Valery Gergiev orders Russians to embrace Stravinsky

Valery Gergiev orders Russians to embrace Stravinsky

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norman lebrecht

November 21, 2016

The Mariinsky Theatre chief and Putin confidant has declared 2017 to be Stravinsky Year.

He said more than 90 percent of Stravinsky’s works were unperformed in Russia and now was the time to remedy the omission.

Why now?

Perhaps because a certain local event in 1917 led Stravinsky to be boycotted in his homeland for half a century.

Gergiev made no mention of that event.

stravinsky young

Comments

  • Pianofortissimo says:

    Anyway that is an excellent idea. Except för those three ‘warhorse’ ballets Stravinsky’s music is underperformed, not only in Russia.

    • Paul Davis says:

      Could it possibly be that nobody much likes most Stravinsky written post-Sacre? When he realised he’d written himself out, arrived at an impasse, he cleverly contrived new styles, artificial, dry, sterile harmonies and jerky non-rythms to pull the wool over everyone’s garden path! A notorious opportunist and self-publicist, obsessed with money, (renewing copyright with the “revised version” of “L’oiseau d’Or”…. sorry i mean de Feu), i’m not surprose that only his greater, earlier works are performed in Russia. I think after a generation of conductors, brung up in 20thC (Rattle, Salonen….etc) has waned, little if any later Stravinsky will be played.

  • John Borstlap says:

    I think I know what it was: in Morges (Switserland) in 1917 S wrote the ‘Cinq pièces faciles’ and the etude for pianola, renouncing the rich tonal palette and colourful scoring which had characterized his music up till then. It was quite a revolution, but it hindered audience reception of all his post-1917 music, up till today. A copper plaque still adorns the hotel façade where S’s painful renunciation took place.

  • Elizabeth Owen says:

    Its possible that Gergiev assumes everyone knows about the October Revolution of 1917. His job is to perform music not become a history lecturer.

  • Dennis says:

    He also made no mention of “ordering” people to embrace Stravinsky. What an absurd headline.

  • Peter says:

    It’s all Putin’s fault.
    What was the issue again?

  • Tess says:

    “Putin confidant”
    Norman, I don’t understand why you are so harsh to Gergiev. This article is all about Stravinsky isn’t it? Sounds very rude to maestro. You are one of pathetic “journalist” who like to stick to the same subject while maestro Gergiev is reluctant to talk about politics. He is just a musician, leave him alone and don’t interview him if you don’t like him. It’s a pure discrimination against Russians.

    • norman lebrecht says:

      Gergiev is deeply involved in politics. He has publicly supported all of Putin’s military interventions and flown out to celebrate his ‘liberation’ of Palmyra, in Syria. He is not just a musician. He is a propagandist for a political regime and I relate to him on that basis, as well as his activities as a musician.

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