Breaking: Gatti warns orchestra and media of legal action
mainA statement issued by Daniele Gatti through his lawyer in Torino:
STUDIO AWOCATO CHIUSANO
10121 Torino Via Bertolotti n. 2 – Tel. 011/4369069 Fax 436 93 03 00186 Roma Piazza del Porto di Ripetta n.1- tel. 06/32110968
ALBERTO BORBON
Oggetto: dichiarazione del Maestro Daniele Gatti
Con riferimento all’iniziativa assunta dal Presidente del Consiglio di Amministrazione e dal Direttore Generale della Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam di cessare il rapporto di collaborazione con il Maestro Daniele Gatti, quest’ultimo, mio tramite, tiene a far sapere agli organi di stampa che รจ esterrefatto e respinge fortemente qualsiasi tipo di accusa.
Il Maestro ha dato mandato ai suoi legali di tutelare la propria reputazione e di intraprendere eventuali azioni qualora tale campagna diffamatoria nei suoi confronti dovesse proseguire.
Distinti saluti.
Torino, 02 agosto 2018
Roughly, in English:
ALBERTO BORBON
Object: statement by Maestro Daniele Gatti
With reference to the initiative taken by the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the General Director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam to cease the relationship of collaboration with Maestro Daniele Gatti, the latter, my client, wishes to let the media know that he is stunned and strongly rejects any kind of accusation.
The Maestro has instructed his lawyers to protect his reputation and to take any action if this defamatory campaign against him should continue.
Yours sincerely.
Turin, 02 August 2018
This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Gatti and Levine.
Gatti and Levine represent the EPIC FAIL past of conductors along with all the men currently out there. Mirga, Hannigan, Karina Canellakis, Marin Alsop, Gemma New, and all the women conductors out there represent the true future of conducting. Conducting is destined to become an all women profession. The male conductor is on its way out.
troll
I think she is absolutely right, none of the 5 big orchestras (LSO, Berlin Phil, Wiener Phil, RCO and Chicago Symph) has a woman as music director, and seeing the talent of the women conductor nowadays this could the perfect time that one of top orchestras shows the world that this decision can be made engaging a woman chief conductor…
A decision should be made to choose a conductor based on merit and future prospect. Nothing else. Could be a woman, could be a man. Reverse gender discrimination is not the solution, and intelligent people know that.
Stop the hyperbole. Can’t compare the two cases.
You know zero about what alleged ‘crimes’ Gatti did.
From the hearsay so far it was inappropriate flirting.
So what makes you so sure, you can give that man lying in the floor a strong kick with your shoe?
This place here is so full of vile people.
Good luck with that …
That is what I thought….
The Washington Post isn’t going to retract its statement, and the RCO isn’t going to reinstate him. Reporting this in the rest of the media is “fair comment”.
Gatti or his lawyer saying “Fake News” in 3…2…1…
He’s a good looking guy. Why does he (allegedly) have to force himself upon women ? Makes no sense. I thought he would be innundated with offers !
Plenty of good-looking guys are in the slammer for rape. Sexual assault is rarely a crime of desperation.
With a name like Gatti, it’s hard for him NOT to be attracted to PUSSY-cats! ๐
We’d have to consult the Clintons about that.
This will not end well. His own orchestra has come forward with stories. The best he can hope to win is a breach of contract. He can’t regain his reputation.
There is no chance he will win a case of “breach of contract” if there is credible evidence he sexually harassed employees at the RCO. He would have to show not only are the accusations untrue, but that the RCO could not reasonably believe the accusations to be true. The RCO have implied there are several different cases.
Gatti neednโt worry: Americaโs pussy-grabber-in-chief can get him a job conducting the United States Marine Band.
Like I said earlier: the torpedoes the Democrats have been putting in the water for Trump seem to keep turning around and hitting targets on their side.
You said it, but there doesnโt seem to be much evidence it is true. Getti is no liberal hero, nor are Preucil, Levine, Dutoit, etc. Iโd say it is more likely that those you despise would have a low opinion of such very fine men, who are without a doubt being smeared by a vast left-wing conspiracy made up of their musical inferiors.
As far as I am concerned, if someone is behaving in a manner unbecoming, I donโt care what their politics are if their employer wants to part ways. You may be an alpha male, but the pack can rip you to shreds faster than you can say โbut what about Hillary?โ
From NYT “In 2013 he conducted a new production of Wagnerโs โParsifalโ at the Metropolitan Opera…..from memory.”
Blimey, who else (apart from maybe Toscanini) could have done that ?
Easy. Just let the leader/concertmaster do the work for you!
At many performance I attended at the Met with Levine conducting he would often have a score open but he would never turn the pages. Quite clearly conducting from memory. I’ve seen other conductors do this as well.
