Posted on 11/25/2017 5:24:50 PM PST by nwrep
The Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has quickly retracted a remark made to a Telegraph interviewer in which he said that women conductors ‘are not my cup of tea’.
In a statement on Friday he said:
‘I come from a generation in which the conducting profession was almost exclusively reserved to men. Even today, many more men than women pursue conducting professionally.
‘But it was undiplomatic, unnecessary and counterproductive for me to point out that I’m not yet accustomed to seeing women on the conducting platform.
‘Every one of my female colleagues and every young woman wishing to become a conductor can be assured of my support, for we all work in pursuit of a common goal: to excite people for the art form we love so dearly – music.’
Fair enough. But the episode still leaves a foul taste.
Firstly, why would any serious journalist ask Mariss Jansons about women in the podium when he has so much else to say about life and music? Clearly the interviewer was fishing for an artificial scandal and got what he wanted. Let’s hope he’s happy now.
Second, Mariss Jansons is a man of unblemished record who survived both Soviet and western-commercial pressures. English is his fourth language after Latvian, Russian and German. How well he understood the question or the metaphor he used in reply is itself questionable. It was a slip of the tongue, no malice intended.
Third, when the guardians of lexical correctness leaped upon him he did what damage-limitation PRs now advise, which is to apologize as quickly as possible. The forced apology has its origin in Stalinist persecutions.
That’s why this episode leaves such a foul aftertaste.
“It’s creepy that male doc’s should also have female patients? Right DSC? Wouldn’t you say?”
Certainly not. I get the sinking feeling that you don’t even realize how stupid and shallow you just made yourself look, trying to bring muzzies into this.
“As for nurses being traditionally ‘female” that occurred as a historical bubble”
Nonetheless, it occurred, and that’s what we as a culture have had.
“Before that time, most military medics and doctors were males when it came to medicine”
That was true right up to recent decades. Don’t know what it’s like now. The stupid bastards probably want to send women into combat as corpsmen.
“and if you go back further into history, it often fell to monks and nuns to care for the sick.”
Which has absolutely nothing to do with what we’re talking about. And neither does your recitation of men’s achievements in this traditionally female profession.
I don’t care how good they are. I don’t care if I die. It’s farging creepy, and will be until the last trump.
“You’ve confirmed what I’ve long thought since my days of playing in a rock and roll band.”
I was thinking more of those who play substantial music.
“Musicians are largely a bunch of self indulgent, self important blow hards.”
I’ve had two careers, neither of which was music, and one of which saw me retiring as a LCDR from the Navy, but FU anyway for calling me a self indulgent, self important blow hard.
“Music is no different from woodworking, masonry, stonework, welding, electrical or plumbing. It’s a field of endeavor like any other.”
You, sir, are a Philistine. There is no way to convince a Philistine that the deficiency lies with him, so I will not try.
Out.
“You, sir, are a Philistine.”
Nope. I’m a Deplorable. Get it right.
Best,
L
Damn. I thought this was about trains.
I like trains, not Latvian maestros
pilloried for opinionating.
Out.
NNNN
There was a poor train conductor that married a beautiful woman that had expensive tastes. He wanted more than anything to please her but could not afford expensive gifts because he was a poor conductor. When she seemed ready to leave him, the poor conductor embarked on a life of crime to pay for the gifts that would entice her to stay. One robbery went wrong and the poor conductor killed a man making his getaway. The judge sentenced the man to death in the electric chair, but in the end he had to be pardoned - because he was a poor conductor.
I guess I tend to agree with Jansons on this. While I am sure it is possible that a woman can be a great conductor (there are certainly many great women orchestra members and soloists), I would probably eschew a recording by a woman conductor for fear that she's an affirmative action hire and not really very good. The fact that Jansons had to apologize shows that women conductors are a protected class like any other class that receives the benefits of affirmative action.
I did buy a Marin Alsop recording once of the Brahms 1st. I bought it because it was in SACD format. However, the performance sounded to me like a copy of Bernstein's versions. From that point, I started to think of her as an unoriginal conductor. I may have been wrong, but there are so many great recordings by so many great conductors that I don't feel inclined to listen to any more women conductors unless I read a rave review by a reviewer I trust.
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