Breaking: German radio stands by Francois-Xavier Roth
NewsThe Frenchman, who withdrew from conducting this summer after being accused of sending dick-pics to female musicians, has just been reconfirmed to take over as chief conductor of the SWR Orchestra in 2025.
The Stuttgart-based ensemble was previously headed by the Putin beneficiary Teodor Currentzis.
Roth was sacked last week by the city of Cologne.
A statement by SWR said that an internal audit committee could not find any evidence of misconduct by François-Xavier Roth towards members of SWR orchestras and there was no reason therefore to cancel his contract.
It added that SWR and François-Xavier Roth had ‘agreed on rules that are intended to prevent misconduct on his part in the future and protect employees.’
Roth said: ‘I recognize that I have made mistakes in the past in dealing with musicians. However, it was never my intention to hurt anyone in any way. I understand that I have not fulfilled the expectations placed on me and would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all those I have hurt and disappointed.
‘Since I stopped conducting, I have devoted myself even more intensively to this personal development and to improving my leadership style so that such mistakes will never be repeated.’
Gott sei Dank.
It remains a pity that all three Schönberg pieces (opp. 5, 36, 31) promised for this week were lost.
It’s a thought that rings absurd from the outset, but I wonder what they would have done if a woman conductor had sent vagina-pics to various colleagues. Do we even need to ask? It tells us something about how accustomed we are to the sexual misbehavior of men in classical music. Even the lowest indignities can be put in formal black-and-white dress and brushed aside. Women pay the price.
Good for SWR. Good for Roth. Good for us the audience, too.
The untruth of this statement has many layers. One of these is this:
“audit committee could not find any evidence of misconduct”.
Maybe the committee could not find any evidence because the manager and the chairman of the orchestra did not forward the information of such misconduct while perusing their own agendas. I don’t think it is over.
He’s an excellent conductor. A real inspiration.
If we’re to go down this road then Picasso amongst many others should also have been cancelled.
Adults can make their own decisions whether they sleep with him or not – it’s not up to the public.
But what would be a grave loss to the orchestra and public is a conductor of that talent level and inspiration.
Picasso was not a Chef conductor of a publicly financed Institution with a salary 1 million +, so this the first difference.
I doubt also of Picasso has sent his dicpics via WhatsApp because he did not have a mobile phone.
Picasso did not need a mobile phone, he could have painted his dicpics.
So he gets away with 200000 Euros (Cologne) and continues like nothing ever happenend. I wouldn’t want to be in a room with such a person – at least in Germany this could have been done better!
He lost already much more than the 200.000…
More of the same. Not a good look.
What a scandal.
Nothing has changed.
Someone like him can do such things without any consequences.
Shame on all people from the SWR.
Shame on THESE people of the SWr (really, few of them) who kept him despite the uproar within the orchestra and the institution
Could you please elaborate, as the « uproar within the orchestra » seems contradictory with “the internal audit committee [not finding] any evidence of misconduct towards members of the Swr orchestras” ?
Insider info would be enlightening.
The fact that the audit committee did not find any evidence of misconducting is easy to explain: they did not know there to search or did not search it where they would find it, deliberately or not is less important. Would that be enough as information?
Just because members didn’t come forward to provide evidence of misconduct does not mean misconduct didn’t take place. It is well known that misconduct indeed happened, regardless of what evidence the committee received. The orchestra is not happy and only a select few musicians had any involvement in the SWR’s decision.
Disgrace! The pigs have to go, come on it’s 2024! Remember Gatti had to go for different reasons, but still had to go. I guess the case of fxr is much more severe and he can stay unharmed? Impossible!
Shame on the city of Cologne for “the everybody in charge saves their faces” and shame on SWR for holding to a respected artist, but evidently an abuser of power.
And shame on him for taking all the money and the contracts.
There everybody can see he won’t change.
Funny how the SWR mentions to “agree on rules that prevent misconduct” – just funny.
Let’s start the discussion about how the public funded broadcasting station SWR is giving the money to very bad people. How much does he earn?
For that kind of money everybody else must behave very, very much, but not the conductor fxr. Come on, it’s 2024.
I expected more from Germany in these cases, especially in Germany.
Most of the players in the orchestra are not happy about the decision. Maybe there are a few friends of the conductor, but most are angry at the SWR. How will it be for Mr. Roth to know his orchestra doesn’t want him there? He probably doesn’t care, he just happy they are saving his career. Bravo to the SWR for reaching a new low.
Musicians still tend to forgive bad behavior if the person is a great talent. Certain behavior is not appropriate. Everyone is replaceable.
The announcement on Thursday before the concert in Stuttgart, made by Sabrina Haane, that Roth will become the chef conductor from the 2025-26 season was loudly booed by the audience. It was quite spectacular.