Men make Better Conductors

[MrGongGong]

Was he referring to the attitude of Russian male orchestral players ?

Basically, yes.

yeah right ...... even with the "poor" translation
see foot
take aim....................

[ahinton]

I think that's a rather good and measured article - and it even brings in our favourite topic gay marriage by way of Julie Bindel's change of heart on that subject.

I wish I could defend Petrenko more easily, but you can't really pretend that the cute-girl-on-a-podium bit was meant to apply only to Russia, nor that it was extracted by eagle-eyed British journalists from an interview he gave in Norway that was really about something else.

Broadly speaking, I am inclined to agree. OK, VP issued what sounds like a humble retraction but he did so only because of what he appears to have said in the first place, whether or not or to what extent he had meant to be referring to the situation as he saw it in his home country, so the whole could perhaps best be summarised as an unguarded indiscretion followed by a damage limitation apology. The "cute girl on the podium" bit does bother me, though (assuminvg that he really did utter that phrase word for word), irrespective of the particular country (if any) to which it might or might not have been intended to refer; Russian orchestral musicians are hardly known for having lesser concentrative powers than those in any other nation, after all, so the prospect of their being "distracted" from music making by someone of the opposite sex on the podium sounds to me to be at the very least somewhat questionable. Futhermore, it is less than obvious to me why anyone might expect an orchestral musician always to be more "distracted" in such ways by a conductor than by one or more fellow players who happen to be within easy eyeshot.

[underthecountertenor]

And Sarah Connolly responds in typically glorious style. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/wom...the-score.html

[ahinton]

And Sarah Connolly responds in typically glorious style. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/wom...the-score.html

And Ivan Hewitt with

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/10284689/Gender-should-have-nothing-to-do-with-the-art-of-conducting.html

[Barbirollians]

I should like to see the whole of this article properly translated before passing comment .

[Nick Armstrong]

I should like to see the whole of this article properly translated before passing comment .

Ditto.

[jean]

The Norwegian text is available on this thread; surely we have a Norwegian speaker who can translate it?

I would be interested to know what language the interview was conducted in; Petrenko's English is pretty good, so I'd guess his words might have to have been translated into Norwegian from English.

Didi he really say cute, I wonder?

[jean]

And Ivan Hewitt with
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...onducting.html

He seems to be largely in agreement with Petrenko.

[jean]

Femke Colborne [who she?] thinks he should resign - from Oslo and Liverpool:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/03/vasily-petrenko-resign-female-conductors

[Beef Oven!]

Femke Colborne [who she?] thinks he should resign - from Oslo and Liverpool:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ale-conductors

Or send him to prison for 5 years.......

Or, require him to undergo a gender awareness programme and return as a more valuable human being and musician.

[Barbirollians]

Her article is idiotic and extreme . Just the sort of thing to provoke reactionary sexist nonsense in reply on here .

[jean]

I should like to see the whole of this article properly translated before passing comment .

This is a comment from Norway not via Google Translate, so I'm assuming the author isn't misrepresenting the quotes she makes from the interview.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/08/30/new-conductor-strikes-sour-note/

(I note it's a sweet girl here, not cute.)

[Barbirollians]

Still a short quote jean . I should much prefer to see a complete transcript .

His later comments are interesting . At the moment I am for giving him the benefit of the doubt .

[jean]

It was an interview, not an article. So it came in short bits in answer to the interviewer's questions.

We have the whole thing in Norwegian here. Surely somebody here can translate it?

[Mary Chambers]

I would be interested to know what language the interview was conducted in; Petrenko's English is pretty good, so I'd guess his words might have to have been translated into Norwegian from English.

Didi he really say cute, I wonder?

I wondered about that too - and if he did, how likely is he to be aware of its more subtle connotations?

I'm inclined to think far too much fuss is being made about all this. He must have learnt now that there are some things you aren't allowed to say if you're a public figure, however much you may think them. I'll still go to his concerts!

(I once did a concert with Sian Edwards. She was fine.)