Vienna (AFP)

Turning to its glorious musical past, the capital of Austria is not renowned for its cultural audacity. But for the concert, Wednesday, of the 50 years of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO), it is a woman, Marin Alsop, who will be at the baton.

Taking the head of this reputed orchestra in September, the 63-year-old American became the first permanent conductor named in Austria.

"Vienna has the reputation of being very conservative", recognizes the one who was among the first women to lead an international career in the very masculine world of conducting. "It's been a long time since such a good reception had been reserved for me," she says.

Music lovers see this arrival with phlegm and benevolence in the inseparable capital of the masterpieces of Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler and many others.

"I feel that the city is ready, I think that the time when everything was very codified is over," says an octogenarian spectator, Günther Slezak, after attending one of the rehearsals of the RSO, which exists under this name since 1969 .

- "As electrified" -

Longer than elsewhere, Vienna lived as the guardian of an immutable temple, the heiress of the cultures of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which also served more prosaically as a pretext for maintaining a true spirit of caste .

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the most famous Austrian ensemble, which attracts millions of spectators every year for the New Year concert broadcast in more than 90 countries, is one of the last to be feminized, from 1997 only. The female musicians are still largely in the minority.

In the early 2000s, the Vienna Opera Orchestra, another venerable phalanx, had refused to be led by a woman, appointed to replace the suffering head.

"When I was offered Marin, I was electrified," said Christoph Becher, director of the RSO, at a recent discussion panel on parity among conductors. "I submitted his name to my musicians and they were enthusiastic".

In Vienna, which remains a reference for music education, 55% of students are female students. But in the executive classes, women are counted on the fingers of the hand.

"Weakness", "lack of grip": it remains difficult to go against the stereotyped image that are made by industry players, more cautious than the public, testified panel participants. Too difficult to find the funding to set up an orchestra in a male universe cultivating the inter-se.

In 2017, the famous Latvian chef Mariss Jansons had to apologize quickly after claiming that his sisters were "not his cup of tea".

-Liquefied views-

"At the beginning of my career," says Marin Alsop, "I remember that I was sometimes selected on file believing that I was a man, because of my name, and when I arrived, the faces were liquefied! "

Even today, only 4% of the conductors in the world are women. And as it is unbearable to him, the American, who also directs the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducts a discreet but stubborn work of accompaniment of the cheffes in the making.

"An exceptional opportunity," says one of them, Chloe van Soeterstede, 31, happy that her models are not just men. "We had a debate about whether I should keep my big earrings, remove my ring, likely to distract the musicians," she smiled.

"I think we have to stay ourselves, the only woman in the promotion, the only woman in the competition ... It's always more difficult for us, the eyes have to get used," explains the young woman. French who created her own orchestra, Arch Sinfonia, in 2012.

The nomination of Marin Alsop coincides with that of another woman at the head of the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts, a first there again. The university has also set diversity goals for conductors, which does not seem to shock the vast majority of male students attending Alsop's classes.

"Whether you are a man or a woman, the technique to lead us does not change," sweeps the trombonist Tobias Grabher, 22 years.

© 2019 AFP