French music director suspends himself for investigation
OrchestrasThe conductor Francois-Xavier Roth, who has been accused of sending inappropriate sexual messages to orchestral players, has informed the the Gürzenich orchestra of Cologne that he has ‘decided not to conduct’ while his conduct is being investigated.
In a message to the orchestra, Roth said: ‘I apologise to all of those I could have hurt.’
What many people already knew is finally coming to light. His behavior is shabby and any orchestra with which he is currently associated or will be associated in the future, such as the SWR Symphony Orchestra, should immediately terminate any further collaboration with him. There is no excuse for his abuse of power, and all previous commentators who defend his behavior by arguing that he is a fine conductor and a musical genius should be deeply ashamed of themselves.
At least he has apologised to “all of those I could have hurt”.
That in itself, from a French person, is very unusual, as French culture is one of the only, if not the only culture that I know where apologising for something is VERY VERY VERY rare, even when guilt is obvious. France is the only country where a person riding a bike, a scooter or a car can literally knock you over and hurt you in the street and instead of apologising, they will shout at you and blame you for what happened at worse and agitatedly and cursing at you help you up at best, but apologise, NEVER!
It must be due to their very inhuman and wicked education system that blames, humiliates, accuses and ridicules children for every small mistake that they make from a young age, so that accepting guilt and apologising is not part of the French survival kit. It explains a lot as to why French people are always on the defensive and why they are often so unhappy and unpleasant to be around.
I apologize for being a french prick
(but I am half irish so maybe it breaks the rule)
Sláinte
No prejudice there I see. Btw though, what century are you in?
Parisians, maybe. But France is a lot bigger than Paris.
Mmmm…. it depends where you are in Paris. In the 7th and 16th where I’m regularly, it’s always remarkably friendly and calm. Also the weather always seems to be better there.
Some outrageous generalisations here !
Please tell us what you really think!
Shabby stupid immature laughable sad behavior, yes.
Abuse of power, no.
His orchestras love him. This is palpable with Les Siècles.
He was ALREADY chief of SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg 2011–2016, long after his texting habits began.
So I think SWR can make up its own intelligent mind about FXR, without help from “Achim Mentzel” who died 8 years ago!
Yes, Pierre, you are right, and of course, the SWR Symphony Orchestra should stay with a chief conductor designate, when everyone knows now, that he is sending pictures of his genitals to orchestra members and offering “virtual showers”.
A conductor sending dick picks to his orch players is absolutely an abuse of power.
Maybe being male you see it only as “stupid” & “immature”, but to any woman who receives them it’s abusive.
Why do men not understand that women LOATHE dick picks? Sending them unsolicited means that you’re FORCING a woman to look at your junk without her permission. I can’t imagine anything more abusive than being forced to look at a conductor’s penis.
Thank you Anon.
Were the “dick pix” being sent to men, women, or both? Posting these screen shots on line would probably, quickly shut Roth down. In some cultural circles, “baton shots” could increase audiences?
Check FB. This is happening right now. There are screen shots now circulating publicly of a major US brass player who depantsed himself while teaching on Zoom.This guy holds a prominent teaching position & is Principal of a respectable US orch. Neither the school or the orch has taken action.
But this must surely be a period instrument.
According to le Canard he also sent them to men, who were equally shocked and disturbed.
Spot on.
I am deeply ashamed of myself.
There, you have it.
GDR bull.
In your hatred of all other opinions, and especially of me personally, you didn’t even catch the sarcasm and irony in my second comment, which is directly related to my first comment. Read again and you will discover that we are on the same side.
Why take a comment seriously from someone who hides behind ‘professional musician’, who claims to teach at a ‘very respectable German conservatory’, of which he is very proud, who appears to be filled to the brim with spite and bitterness, and has shown the wits of a disgruntled village vicar who has been ordered to settle in Berlin Kreuzberg?
Why take a comment seriously from a hobby composer and philosopher slinging mud at fabulous world class composers and staying mostly unperformed, while having no post at any conservatory?
Oh how I like this!
Sally
No,we are not…As a player who played under Roth many times over more than 15 years now, i can assure you he is very popular with the players…BTW, your comments are absolutely hypocritical, given the misogonyst nature of many of your rants.
Miso…. misogonyst? I had to look that up. But I can’t find any mention in the Cambridge or Oxford dictionary. It’s a mysterious word! Fortunately there are many in English. So, when I have to type an incomprehensible word in the letters here, I always make my own version & nobody ever complains because it’s always possible it does exist.
