# Favourite women conductors (revisited)



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I start this thread with some trepidation. The last thread on the subject was closed down (for good reason, I think). But reading the webchat the Guardian is running for people to ask questions to Simon Rattle (https://www.theguardian.com/music/live/2019/sep/09/simon-rattle-webchat), I found his response to a question on women conductors:



> At last the tipping point has come where we have so many wonderful female conductors. And it's not been a matter necessarily of ability in the past, but of lack of opportunity. A decade ago it was not taken for granted and now it absolutely is, which is the healthiest sign. When I look round and think without any particular order of.. .Simone Young, Natalie Stuzmann, MIrga G-T, Karina Kanellakis, Barbara Hannigan... what a thrilling time. And these five totally different personalities will give us a whole different vision of our music and I think it's one of the healthiest developments of the last few years.


Can we list our own favourites or is it too early for that?


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Two that I really like are Marin Alsop and JoAnn Falletta. Both American too, another plus!


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Long before a woman conductor was a thing, there were several happily active, keeping audiences enthralled and players (mostly) happy. One was Catherine Comet who for a while was in Grand Rapids. She was terrific - I've never seen any conductor who knew her scores better. She expected a precision and balance that made you a better player. She was tough, too. Don't know where's shes gone.

But my favorite is Mei-Ann Chen from from Taiwan. She's brilliant and brings a sense of joy and beauty that few conductors do. Her style is unfussy, clear, direct and powerful. Fortunately she comes to Tucson every season and I never miss her concerts. I've heard the Dvorak New World countless times, sometimes with world-class orchestras, but the most memorable, emotional, and exciting in my memory was hers from a couple seasons back in the Old Pueblo. Why in the world Memphis let her go is troubling. Luckily, she landed in Chicago with the Sinfonietta. 

No longer alive, I attended a summer festival with conductor Sarah Caldwell who ran the Boston Opera. The local critic was awful - he wrote more about her considerable girth than anything else. And yet all these 40 years later I still remember vividly the Brahms 2nd she led - the finale lifted you out of your seat it was so hugely electrifying. I've never heard anything like it live, and I've heard it played by Solti, Maazel, Mehta, Bernstein, Ozawa...what a summer that was. She never got the credit she deserved. A real talent she was.

Rating any conductor from recordings is hazardous at best. But I have heard Falleta and Alsop both live and on many recordings. Both are wonderful musicians, fine conductors who can hold their own against anyone. The series Falletta did of American music with her Buffalo orchestra is terrific and revelatory. Her recording of the Gliere 3rd is superb. Alsop's Prokofieff cycle is quite good, and her Bernstein top-drawer. Both of them have a willingness (maybe from necessity?) of performing rarer music than male counterparts.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Shirley Walker was a good conductor. She understood colour and dynamics very well.


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## Joachim Raff (Jan 31, 2020)

Veronika Dudarova 









Veronika Dudarova, who has died aged 92, was probably the first female Russian conductor to reach the top of her profession; she was associated with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra from 1947 until 1989, and after the fall of Communism she established the Symphony Orchestra of Russia, with which she remained until the end of her life.

Dudarova had the dubious distinction of conducting the first performance of Bread and Songs, a musical setting of President Brezhnev's memoirs. The president's reminiscences, about directing agricultural developments in 1950s Kazakhstan, were set to music by Gaziza Zhubanova and premiered at the Sixth Congress of Soviet Composers in November 1979. In London, The Times noted that the Moscow critics were deeply impressed, adding: "It is expected that the work will be performed again soon, and often."

Like most Soviet conductors who were loyal to the system, Dudarova championed "safe" Russian composers - Tchaikovsky, Miakovsky, Glazunov, Liadov and Khatchaturian - releasing a number of recordings on the official Melodiya label.

She was not, however, averse to the music of Shostakovich, for example in 1983 performing his Tenth Symphony and First Piano Concerto with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and the pianist Alexander Slobodnyak.

Veronika Dudarova was born in Baku, Azerbijan, on December 5 1916, and studied piano in Leningrad with Pavel Serebryakov, the renowned Rachmaninov interpreter. At the Moscow Conservatoire she took conducting lessons with Nikolai Anosov and studied musicology with Lev Ginzburg. She also took lessons from Stefan Strasse, the Austrian conductor, whom she credited with showing her how to survive in what was - and remains - very much a man's world. After 12 years with Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, in 1960 she was appointed chief conductor and artistic director.

In 1977, at the height of the Cold War, Dudarova was dammed with faint praise by The Washington Post for her recording of Tchaikovsky's Fatum. The paper noted that she "seems to be a very competent conductor, if one with an extremely relaxed approach to music whose essential ingredient is dramatic excitement".

