman? Or should he be permitted to return to what he does best and benefit the world with his art, KNOWING FULL WELL that we know (and he knows we know), and that he will wear that the rest of his life and beyond.

    It’s an interesting question. What’s the next chapter for Gatti, Levine, et. al. I really hope this provokes some real discussion and not the kind of snark and sniping that is so typical in this blog because it’s a question I’m struggling to answer for myself

  • Edo says:

    Has he been gone to court already and found guilty?

  • barry guerrero says:

    Frankly, both of those orchestras may not be as refined as the Concertgebouw, but they play with more fire and commitment. Just compare Jansons/BRSO vs. Jansons/Concertgebouw. Good for Gatti.

  • barry guerrero says:

    With those two orchestras may not be a refined sounding as the Concertgebouw, they often times play with more fire and commitment. Just compare Jansons/BRSO vs. Jansons/Concertgebouw. Good for Gatti!

  • der rote Falke says:

    Not only Jansons and Gergiev, but also Fabio Luisi (https://www.maggiofiorentino.com/events/fabio-luisi/).
    Long live maestro Gatti!

  • Saxon Broken says:

    Some of you are getting rather too excited about the fact that Gatti is conducting in Munich and elsewhere. He was signed to conduct these concerts some time ago. Later he was fired from Amsterdam for “unspecified reasons”. (OK, we think we know why, but these reasons were never made public). So the other orchestras are not able to withdraw the offers, since what happened in Amsterdam can not be used in these other places. We will have to see whether he gets new offers, or his career winds down as he fulfils his current gigs.

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