Intermezzo

Enlightened attitudes

Women are on the retreat in London's Big Three orchestras.  No female conductors appear on the 2013-14 schedules of the LSO, LPO and Philharmonia. That's a 100% drop from 2012-13, when at least Marin Alsop is granted one opportunity with the LPO.

Could it be that Marin Alsop is the only female conductor in the world? Or are women just not cut out to lead an orchestra?

It's a tired old complaint, but it seems the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment have a different answer. And it doesn't involve any excuses.

Out of eleven OAE Southbank concerts so far announced for 2013-14, one is conducted by a woman, and a further three are conductorless events led or directed by female musicians. While four out of eleven doesn't quite add up to gender equality, it's still an impressive one third of of the total.

And it's not a quirk of timing either. Two of the OAE's remaining five 2012-14 Southbank concerts are conducted or directed by a woman - ever closer to that elusive 50%.

So why the difference between the OAE and the rest? There's nothing particularly ladylike about the OAE's female-led repertoire, which ranges from Vivaldi to Schumann, and includes those male bastions Beethoven and Bach. And while there's an argument to be made for engaging the baton-wielding elite likes of Haitink or Rattle rather than some obscure woman, it doesn't hold when you look at some of the younger and less-known male names on next season's rosters.

Could it be that the OAE have simply spotted that some women can do the job, then gone ahead and hired them?

Anna Caterina Antonacci meets the OAE

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Anna Caterina Antonacci - Royal Festival Hall, 30 September 2012

'Queens, Heroines and Ladykillers' is the weighty title of the OAE's latest concert series. Inspired by the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, the orchestra celebrate music written about and for women with guests to include Sarah Connolly, Emma Bell and William Christie.

Southbank Centre 2012 - 2013 season revealed

Well, part of it anyway. The Shell Classic International series, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia and OAE details are up.

Highlights are fewer than hoped, but Zurich Opera's Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Alain Altinoglu and starring Bryn Terfel, is among them.  There's a lot of Strauss too, including the LPO's  final scene of Salome with Karita Mattila and Thomas Hampson.  Anna Caterina Antonacci joins the OAE in a programme that includes excerpts from Les Troyens and rarely-heard Gluck. 

Visiting orchestras are few, presumably for budget reasons, but there's an interesting Brahms/Schoenberg programme from Michael Tilson Thomas and the Vienna Philharmonic, and Ivan Fischer returns with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and some Bartok. Predicatably, there's almost no contemporary music; the LPO's cannily branded 'The Rest is Noise' season, like the book, concentrates on familiar favourites from the first half of the last century.

On sale dates are:
Shell Classic International - Members booking 25 January, General booking 14 Feb
LPO, OAE and Philharmonia - Members 2 February, General 14 Feb

Chamber Music and Piano details have yet to be revealed - the booking dates are Members 28 February and General 6 March.

Salzburg's nozze di Figaro gets the bird

Le nozze di Figaro - Haus Für Mozart, Salzburg, 30 July 2011

Claus Guth's cinematically-inspired 2006 production sets Figaro in funereal Bergmanesque monochrome. Hitchcock's The Birds is referenced in the dead crows and autumnal leaves littering the bare rooms. It looks more like a particularly scary The Turn of the Screw than a Mozart comedy. 

Simon Rattle's late niters

The Berlin Philharmonic are taking a leaf out of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's book next season.

In the spirit of the OAE and their after-hours Night Shift, the Berlin Philharmonic are trying out late evening concerts in 2011/12. Simon Rattle will conduct five hour-long sessions beginning at 22.30. These will follow regular subscription concerts. Admission will be free for visitors to the earlier concert, and 10 euros otherwise. With regular prices at the Philharmonie topping out at nearly ten times that amount, it's a real bargain.

one night, two Mahlers

London Philharmonic Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Nicholas Angelich - Royal Festival Hall; 
'Night Shift' - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment  / Vladimir Jurowski - Queen Elizabeth Hall, 19 January 2011

It's not often you get the chance to fit in two concerts on one night. Thanks to the LPO's 20 minute overrun I almost didn't. Luckily the OAE are equally tardy types, so I was able to hotfoot it from Mahler 5 in the Royal Festival Hall to Todtenfeier next door with seconds to spare.