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to economic freedoms in music, as in so many other fields. Just as Mikhail Pletnev had founded his Russian National Orchestra, so Dudarova created the Symphony Orchestra of Russia, bringing together several prize-winning soloists and orchestral players from across the country.

Her international tours took her within the Soviet Union's arc of influence and beyond, to countries such as Japan, Iran, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and Central and South America. A Dutch critic wrote of "her ability to transliterate the psychology of music", while in Barcelona another reviewer said of her performance that "above all, there was a magic and dazzling atmosphere - a symbol of the brilliant performance, harmony and beauty". At the age of 85 she conducted Tchaikovsky's Pathétique in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.

Possessing the novelty of being a female conductor, Dudarova appeared in a number of Russian films. She was also featured in Dirigenterna: A Woman is a Risky Bet (1987), by the Swedish director Christina Olofson, about women who share a passion to reach the top in orchestral music. She was reputed to be a strict taskmaster but, as she explained: "A conductor must have a tough temperament. Especially for a woman conductor, it is a way to earn your prestige from the orchestra."

A cosmic rock formation was named after her in 1999. Although her astronomic namesake was barely 7.5km in diameter, the conductor declared herself delighted. "Having a planet named after you is the best honour that could be bestowed upon anyone," she said. She received numerous Soviet honours, including People's Artist of the USSR.

Veronika Dudarova's 90th birthday was marked with a concert in Moscow, at which she celebrated by conducting Ravel's Bolero. She died on January 15.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

As a native Greater Bostonian, I grew up with Sarah Caldwell, who got a lot of short shrifts. She conducted the Met once, but was not invited back. Made the cover of Time once, but the story was remarkably sexist -- even for 1975.


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> No longer alive, I attended a summer festival with conductor Sarah Caldwell who ran the Boston Opera. The local critic was awful - he wrote more about her considerable girth than anything else. And yet all these 40 years later I still remember vividly the Brahms 2nd she led - the finale lifted you out of your seat it was so hugely electrifying. I've never heard anything like it live, and I've heard it played by Solti, Maazel, Mehta, Bernstein, Ozawa...what a summer that was. She never got the credit she deserved. A real talent she was.


I only remember Sarah Caldwell getting strong support from the local press. Do you remember which critic or newspaper this was?


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## Ulfilas (Mar 5, 2020)

I was thoroughly impressed by this Ring, recorded while Simone Young was chief in Hamburg. With Falk Struckmann, Deborah Polaski, Stuart Skelton, Wolfgang Koch etc, it's also the most consistently cast since Barenboim's.

She was Barenboim's assistant for a while, and the first female to conduct at the Vienna State Opera, where she's since worked many times. She is about to take up the reins in her home town with the Sydney Symphony. Have loved hearing her Bruckner live too.

Good to see her getting some high-profile gigs recently, New York, Chicago and Munich among others.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I would like to mention Jane Glover
She conducted the London Mozart Players in the eighties and nineties and her Mozart and Haydn recordings with them were top notch
I think she is conducting in USA now


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Open Book said:


> I only remember Sarah Caldwell getting strong support from the local press. Do you remember which critic or newspaper this was?


This was the Flagstaff, AZ newspaper (The Daily Sun?). Can't remember the critic's name. This was in 1977 or '78.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

JoAnn Falletta---no doubt about it.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

As far as the younger generation of women conductors, e.g. Mirga G-T, Canellakis, etc., etc., they certainly are major talents but I think that it is too early to make judgments as the really good conductors take decades to get there. Two who might well get there the soonest are Nathalie Stutzman and Barbara Hannigan given their extended musical careers to date.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Several years ago Canellakis was a guest of the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra and rehearsed and presented the Mahler 9th - no easy feat. She conducts in a very weird way, almost spastic. Not the most graceful stick at all - reminded me of Solti in some ways. Very angular and odd - but boy if she didn't get the kids to play! I commented then that here's a young conductor to watch out for - she's on her way and I'm glad to see she recently conducted the London Symphony. She does seem to have that certain something.


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## Joachim Raff (Jan 31, 2020)

mbhaub said:


> Several years ago Canellakis was a guest of the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra and rehearsed and presented the Mahler 9th - no easy feat. She conducts in a very weird way, almost spastic. Not the most graceful stick at all - reminded me of Solti in some ways. Very angular and odd - but boy if she didn't get the kids to play! I commented then that here's a young conductor to watch out for - she's on her way and I'm glad to see she recently conducted the London Symphony. She does seem to have that certain something.


Here is a super performance of her conducting skills at the first night at the proms:


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

I've been impressed with this lady...

http://mirgagrazinytetyla.com/biography.htm


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## Joachim Raff (Jan 31, 2020)

Rising star is Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer Music Director of the Swiss Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Bern Bach Choir.

https://wuestendoerfer.com/en/vita/


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## Joachim Raff (Jan 31, 2020)

Duplicate Posting


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