BBC hires extra conductor
OrchestrasThe BBC today appointed the German musician Anja Bihlmaier as principal guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic.
Bihlmaier, 45, is leaving the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague after one four-year term as chief conductor. On Thursday she conducts the BBC Philharmonic for a second time at the BBC Proms. The orchestra has the Finn John Storgards as its music director.
Sir Thomas Beecham’s quip about hiring foreign conductors when there are so many English second-raters might now reasonably be applied to the BBC which – except in Scotland – does not have a single British baton on the books.
Should this be an issue? Given the high quotient of Finns – four, count them – it does not reflect well on the BBC’s search criteria.
If you got John Storgards as principal conductor you’ll need all the back-up you could possibly find.
Storgards is fabulous…..Enjoyed playing under him very much…Real presence, and fab pro!
John is a fantastic musician, conductor and violinist,so committed
have you tried the new hearing test service from Specsavers? Storgards is awesome . Anja Bihlmaier is not.
Yes. Especially because every second or even third-rate British conductor is better than her.
GDR bull.
Ah! There you are! Good to know that you are still here in this valued place for frustrated, man-hating combat feminists. Outdated but so entertaining!
Lament of the long gones(ca.1989)
Agents continue to impress with their power. I wonder if we will ever return to a time when jobs were given based on merit. If you’ve seen her conduct for 30 seconds you realize she has absolutely nothing to say.
The problem is that armchair conductors base their judgement mostly on 30 seconds…..Understandably so, because this is the limit of their attention span…They don´t have anything to say.
The first group which has nothing to say are orchestra musicians, who think they have a voice or even something to say, in particular when they call themselves “professional musician”.
The first group which has nothing to say are GDR armchair conductors ,adopting the name of a ridiculous , provincial GDR music clown as a pen name…
Silly comment going out rioting this week?
Predictable reactions…Always the same misogynist goners who find it hard to accept their times are over ,not just since yesterday…Stuck in the 80s, listening to their Karajan et al records.
The full Beecham quote was: ‘Why do we have to have all these third-rate foreign conductors around when we have so many second-rate ones of our own?’
So are you saying that she is third-rate?
She definitely is.
BBC
Ban British Conductors
Clever conductor/ musician and lovely lady. Had her for a concert exactly one year ago. Hope she comes to conduct us again!
She’s an excellent conductor, and a genuine musician. It’s very good news for the BBC, and for Manchester.
I’ve always found Anja Bihlmaier to be quite excellent. Maybe a couple of green-eyed monsters in the comments, or the usual jump on anything resembling diversity crowd.
Perhaps you should open another discussion on this subject after Thursday night’s concert Norman?