BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Didn’t like the headline you just read?
Now you know how I feel — most likely in the company of many women who find themselves stumbling upon the headline on Norman Lebrecht’s new review, ‘Pathetique for a woman conductor’.
Writing for Slipped Disc on August 7 (also responsible for publishing a report that tore into an under-age Australian musician and his budding career), Norman let rip about new BBC Symphony principal guest conductor Dalia Stasevska and her “nervous debut” at the BBC Proms.
I can’t tell you what Norman was wearing while writing his review, but there may be a chance his garments were stiff and outdated, as they enabled him to produce music criticism in the following fashion:
She was not helped by wearing a kimono-type garment with a peacock design and flapping sleeves. It deflected attention from what should have been the musician’s main focus – her hands. Stasevska, 34, uses a long baton with textbook motions. Her left hand, so far as I could see past the sleeve, was curiously unexpressive, the fingers static and together.
While typing, it may intrigue you to know I am a woman wearing a plain black shirt, matching the shade of my feminine soul while reading about Dalia.
Nevertheless, had Dalia chosen to wear a different style of women’s clothing, she may have been in the running to compete for this male critic’s attention (a bulk of his short review focusing on the outfits). As Norman highlights, soloist Sol Gabetta took to the stage “in a show-stealing backless dress, kept the eye off Stasevska” – and was “evidently more connected to the players”.
(While I wasn’t in attendance, I would take an educated guess that this cellist’s primary intention was to perform music that would steal the show. But, hey.)
While Norman acknowledges Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique symphony is “a challenge for any young conductor”, he still doesn’t hesitate to make a point of the particular challenge it presents to a conductor sans penis.
It may even have been “a good performance, redeeming in many ways”, Norman admits.
But will the success of a woman conductor (or any conductor, for that matter) receive as many clicks as a headline using sexism as bait?
Probably not.
For another perspective on ‘Pathetique for a woman conductor’, you might like to check out ‘No, no, Norman’ in which writer Amy Nagoski links this objectification of women to the #metoo movement.
If you’d like to read a credible and musical review of Dalia and this event, we’d recommend this one in The Guardian.
Featured image via Unsplash.
