Photo by Mark McNulty
A couple of years ago, when Vasily Petrenko made his San Francisco Symphony debut, against the din of the Blue Angels flying above Davies Symphony Hall, I waxed poetic:
Glorious decibels of the orchestra raging on in a fantastic performance of the Shostakovich Festive Overture made the Blues immaterial and inaudible. Under the baton of one of the finest youngish (35) conductors around, Vasily Petrenko, the orchestra performed a high-wire act without a net.I have never heard such a orgiastic (and yet perfectly controlled) performance of this grotesquely and joyfully celebratory work, rejoicing in Stalin’s death the year before — not from the "Shostakovich-specialist" orchestras of Moscow or Leningrad/St. Petersburg.
Now, only two years later, Petrenko is music director of two important orchestras, the Oslo Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He made an acclaimed debut in Oslo earlier this month, then did what headlines described as "Russian Conductor Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot." To wit:
The Russian maestro told the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten that orchestras respond better to male conductors because men "often have less sexual energy and can focus more on the music", adding that "a sweet girl on the podium can make one's thoughts drift towards something else." He also claimed that "when women have families it is difficult to be as dedicated as is required in this business."
If you want to read more about this and see some rightly angry comments, check The Guardian. On top of the article: a large photo of Marin Alsop, at the time of publication just before conducting BBC's Last Night of the Proms, seen or heard worldwide, the first woman to do so. Her comment: "Petrenko's comments are symptomatic of the covert acceptance of sexism in the musical world."
Jessica Duchen's response was to publish "the names and websites of as many women conductors as I could think of," obviously without an attempt to present a complete list. At first glance, I noticed omission of Sara Jobin and Mei-Ann Chen.