cjh (02/11/83)
In response to your message of Wed Feb 9 05:06:28 1983: This is hardly rumor; NEWSWEEK recently did a lengthy story on Karajan in which the clarinetist protegee was mentioned (I think I recall them describing some of the orchestra uproar, but I know what follows has been confirmed in recent weeks). The clarinetist is not the first woman in the orchestra (how well can you tell who is female in a photo of a hundred crowded people in orchestra formals?) but she is one of the first and may be (I don't remember the statistics) the first female member outside the string sections. There is little doubt that she is qualified; how qualified compared to others who tried out is a matter of question (I haven't seen details on BPO auditions but I doubt that they have gone to the necessary anti-bias extreme (used by some American orchestras including Boston) of auditioning prospects behind a curtain). Karajan has definitely canceled everything but his minimum obligation to the orchestra; certainly he's behaving nastily, but, knowing the average German attitude towards women, I wouldn't be surprised to find that hitting the musicians in the pocketbook is the best way to dissolve their piggishness. (Note: none of this news is newer than a few weeks; I haven't heard anything more recent, which may mean nothing has happened or may mean that the good local paper is behaving like a tabloid, reporting the mess but not the resolution.)
smb (02/12/83)
There was another article on the situation in The Times the other day. The current composition of the orchestra is 119 men and 1 woman; both sides, though, deny that sex is at issue. Karajan himself has been known to strongly oppose women in "his" orchestra, which is one of the things that makes this case even more curious.