The silence of the Dutch
OrchestrasAmid the fury of thousands of musicians at the Concertgebouw’s cancellation of the Jerusalem Quartet, one institution has gone silent.
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO), resident at the hall though independently managed, has uttered not a peep.
None of its conductors, managers or musicians has popped up in solidarity with the colleagues the Concertgebouw has excluded. Why not?
Other Dutch musicians have rushed to condemn the C’bouw, one telling us she has never been so ashamed of a national instituion.
But nothing from the orchestra. Will the RCO stay silent if the hall decides it’s unsafe, for instance, to host the Rotterdam Phil with its Israeli music director? Or the Hamburg GMD? Or any number of innocent musicians of varied nationalities who happen to fall foul of a street mob?
The RCO will be conducted tonight at the Concertgebouw by Semyon Bychkov.
I wonder if he’ll say something from the podium.
Both players and management will be scratching their head – say something, say nothing, or a combination of both? If they ignore the whole thing that would be understandable….. no pressures please on parties that have nothing to do with the case itself.
The silence of the sheep.
Kent Nagano is Hamburg GMD. What does have to do with this case? I suspect something – NL didn’t do any research again.
Omer Meir Wellber is Hamburg’s new GMD. Can your ignorance.
Wellber will indeed be GMD in Hamburg from next season, but for the moment it is very definitely still Nagano. Maybe best to be 100% sure of your facts before being so aggressive in future…?
Stick to the facts. We live in 2024. Kent Nagano is music director of the Hamburg State Opera, Alan Gilbert of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orch, and Sylvain Cambreoing of the Hamburg Symphony.
Could you please stop calling it the C’bouw? It means nothing, and nobody calls it that. You don’t call the Vienna hall the M’rein, do you?
No matter what one says in this age of unsocial media, they get shot down in flames. So I would stay silent too, and keep my private thoughts private. Why give bait to the sharks?
Hear what Haitink had to say about the Dutch immediately after liberation. A cynical view of those who professed that there were members of the resistance..
I have not heard of even one orchestra in the USA doing a concert to support Israel, or even any Jewish-connected music. The silence is deafening.
Fury? Oh gosh, well Believe me, ( I performed very often in C’bouw, which is not a word we use by the way, it means nothing in dutch) There was a lot of fury about the decision to cancel the cancelation.
The orchestra probably just wanted to stay out of the fuss. I understand.