Alondra’s back, Brahms survives

Alondra’s back, Brahms survives

News

norman lebrecht

April 17, 2023

The controversial conductor Alondra de la Parra unleashes a fresh set of clichés in a Deutsche Welle documentary on Brahms 4th symphony.

She has discovered ‘a personal connection’ with Brahms 4 – ‘because I studied it first.’

Comments

  • drummerman says:

    why is she “controversial?”

  • Brad says:

    Why is she “controversial?”

    • Hammers Rocco says:

      He is a woman and she is Mexican so she bothers the misogynistic, racist jerks that hang around here

  • DanielNYC says:

    sorry for being dense, but why is she “controversial”…not up to speed on the rumors/opinions of the day…

  • fernandino garcia says:

    Kleiber and most people dont care about her thoughts. another nothing burger.

  • Brian says:

    De la Parra is one of the biggest fakes in the business. Sorry.

  • TP says:

    “Actually, I have a personal connection to this piece because it was definitely the first symphony of Brahms I studied.”

    Well there! 🙂

  • Anonymous says:

    What an embarassment

  • Eve says:

    I am sure this will land her in a big orchestra in the near future. Today motto in music is, if you cannot do it; does mean you won’t.
    Sad period for music.

  • Nicholas says:

    A Maestra who doesn’t look or behave like a Maestro. Brava. No need to have 105 gender identities to perform Brahms. The gender binary comes naturally, the binary form in music needs to be studied.

  • Gerry Feinsteen says:

    Say Hola to LA Phil’s next MD.

  • RPMS says:

    I’ve listened to about half the broadcast. It doesn’t seem to me noticeably clichéd, as these things go. Just pitched for a popular audience. And she didn’t say ‘because I studied it first’, wording which is ambiguous and open to ridicule. She said ‘it was… the first symphony of Brahms that I ever studied’, which is not ambiguous and is unremarkable. A rather silly bit of tabloid journalism.

  • Robin Blick says:

    ‘towards God’? Brahms was not a believer.

  • Anon says:

    Management of a top Madrid orch tried to line her up as a Music Director candidate. All hell broke out among the musicians & savvy members of the public & press over this. She’s a phony. She looks good but she doesn’t deliver. Musicians who’ve tried to work with her know this. That’s her controversy,

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s a sad story. She comes from a very well connected and rich family. She has had plenty of time to achieve at least a basic degree of competence. Much more than others due to her means.

      While no doubt an enthusiastic musician, she never had any talent for conducting then, and she does not have it now. If one wants to become a licensed pilot, for instance, it takes a lot more than enthusiasm. Alondra should have had her conducting license revoked many years ago.

      Simply conducting over and over again — because you have the resources — will not make you a conductor. I hope other orchestras also think as carefully before inflicting her on their musicians and audiences.

      • Gerry Feinsteen says:

        These days it’s the absence of one thing that opens doors for two others, of higher level.
        iykyk.

  • Ari Bocian says:

    I read somewhere that Brahms 4 was also the one that Carlo Maria Giulini studied first (while hiding in Nazi-occupied Italy in 1943 at nearly 30 years old); he turned out just fine.

  • Albondiga de la Perro says:

    The only issue in the history of slipped disc that everyone can agree upon is how much Alhonda sucks.

  • Karden says:

    Gerry Feinsteen: “Say Hola to LA Phil’s next MD.”

    LOL. Probably. Their choice in all likelihood (regrettably) is going to be a very political – or ideological – one.

    The Phil’s analogous Hollywood-entertainment industry is self-flagellating itself right now, including at the box office, in pursuit of a pre-approved doctrine.

  • FrauGeigerin says:

    How is it possible that orchestras keep inviting back this talentless apprentice conductor?

  • Terence says:

    Alondra is an accomplished, dedicated, conductor!

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