Daniele Gatti Sacked by the Concertgebouw

[Petrushka]

Surprised that no-one has taken this story up on here.

Concertgebouw statement here: https://www.concertgebouworkest.nl/e...-daniele-gatti

The allegations aside, Gatti and the RCO seemed a complete mismatch to me and they must have been praying for an excuse to come along to get rid. The Bruckner 9 at last year's Proms was the most atrocious I've ever heard and Gatti's card looked marked then.

The world isn't exactly awash with great conductors right now so the RCO have a bit of a problem in finding the right chief.

Any suggestions from fellow conductor-watchers?

[Tony Halstead]

Surprised that no-one has taken this story up on here.

Concertgebouw statement here: https://www.concertgebouworkest.nl/e...-daniele-gatti

The allegations aside, Gatti and the RCO seemed a complete mismatch to me and they must have been praying for an excuse to come along to get rid. The Bruckner 9 at last year's Proms was the most atrocious I've ever heard and Gatti's card looked marked then.

The world isn't exactly awash with great conductors right now so the RCO have a bit of a problem in finding the right chief.

Any suggestions from fellow conductor-watchers?

Andrew Manze?

[Petrushka]

I wonder if Mariss Jansons might return as interim chief before a new one is appointed?

The RCO have a history of going for young conductors and I'm hoping they will show the same sort of boldness they showed with Mengelberg and Haitink and go for Karina Canellakis. She has been appointed conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic from next season so the RCO might make an offer she can't refuse or she could be the next chief but one.

[zola]

Otto Tausk is Dutch somebody posted yesterday ?

[BBMmk2]

I could have a bash!

[cloughie]

They want a conductor not a percussionist, BBM

[richardfinegold]

I didn’t know about it.
On Musical Terms alone, he has had a disastrous tenure. This is such a Godsend for the Orchestra, IMO. If I was a Conspiracy Buff, I would think that they trumped up a bunch of vague doings just to get rid of him.
I agree with Petrushka, they should go for a relatively young and unknown local and see if they can repeat the Haitink experience. Perhaps Jansons and Van Zweieden can hold the reins for a year for while the search is on

[cloughie]

I didn’t know about it.
On Musical Terms alone, he has had a disastrous tenure. This is such a Godsend for the Orchestra, IMO. If I was a Conspiracy Buff, I would think that they trumped up a bunch of vague doings just to get rid of him.
I agree with Petrushka, they should go for a relatively young and unknown local and see if they can repeat the Haitink experience. Perhaps Jansons and Van Zweieden can hold the reins for a year for while the search is on

You mean like Jochum and Haitink in the 60s!

[Warlock]

They could have Rattle or Elder or both of them.

[Dave2002]

The world isn't exactly awash with great conductors right now so the RCO have a bit of a problem in finding the right chief.

Isn't this often the way? Relatively few people get to be classified as "great" within their lifetime, and in the case of conductors some who are by then so judged are often of "advanced years".

There is also an issue of maintaining and improving orchestral standards - which is where Rattle is thought to have scored particularly well in his earlier years. In the case of the RCO anyone who took on the position would have to consider that, as well as delivering an outstanding programme of very good concerts.

I liked Gergiev at the LSO, but he was very stretched (he was with other orchestras too) - and that's probably not the way to work sensibly - for most people at least.

It may turn out to be best to go with someone relatively (but not completely) unknown who will develop, along with the orchestra.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There are as many "Great Conductors" as there have ever been - it's just that they don't perform in the ways that their equivalents in the '60s or '40s or 1890s used to, so there is a "natural" tendency for people brought up with those earlier traditions to think that "there aren't any greats any more". In the late '60s, Maria Callas gave an interview in which she expressed her disdain at the thought that Georg Szell was a great conductor ("My god" In my day we had Furtwangler!") and there were probably members of the audiences at Furtwangler's concerts who said that he was "all right - but you should have been there for Bulow!" And people in their twenties now, whose eyes glaze over when I mention - yet again - how good Karajan was, will, in fifty years' time be attending concerts by younger conductors and thinking to themselves "Why can't they produce people of the stature of Petrenko or Canellakis any more?"

[BBMmk2]

It’s a generational thing I think too. I mean look at Otto Tausk and Ben Gernon?

[Richard Barrett]

There are as many "Great Conductors" as there have ever been - it's just that they don't perform in the ways that their equivalents in the '60s or '40s or 1890s used to, so there is a "natural" tendency for people brought up with those earlier traditions to think that "there aren't any greats any more".

"Great Conductors" don't have the tyrannical position relative to instrumentalists that they used to, which is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. I can't speak for Gatti's musical achievements, which of course have no relevance at all in the current context, but his sacking is a welcome sign that such power-abusing antics by conductors could end up being seen as just as unacceptable as they are in other walks of life! Maybe this kind of thing is an underappreciated side of why some people find the "classical music world" irrelevant and anachronistic.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Great Conductors" don't have the tyrannical position relative to instrumentalists that they used to, which is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

[Stanfordian]

I attended a Concertgebouw concert under Gatti as recently as May at Kulturpalast Dresden - performing Mahler Symphony No. 1 it was a remarkable concert with stunning playing.