Sally
What did he do?
Here’s an idea. Why don’t we just write everyone up?
The Lord has spoken.
I don’t know how it will finnish but I hope that Les Siècles will continue it’s an original orchestra.
Yes, they probably will get a Finnish conductor. Everyone else has.
It’s a threat to everyone. Over here there’s talk in the corridors of having me replaced by a Fin.
Sally
Replaced as what? You don´t have a job.
Meanwhile I’ve been asked to be PA of a world famous teacher at the Hochschule in [redacted] but he seems a bully, has deer antlers in his office and, according to stories, is regularly drunk on Warsteiner, so probably I’ll pass.
Sally
What about your upcoming performances,Sally? Any gigs?
[Redacted: anonymous abuse: final warning] ..The rest is silence.
So ,what about Sally calling me a drunk?
Sigh.
It often feels like everyone in the classical music business is a scumbag.
Don’t forget the excesses and unusual occurrances are filtered-out to land on SD. Everything that goes well and without problems does not produce news items.
There is really very much that goes wonderfully well in classical music life, and that is in itself already a superhuman feat.
And everyone else is a self-righteous judgmental scold and prude.
He should have sent appropriate sexual messages, then he wouldn’t be in trouble. Never put anything on the internet that you don’t want to be made public.
It is a matter of approach and style.
If a male, single conductor happens to feel a mysterious, deeply personal sympathy towards a female player during rehearsels, of which he has – after careful research – discovered she is single as well, he should try to forgive her wrong notes, encourage her with eye winks, open doors courteously on the way to the kantine, and if he is given a friendly sideway look, should send her a delicate, small bouquet of white coronations (the roses come much later).
If, at the next rehearsel, she is not playing many more wrong notes than usual and smiles during fermatas, he could send her one of the poems of Verlaine or Rilke appropriate for the occasion. (Baudelaire’s ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ should be avoided at all costs.)
In this way, he should slowly build-up a bond of extramusical trust and see whether the mystery is reciprocal, and gradually and cautiously proceed outside the context of rehearsel time.
It takes a lot of time and effort, but the process has a beneficial influence upon the interpretation of 19C repertoire.
But nowadays, people want a quick fix.
In pre digital times this could not have happened. Anyone behaving like this would have needed a film processing setup and of course an enlarger.
In this particular case, we’d need to see the pics first to know whether an enlarger was used or not.
He may still need an enlarger.
Arguably slow flirting is yet another casualty of the fly-in conductor age.
And………. I have some nice, slightly-used, James Levine Metropolitan Opera logo towels, I want to sell. There are some cute Kevin Spacey “I ❤️ Royal Shakespeare Company” baseball caps coming in, next week. The Leonard Bernstein vintage cigarette holders are sold-out.
Whoa, you guys are saying he texted or emailed photos of his genitals to orchestra memberswho are employees of the organization? And you’re calling that merely “stupid, immature, sad, laughable?” You can’t be serious. In any reputable workplace investigation that would be considered egregious misconduct, and rightly so.
It’s not us, it’s Pierre, who has obviously lost all dignity. And this egregious misconduct would be followed by an immediate dismissal.
LOL….
Super solo de hautbois dans le 2ème mouvement, au fait voici ma bite
Women never seem to complain when they find a man sexually attractive. Such men who are in high demand really never send D picks, even when requested to do so. This is because if they ever met a woman who demanded them to “audition” (qualify) for them, they would instantly kick them to the curb (figuratively speaking). Having to qualify for a woman is an insult when there are thousands of women in line.
You’re missing the point, Art. You still think that sending dick pix is a valid type of flirtation. It’s not. A photo of your penis is not an “audition”. It doesn’t matter if the guy is Brad Pitt or Quasimodo – no woman ever wants to get a picture of someone’s penis. Anyone’s penis. Ever. For any reason.
Maybe gay men enjoy it. Maybe send pictures of your penis to other men. Maybe they’ll like it. Women resoundingly do not. If you’re lucky, the woman will be tolerant & just avoid you. If you’re not so lucky, she’ll report you or tell her friends that you’re a pervert. Sending a dick pick to a woman will never end well. Just don’t do it.
…….and men!
It’s that bloomin’ idé fixe.
Will FXR resign from the LSO where he is Chief Principal Guest Conductor?
Did he also send them to men or just women?