Vienna Phil with Bernstein … look at all those men. You’ll also see the Viennese oboe there.

“There is no ban on women musicians playing here but the Vienna Philharmonic is by tradition an all-male orchestra. Our profession makes family life extremely difficult, so for a woman it’s almost impossible. There are so many orchestras with women members so why shouldn’t there be – for how long I don’t know – an orchestra with no women in it … A woman shouldn’t play like a man but like a woman, but an all-male orchestra is bound to have a special tone.”

-Paul Fürst, said in a 1987 documentary

Part 1

Part 2