Stupid, ignorant remark. I saw him conduct that production and it was one of the top 3 Parsifals iโve heard
Karajan famously conducted everything from memory. My orchestra’s music director for many years, Fabio Mechetti, conducted most things from memory including complete performances of La Boheme, Carmen, Tosca, Turandot, and Fidelio. (None of those are as big as Parsifal, but together they add up.)
Karajan conducted always without score with the only that Karajan was one of the greatest ever and Gatti is one of the many most overrated conductors around. Plus conducting by memory doesnโt make a great Maestro, itโs so much more.
Precisely! Since when conducting by memory is in itself a proof of genius? The important thing is HOW one conducts, and in that department Daniele Gatti is, with all the respect, an overrated crappy conductor. And I am not taking in consideration any #metoo issues here…
To Gatti’s credit, though, when the host of that Parsifal’s HD started fawning over him for conducting a long work without a score (surely part of the host’s script), Gatti downplayed it rather than allowing it to be presented as evidence of his genius. Essentially, he said that conductors have their different methods, a lot of his great colleagues conduct with the score, and it doesn’t mean anything. He’s right. The proof is in the pudding.
That’s separate from a discussion of Gatti’s merits. I’ve heard a fair amount of him, and some things I’ve liked more than others. He’s not on my list of living favorites, but I don’t think he’s abysmal.
Every woman conductor is vastly superior to Karajan, even the young female student conductor. Women are genetically and inherently superior over men in the field of conducting. It is meant to be done by women and NOT by men.
Oh dear god.Do you really not see how this sort of idiocy scuppers the case for more women conductors?
Sebastian,
Ignore ‘Conducting Feminista’ who is a troll, almost certainly male and trying to cause trouble.
Leave him to waste his own time!
Agree. “Conducting Feminista” is a vengeful male who is simply mocking this situation. With a decidedly British sense of humor, incidentally. He is a troll. Just ignore him.
Yes, most obviously Feminista is a troll. Imagine Vivaldi, Haydn, Wagner, Paganini, Berlioz, Saint Saens, Bernstein, and a few more historical figures having to endure the current “me too” climate….
He conducted Parsifal without th3 score in Zurich too, as far as I can remember.
Knappertsbusch, when asked whether he had the score in front of him when conducting, answered “Of course, I can read music”.
I’m disappointed. I was looking forward to some genuinely interesting and intense Mahler from him and the Concertgebouw (the Jansons/Concertgebouw Mahler is near definitive, but also dull as dirt). I love the recent Mahler 4 with Gatti on the RCO Live label.
The really interesting part of this will be the guest conductor line up they get to replace him. Keep us posted, Norman
I suspect they’ll find a number of A-list conductors who are willing to find a free week here and there. Maybe time for some belated debuts, too?
And, not coincidentally, various lower-level orchestras will announce the replacement of A-list guest conductors due to “scheduling conflicts.”
This should be a job bonanza for up and coming conductors. And A list conductors looking for great opportunities.
I am trying to think who they might call first. I’d say Lionel Bringuier, who’s relatively unoccupied might be high on the list. Maybe also their own home-grown talent – former Concertgebouw Princ. Oboe Lucas Macias or Former Concertgebouw Principal Timpani Gustavo Gimeno, both with fast rising international conducting careers.
Mark my words, the next conductor of this great orchestra will be a young and beautiful woman, most likely blonde.
Please, please, please . . . not Michael Tilson Thomas. That’s all I ask.
Hahahaha… I hadn’t even thought of that.
But now that I have: please, Lord, no.
Uh….why not? I won’t call MTT one of the greatest podium talents ever, but over the years I’ve heard a lot of very fine performances from him. And he’s got the San Francisco Symphony sounding better than it ever has……
Barry,
Michael Tilson Thomas is a conductor that always divides opinion strongly, when mentioned.
I have only seen him once (with San Francisco Symphony) so am not in the best position to say why that is, but evidently he is an acquired taste.
Any woman conductor is vastly superior over MTT.
Unacceptable. Where is the diversity? Nothing short of a foreign, trans, black conductor will suffice. Preferably muslim and with one leg shorter than the other.
And lesbian!
Not unless a bunch of little poodles step forward to say theyโve been sexually assaulted too.
Poodles? Phooey. Snowflakes more like: I’m a special princess because mummy told me so. And Tarquin told me so too.
MTT would be the best possible choice. His repertoire plays to the strengths of the Concertgebouw. He is conducting Mahler 9 next year with the Vienna Philharmonic as part of his “Perspectives” series at Carnegie Hall, and I look forward to seeing it.
