Rattles are docked in Czech
NewsThe conductor Sir Simon Rattle and his wife, the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, are to receive honorary doctorates next week from the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno.
photo: JAMU/Petra Hajská
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Honorary doctorates are a farce. You get one, and then thrown even more from other universities. You only get a real PhD or DPhil, or become a medical or similar kind of doctor from years of hard work, investing money and then often by researching into something that is unique – not for conducting or singing that so many other people also do so well.
And yet you apparently don’t have one.
Haydn and Brahms had to ‘work’ for their Honorary Degrees. As a result we had the Oxford Symphony and the Academic Festival Overture for the Wrocław University. The snooty ones can always maintain that the low quality of these works did not justify their degrees.
So many people as good as these two?
Conducting and singing on such a high level are only possible through years of hard work. The artistry and contributions of the Rattle’s stand far above that of so many others and is without doubt deserving of this recognition.
Czech mate
Boo and Hiss to the knockers. Great that services to music have been rewarded in this way. Most academic qualifications and awards don’t necessarily make you a great musician, that has to be proven in performance, but this is good to see. I’m a big Rattle fan and the stoopid Tory government are, in the main, responsible for seeing him leave our shores. We don’t deserve great musicians in Britain anymore.
I don’t suppose it will involve Sir Simon making an appearance with the excellent Brno Philharmonic, to commemorate the event?
I’m assuming that the man who REALLY did something for Janacek, Charles Mackerras, must have received such an honorary degree from the Janacek Academy? . . .
Yep. Here is the list of previous awardees of the honorary degree: Rudolf Firkušný, Ludvík Kundera, Václav Havel, Jiří Suchý, Sir Charles Mackerras, Ivan Vyskočil, Zdeněk Mácal, Sir Tom Stoppard, Pierre Boulez, Emílie Vášáryová, John Tyrrell, Milan Uhde, Vojtěch Jasný, Eugenio Barba, Vlasta Chramostová & Jon Fosse. Every name a luminary.
We are talking about two of the greatest artists of our time. Any recognition they receive has been earned many times over!