Page 296 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

1 March 2023

Harassment, hierarchies and discreetly

rubbed trousers: the exhausting politics

of orchestras

Cate Blanchett film Tár shows how damaging a maniacal conductor can be – but, as
musicians explain, orchestras are riven with other serious structural issues
Hugh Morris

‘They can’t all conduct, honey”, Lydia Tár informs her daughter as she hands each of
her dolls a pencil to use as a makeshift baton. “It’s not a democracy.”
In her sharp put-downs, sidelining of procedure, and singular, maniacal artistry, Tár –
played by Cate Blanchett in the film of the same name – embodies all the tropes of the
autocratic conductor. The first of a glut of forthcoming “maestro movies” (Bradley
Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biographical drama Maestro is currently in production, as
is The Yellow Tie, on the life of firebrand Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache), Tár
isn’t just a character study, though – it depicts the intertwined social and artistic
hierarchies, subtle codes and often grotesque power dynamics of the orchestra as a
workplace.