Berlin will have a woman’s work in every concert next season
NewsThe Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin has just rolled out 2023/24 under the slogan ‘there is to be no concert this season without at least one work by a female composer.’
Among the interesting pairings are Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Unsuk Chun’s ‘Šu’ concert (pictured), and Bruckner’s ninth symphony with the German premiere of Camille Pépin’s violin concerto.
Outgoing music director Robin Ticciati will pair a sinfonia by sometime Haydn pupil by Marianna von Martines with the last of Haydn’s London symphonies.
See, it can be done.
It can be done. But who cares?
Indeed, it’s hard enough for them to get audiences as it is.
I’d be curious about a novelty such as a Martines work, but at every concert?!
They are a very good orchestra, but no one needs the “live act with DJ” in the foyer after the concert.
The LSO has been doing this for the past season to mixed reactions. Think it’s a question of survival and to appease the holy Arts Council England.
We live in a world where the selection of music based on the composer’s genitalia is viewed as progress.
I think we’ve been at better places in history.
Depends how attractive the genitalia is. These are serious criteria, after all.
The lament of the goners,again,
Wonderful!
Brave!
The world could be so much more fun and interesting if we stopped trying uniformity!
Music that’s not 100+ years old? Someone fetch me my fainting couch.
Note: unsuk chin is actually a great composer and she did so on merit!
A true genius, although the language of her writing is abrasive (I enjoy it).
That said…
Replacing masterpieces by Mozart et al, by drivel female composers either untalented today or CORRECTLY overlooked in history is tragic.
This is how classical gets ruined. I think long after audiences and listeners get turned off completely, people like you will still be begging for more forced diversity in an empty hall.
This is how pathetic female composers are, that we are FORCED to listen. Nothing organic about this. There is a true stupidity in thinking somehow all great works were misogynistic or unfairly propped up through history. False! It is actually organic genius
Screw Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn
Oh please, is anyone “forcing” you to go to the concert and listen to them?
I don’t think so.
Sorry to shatter you honey, but the halls are empty regardless. Try again.
Actually, this is a question to ask. How well attended are the concerts in Berlin? I would expect that those of the Berlin Philharmonic or the Staatskapelle indeed are, but how about the rest of the orchestras?
It looks more like a quota system. How about artistic excellence?
Er, what’s that, these days?
way to paint with a broad brush there JGL. sheesh.
I daresay there are enough first-rate works by first-rate female composers to allow the DSO, or any orchestra, to do this without compromising the quality of its programming. Good for the DSO.
Any more ticks and it’ll sound like a time bomb.
Good!
Norman Lebrecht, classical music’s number one broken
record … be sure to follow the big news stories: I heard the Death Valley Symphonette is hiring their first-ever female principal triangle.
Will we be listening to a woman’s work in its complete edition in every concert? I was brought up with the belief that a woman’s work is never done.
So blinking what? Are they any good or not? That’s all that matters.
Well, we don’t know since we have never heard most of these pieces, have we? So, give it a try and reserve judgment until later. I, for one, welcome some pieces new to me instead of the same old all the time.
Including trans, or just biological?
Wonderful point!