The Frenchman Francois-Xavier Roth has stopped conducting for the time being after being accused of sending indecent selfies to female members of an orchestra. Under current social norms, he has been globally cancelled.
But Roth still has recordings to be released. So here’s the question: do we review, or ghost them? At least one review site has, to out knowledge, suppressed mention of the latest recording for fear of social backlash.
In the latest Lebrecht Album of the Week, I assess the precedents and the issues involved for reviewing or not reviewing an errant conductor. This will not please everyone but it may give us some pathways out of the prevailing morass. Here goes:
The English conductor Sir Eugene Goossens was stopped in March 1956 on arrival at Sydney Airport. He was found to be in possession of pornographic materials and rubber goods that he intended to share with a female lover. The police had been tipped off by a tabloid reporter, in cahoots with the conductor’s professional rivals. Goossens (pictured) was fined a hundred pounds and left Australia in disgrace….
Read on here.
And here.
En francais ici.
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