The RLPO conductor, showing a lack of awareness of the consequences of speaking his mind which almost rivals my own, has given us the benefit of his thoughts on women conductors. They are, apparently, distracting to red-blooded men.
The holes in Vasily Petrenko's argument are immediately obvious. One, orchestras are extensively populated by women these days. Two, gay men are probably over-represented in orchestras in comparison to their distribution amongst the population at large. Are they not just as likely to be distracted by a handsome man? Three, what makes Petrenko think the players look at the conductor anyway? Stories are legion about the musicians who didn't notice who the conductor was. I once asked a gnarled ex-pro what it was like to work for a legendary late 20th century great. "Oh he didn't give us too much trouble", was the response. That pretty much sums it up.
Personally I have played for and watched a number of women conductors. Marin Alsop is very impressive. Others less so. But that goes for men as well. For every Mark Elder, there are a dozen, puffed up, vain, grandstanding hacks. No wonder the players concentrate on listening to each other instead of watching the wally on the box.
