Why Germans always win at football and symphony concerts

Why Germans always win at football and symphony concerts

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norman lebrecht

February 17, 2020

Frankfurt’s incoming music director Alain Altinoglu has been sharing some thoughts on life and art.

Germany is good at football, he says, because players are willing to merge their individuality into the collective. Same with their orchestras. ‘But at some point we French will also win …’

He omits to point out that too much collectivism can make very boring football teams. And orchestras.

Comments

  • Rich C. says:

    Tottenham v. RB Liepzig Wednesday night. COYS!!

  • GB says:

    He also omits that Germany has a history of suffering from too much collectivism lol

    • Tamino says:

      When I drove through San Francisco recently, I wished the Americans a bit of collectivism. Looking at the sheer amount of homeless people… err… redacted… temporarily inconvenienced potential millionaires, living in parks and under bridges.
      Looked like a third world country.

  • At the last world cup the french desorganization had better results

  • Hermann the German says:

    Norman,
    why this obvious obsession with so many things German ? Nothing is perfect any more in the state of Germany, as you well know. I wonder who will be the soccer champion in Quatar. I bet it will be Britain who have been waiting for over 50 years. Maybe Brexit will change everything.

  • Tom Moore says:

    I’m interested to see that Mr. Altinoglu, though with a Turkish surname, seems to be of Armenian descent. How does that work?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Altinoglu

  • John Borstlap says:

    It’s true. In a recent concert, the [redacted] Orchestra in [redacted] won from the audience with 5 – 0.

  • Sue Sonata says:

    And countries. And national broadcasters.

  • Norbert says:

    Crowds and Power (1960) by Elias Canetti

    Just saying……

  • Mustafa Kandan says:

    German football teams can be boring at times, but their major orchestras are never boring. French are better in football than in orchestral playing. I have heard Orchestra de Paris under different conductors and I disliked their sound.

  • Borech says:

    See link for the Leipzig Gewandhaus Football Team.

    https://www.classicfm.com/artists/philharmonia-orchestra/pictures/inter-orchestra-football-match/

    As usual, the Germans look better turned-out than our lot!

    Claudio Abbado used to play football with the LSO in one of the London parks.

    I once met Jimmy Hill, then the Match of the Day presenter, at Glyndebourne. He was introduced to Mark Elder, who was conducting that day and got him to autograph Jimmy’s programme.

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