The #1 woman conductor in France
OrchestrasThe 30th Victoires de la Musique – France’s annual media limelight for classical music – is to be conducted tonight by the music director of the Orchestre national Avignon-Provence.
Débora Waldman is the first woman to head a French national orchestra. Tonight, we are told, she will be wearing a new set of conductor’s tails, specially designed by Natalia Logvinova Smalto.
There is one thing that I am very curious about and I hope that other readers will appreciate that this is a genuine question and not necessarily concerning Ms Waldman herself.
Hearing some very mixed reviews of performances even by the most successful female conductors (there was a large amount of those after the recent Marin Alsop’s attack on “Tar”, which she probably took far too personally) I started wondering: Most orchestras these days can play pretty well without much input from the conductor. There is also less and less scrutiny from music critics since even some major websites and newspapares are scrapping their arts columns. Are we in danger of orchestras being taken over by conductors whose selection for top artistic jobs is influenced more by their looks rather than artistic merit? Women would definitely have some unfair advantage here. So many posters and CD covers with female conductors look like fashion magazine’s front cover these days. Would the musicality and vast knowledge of Jane Glover or Nadia Boulanger be enough these days to propel them to international fame they justly deserved?
Which female conductors do you have in mind? You say that your comment is ‘not necessarily’ about Waldman. But then only name Alsop. Whilst Alsop is a good-looking older woman, she’s not somebody who would obviously fit with your ‘fashion magazine’ front cover idea. Nor is it obvious to me why female conductors should have an unfair advantage based on their looks (as you go on to suggest, thereby contradicting yourself, not for all). I’d suggest that the photo-shoots of many male musicians – conductors and soloists – are just as carefully crafted to ooze with qualities that are nothing to do with music. What is arguably unfair is that men are often viewed, culturally at least, as retaining those qualities much later into life than women. To take one example: I’ve seen some pretty sultry photos of the unquestionably handsome Paul Lewis over the years. He’s now turned 50, and still rather a dish (imo, even though I’m straight!). Nobody worries that Paul Lewis’s sultry success risks bringing down the quality of piano-playing. I rather suspect that what you are revealing by your post is simply that you clocked that Debora Waldman is a lovely-looking woman. I can’t disagree.
So if women conductors, or musicians of any ilk, get any advantage from their good looks for a time (which I seriously doubt), good luck to them. It’s unlikely to last a lifetime, and the odds are heavily stacked against them in many other respects too.
I don’t think that Nathalie Stutzmann, Marin Alsop, Simone Young or Susanna Malkki have some unfair advantage because of their looks. With all my respect.
Yes, the masculine harshness cannot be denied to all of them.
Not one of them is a great conductor.
Great comment!! The PC female conductor push is getting very old. A number of the ones hired are nothing special. Critics and audiences are not aware that orchestral players are sarcastically rolling their eyes behind the scenes. Some of these conductors are good, others are not… exactly as is the case with male conductors. But enough PC guilt for Chrissakes!! And saddest of all: do the women not realize they are in fact tokens being hired because of their gender?? It’s unfortunate that a poor film such as Tár is taken so seriously. Terrible, embarrassing screenplay.
What a dinosaur, Mark! I happen to share your concerns, we have the musicians our time deserves, when a “cheffe” in inclusive woke writing is at the podium, it’s like everything matters but music making….
Unfortunately, classical music has long looked like a fashion magazine. This is done to attract attention due to the great competition with the pop industry.
But I think that the key factors for evaluating a musician are always its talent and professionalism, and not model face, gender, age, and so on.
Natalie Stutzmann? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathalie_Stutzmann?wprov=sfti1
I’m awed by the musical accomplishments of Ms Stutzmann and look forward to attending an ASO performance soon. I understand there are probably a few men and women conductors appointed to positions because of looks, but I believe Natalie is the real thing (as does Sir Simon).
She is a very fine musician.
Suzanna Mälkki directrice musicale de l’Ensemble Intercontemporain, Graziella Contratto cheffe principale de l’Orchestre des Pays de Savoie (France…). Bien avant la nomination de Debora Waldman, ce qui n’enlève bien sûr rien à ses mérites mais dit beaucoup sur l’ignorance de ceux qui ont communiqué sur sa nomination.
Ensemble Intercontemporain is not a national orchestra neither Orchestre des Pays de Savoie.
So what? Is the. Boston Symphony a national orchestra?
It’s an unfortunate admin rank in French bureaucracy; there are municipal, regional and national orchestras. Avignon was recently promoted to “National” status, probably cos the Opera House has had a thoro’ makeover and the orch wanted a bit too!
It is about the music, guys, not how the conductor looks….
That’s right, otherwise sweaty pigs like Levine or clumsy Santas like Segerstam would never have made it this far.
Or the real Achim Mentzel,for that matter
If I am not mistaken, “Les Victoires de la Musique” used to also take into account the number of CDs the artist or group would sell.
Not so sure if this holds true anymore in today’s world of file sharing and free YouTube videos.
Please give it a rest!!! All you do is post ad nauseam about female conductors. Enough already. It’s not that interesting. Yes, we now know that women can conduct: big deal. I am serious and sincere in this request. You expect everyone to fall over and fawn at their Vogue headshots??? Enough already!!! PC overload!!! Let’s try to discover Inuit conductors from Alaska [‘eskimo’ is now offensive].
I am simply dying to watch an Inuit conduct the Ring Cycle. Maybe it would improve the Met’s attendance to have such a stunt.