Yannick to receive national TV rollout

Yannick to receive national TV rollout

News

norman lebrecht

August 17, 2021

The PBS network is to screen a soft-soap documentary about the overtasked Met music director on September 3. ‘Yannick – An Artist’s Journey’ had a limited cinema release last month, mostly on university screens.

Filmed before the pandemic, Susan Froemke’s chronicles the conductor’s rise to power at the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera.

‘Don’t try to fit in. Just be yourself,’ says Nézet-Séguin in the film. ‘The world wants for artists to be their true selves.’

Comments

  • Concertgebouw79 says:

    I have already seen a not very interisting documentary about him on the Stringray network few years ago. It was maybe more about what he did in Rotterdam.

  • mary says:

    But then again, who’d be interested in a hard-hitting deep-dive investigative journalism piece on a … classical music conductor?

    There wouldn’t be much of an audience even for such a documentary on James Levine with all its pedophilia angle or Herbert von Karajan with all its Nazi angle.

    Not worth the cost.

  • Music fan says:

    I’ve yet to see a hard-hitting about classical musicians from an American outlet, PBS or otherwise. They are mostly created to promote the performers and sell recordings.

  • Alphonse says:

    When I see this man repeatedly thrust into the limelight, all I can think of are the legions of infinitely more worthy artists who are unjustly toiling in utter obscurity and anonymity.

    • NYMike says:

      I suppose you’re entitled to your opinion.

    • leo grinhauz says:

      he and others like him share the same characteristics of other modern day maestros; they work cheap. Orchestras have long figured out that in order to survive they have to pay their MDs less gelt. Besides, they REALLY don’t have to be delicate geniuses- just keep time and behave yourself.

  • Karl says:

    He’s too young for this. I’d rather watch him conduct at this point and see a doc about his career in a few decades. He conducted an awesome Brahms 1st at SPAC a few days ago. He has gotten into the ‘oppressed’ female composers like Price and Farrenc. Maybe someone can convince him that some late romantic Russians like Taneyev and Kalinnikov were oppressed too and deserve to be heard.

  • Save the MET says:

    Low viewership except maybe in Philly. As he takes on more jobs, his work has become less interesting. He and the MET would be better off if they parted ways.

  • Piston1 says:

    The most over-rated, over-paid, over-engaged conductor of our time, who symbolizes all that is wrong with international conductors and who gets away with it precisely because what remains of the gay New York classical-music press has set him up as idol, making it seem that he is some great humanitarian because he and his boyfriend are out about their lifestyle.

    • Amos says:

      You had me until you opted to engage in the homophobia. IMO the question is are we that desperate for competent conductors that he is the best choice to lead the country’s most visible opera company and one of the preeminent orchestras? In days of yore I’d argue he would be building a career rather than be at the top.

      • Piston1 says:

        Not homophobic at all: just an honest appraisal of contemporary media culture. The NYT is the same way with Adam Guettel, Nico Muhly and Esa-Pekka Salonen, who sail above all the current issues and who somehow can do no wrong; and two of those gentlemen, last time we checked, are voraciously straight. Also remember that the NYT was the same fawning way with Jimmy Levine, until the fall from grace. Honestly, sexuality ultimately has nothing to do with it, except for the fact that it is now just another weapon in making woke-ster-ism merely the latest iteration of neoliberalism, to which we are all fools. Apologies if this initially caused offense.

    • Tom Phillips says:

      Typical fascistic homophobia from the anti-New York Met-haters on this site.

      • Piston1 says:

        Honestly, his sexuality has absolutely, positively nothing to do with it: it’s the way that it’s fetishized in the media, as a smokescreen to distract from the real inequities that are taking place every day in the industry.

  • GUEST says:

    IDK, folks. His MET Elektra and Parsifal were the real deal. Why the hate?

  • Alviano says:

    Ah, if he were heterosexual, you’d all be licking his feet and watching the show three times a day.

  • Fabrizio SCOTTO DI SANTOLO says:

    I cannot disagree. A lot of water has flown since his (unique) appearance at the Salzburg Festival. I attended many concerts at Philly and the Orchestra deserves a lot. I was not impressed by his late concerts. Very shallow. Maybe this is the real Yannick. Just sexy and with no discipline for long hours of rehearsals. Gay or not, we don’t care about his preferences. But we do for the futiure of the great Philadelphia Orchestra and for the Met. Please, Mr YNS…find the time to rehearse.

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