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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000067.txt from 2004/02
From: barbara trautwein <mzeztee@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Conductors behaving badly
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 14:27:03 -0500
Hey, I copied it. Let's see if this works. . .
There you go!
B
Conductor Daniele Gatti, Leaving on a Sour Note
By Tim Page
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 14, 2004; Page C01
Conductor Daniele Gatti, who will be leading the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra on Monday night at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, left a
trail of enraged promoters and concertgoers in Naples, Fla., after a
concert there Wednesday night.
According to Myra Daniels, the CEO of the Naples Philharmonic Center for
the Arts, Gatti had just completed a program that included Beethoven's
Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") and the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto. "It was a
-- oh, let's say a pretty good concert," she said yesterday, "but our
audience is very polite and stood and applauded. And then Gatti came out
on the stage and stopped the applause. We thought he was going to do an
encore. Well, he did, but it was his encore."
Gatti, 42, began by apologizing for the quality of the performance,
explaining that the orchestra had been on tour for two weeks. Then, in
heated, broken English, he berated everybody there -- the presenters,
the orchestra and the audience -- for a full two to three minutes.
"It was very difficult to understand him, but we got the basic point," a
concertgoer, Nicolas Hemes, said yesterday. "He was furious, like some
angry, dictatorial professor, beating the class up because it failed its
exams. He made everyone nervous, so people started to laugh -- and he
shushed us! It was like -- 'Quiet! I'm speaking! The maestro is speaking!' "
What set Gatti off? "I'm still wondering," Daniels said. "I wish we'd
made a tape recording that we could try to decipher. He seemed to be
angry because we seated some patrons after a movement. He seemed to be
upset with our acoustics. Well, I'm sorry, but we've had orchestras from
Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis and many other cities here,
and they've found nothing wrong with our acoustics."
Peg Goldberg Longstreth, in her review of the concert for the Naples
Daily News, called Gatti an "incredibly rude, ill-mannered, churlish,
boorish young conductor" who "tripped over his enormous ego and, in the
process, managed to insult and alienate an entire, enthusiastic,
respectful audience who had paid nearly $100 a ticket for the evening.
"I have seen many gaffes and disasters onstage or during performances in
my lifetime," Goldberg Longstreth continued. "I have seen children wet
themselves during their student recital; a graduate student in voice
(whom I was accompanying) suddenly vomit all over everything during her
doctoral recital; an organ short out and go totally silent during the
procession of an ultra-socialite's wedding. I have seen parts break or
fall off instruments. Reeds split. Strings break. Professionals forget
their parts and flee the stage. I have seen musicians topple off stage;
chairs break; batons suddenly take leave and fly through the air.
"But until Wednesday, I have never seen a highly touted, internationally
much heralded conductor blow his stack, come back on stage following a
standing ovation and berate the audience." She concluded by calling
Gatti a "pretentious, angry little twit."
This was Gatti's third visit to Naples with the Royal Philharmonic.
"He's been fine whenever he's been here before," Daniels said. "Of
course, if you pay $90,000 to bring an orchestra to your city, you
expect polite behavior."
Until Wednesday, Gatti had been invited back for the 2005-06 season. "We
will not honor that contract," Daniels said. "You should see the
messages I'm getting from our audience. This one says, 'I'm 80 years old
and I've been attending classical music concerts all over the world for
most of my life and I've never been so insulted.' Here's one that just
says he is an SOB. I like this one -- 'Let's have a "Goodbye Gatti"
concert and drive him to the airport.' "
Gatti has been music director of the Royal Philharmonic since 1996; he
has also conducted the leading orchestras of Vienna, Cleveland, Boston,
Chicago and New York. He began his career as an opera conductor and has
led performances at La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London and at
the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His management, Columbia Artists,
said that nobody had been able to reach Gatti since the Naples concert
and that nobody would be speaking to him until after a concert in New
York tomorrow.
From a purely artistic point of view, the concert was generally deemed
a success. "We like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra very much," Daniels
said. "They opened our hall 16 years ago, and I'm sure we'll have them
back again, with a different conductor."
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will play music by Brahms and
Tchaikovsky at 8 p.m. Monday at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.
Remaining tickets are $45 to $85. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.wpas.org.
cflat wrote:
> Was going to check out the link but I'm not going to register as
> they require just to read one article...
> Charles
>
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> From: D Bogan <dgbogan@-----.net>
> Reply-To: doublereed-l@-----.edu
> Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 08:54:16 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>>Perhaps some of you saw this.Is this an indication
>>that impresario conductors who abuse their players
>>will no longer be tolerated? As Martha Stewart would
>>say, "It's a good thing!"
>>Donna Bogan
>>Alice, TX
>>
>>
>>
>>Conductor Berates Audience, Musicians From The Stage -
>>Washington Post 02/14/04
>>http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040215-39479.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>====
>>Donna G. Bogan
>>Double Your Reeds and Double Your Music--
>>Oboe, English horn, and Bassoon
>>DOUBLEREED-L mailing list
>>DOUBLEREED-L@-----.edu
>>http://lists.washburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/doublereed-l
>>
>
>
>
> Sent via the EV1 webmail system at mail.ev1.net
>
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