MTT’s Mahler becomes more affected by the moment. In S.F., he’s repeating the same rep. over and over. When he’s not, he’s conducting modern stuff – Bates, Stuckey – that most people just don’t want to hear. He’s had his day, and he was certainly never a Blomstedt.
Oh bummer. I was looking forward to seeing them next year. ๐
Whoever is appointed, I hope it’s a transgendered conductor.
Oh, better yet, an asexual one.
Isn’t Gatti the guy who went medieval on a Florida audience for giving his group a standing ovation? Early 2000s I think.
Good for him. And doesn’t the orchestra have a whistleblowing policy ?
Well, he may be innocent. Accusations are not the same as as a trial, as sworn testimony, as judgment by neutral arbiters.
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-metoo-suicides/21650#.W2QBfNIzaUk
From Spiked: “Support our pro-Brexit, pro-liberty journalism” …
No political agenda there, then!
Good for him. I wonder what the Italian and/or Dutch defamation laws are like. In the US, defamation is extremely difficult to prove.
Please not Christian Thielemann. For Gods sake.
Guys, stop worrying: it’s gonna be the amnipresent and omnipotent Gergiev…
No way. I just don’t see that. He’d be like a Bull in a China shop.
Karina Canellakis.
Just saw her in London conducting the super average BBC Symphony in Beethoven at the Proms. It (and she) was dreadful.
Mirga and Hannigan. Now weโre talking.
By which one can infer that her terrific Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances with the well-above-average BBC SO later that evening just flew right by you, huh? Rather her than the other two (especially Mirga, whose preening, ultra-mannered LvB 5 at last year’s Proms was well-nigh unendurable)!
Cornelius Meister conducted a superb Parsifal in Antwerp last season.
Meister would be my choice as well. A brilliant young conductor (38), and not someone coasting on his/her youth and charisma
We need to have a conductor who is a trangender castrati who has been living in a Cave in Cappadochia Turkey for the past few decades.
All other conductors will most likely not have clean hands…
And by the way, I am available for any young female conductor to be sexually harassed. I am more than willing to take a hit for the sake of equality.
Not only an Old Man in the Midwest but a Dirty and Gross Old Man in the Midwest.
This is a landmark situation: an American “morality” movement (#metoo) which is being applied in a European setting (Concertgebouw). I never thought I’d see this happen. I’ve always assumed that Europeans were very tolerant & non-judgemental on all matters sexual and that “metoo” would never be taken seriously by Europeans. God save the Dutch!
All this and you still don’t get it: This isn’t about sex; it’s about abuse of power, creation of a hostile work atmosphere, etc.. How Americans vs. the Dutch view the activities of two consenting adults in their own private space is totally irrelevant to the goings-on here.
True, but there does seem to be a lack of due process, which I find.worrying. The CO have suspended Preucil pending the outcome of an investigation, which is the right way to go about it. I know this Gatti is not an employee, but the RCO is likely to be in breach of contract unless they can show good cause for terminating it, which requires more than mere allegation.
Malcolm writes: “which requires more than mere allegation”
Err…no, it doesn’t. The RCO just has to show the allegations are serious and credible, and that they affect his ability to do the job. It seems the RCO conducted its internal investigation and decided to act.
So far all we know is a womanizer boss flirted, maybe a bit aggressively, with some female employees. Some women complained, after being encouraged by a Washington Post article. They didn’t feel the need to report anything before that. In the Netherlands, where there is certainly no danger for women who report sex offenders.
Let’s keep it real.
It all sounds a bit like much ado about nothing. Except for the boss who got ‘executed’ on the spot without due process.
Tamino, no one should be flirting, especially repeatedly, at work. This is very different though to sex abuse as was hinted in some other musicians’ cases.
At last, Tamino, the voice of sanity. The presumption of Gattiโs guilt in most of these and other postings is staggering. Almost as staggering as the presumption of innocence on the part of the alleged plaintives.
The level of the Japanese Chinese and Asian orchestras, maybe south America too will increase enormously with Dutoit Gatti Levine and the list will grow!
As far as I know, there has been no police investigation and there has been no judge verdict. How long did the Concertgebouw take before they came up with a decision? Misconduct claims would usually take many weeks to
I hope that this case is pursued legally as only when the case is finished will one be assured that justice has been fully delivered.
Gatti would be very unwise to pursue the case through the courts.
Would the orchestra have fired him over a thin base of evidence?
Irony: today (sunday 5th August) Dutch national TV broadcoast a RCO concert with Gatti where he gave beautiful, romantic, round and fat interpretations of Debussy’s Faun prelude and La Mer, in which he gave the tenderest attention to sensitive details, a quality he apparently did not spend on the players themselves.