Ukraine blacklists another pianist

Ukraine blacklists another pianist

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norman lebrecht

September 09, 2019

The Russian Yuriy Martynov has been banned from Ukraine after giving a Beethoven concert in Russian-occupied Donetsk.

He joins Valentina Lisitsa, Valery Gergiev, Denis Matsuev, Yuri Bashmet, Anna Netrebko and other prominent Putin-liners.

 

Comments

  • 32VA says:

    Banned for playing Beethoven? What a shithole Ukraine has become.

    Shame on you for siding with these Muggles, Norman.

    • miles away says:

      Shame on you for referring to Ukraine (which now has a VISA agreement with the EU), as a shithole.
      It says more about you than Ukraine.

      Ukrainians are hard working and don’t deserve a war in their territory, sponsored and paid for by Russia.
      You should refer your “shithole” comments to Russia which can’t even hold fair elections for a banal city election like Moscow, then lock up demonstrators for using their constitutional right to demonstrate.

      As for Gergiev, Matsuev, Bashmet, Netrebko, we can do perfectly well without them.
      They have nothing better or more desirable than we already have in the west.

    • Karl says:

      Maybe if Russia had not invaded Ukraine it would be a nicer place. Most of the international community has condemned Russia for invading Ukraine. I don’t blame them for banning supporters of the invasion.

      • Musician says:

        Yes, Russia became involved after there was a threat of NATO in Ukraine due to the US sponsored revolution. No war is one sided.

        • Saxon Broken says:

          There was never a threat of NATO entering the Ukraine. And the US government never supported the pro-western side in the Ukraine: certainly not militarily.

    • Bill says:

      more likely the location of the concert stage was the issue, not the repertoire. do try to keep up.

  • klavierBWV988 says:

    Then they’ll have to settle for overrated pasionaria Buniatishvili.

  • Teresa Walker says:

    Prayers are with you. X

  • Ms.Melody says:

    I don’t believe Mr.Lebrecht is siding with anybody. He is merely reporting.
    Why shoot the messenger?

  • Anon says:

    Russia did not invade Ukraine. Shall I remind you that there were no casualties during the ‘invasion’? Or that it helped prevent a genocide?

  • Nick says:

    One can live happily ever after without hearing the “great art” of Yuri Martynov!!!

  • klavierBWV988 says:

    By the way Valentina Lisitsa is Ukrainian .

    • Saxon Broken says:

      She is only “Ukrainian” if you believe being born within the territory of “the Ukraine” makes you “Ukrainian”.

  • V.Lind says:

    Valentina Lisitsa certainly is aggressively abusive to the current government (and no saints, they, whatever the anti-Putin factions care to think). When Gabriela Montero takes a stance against the government of her birth country, she is lauded around here as some sort of heroine. But Lisitsa is branded because of a similar posture.

    Does favour around here depend on how the interview went? If granted?

    • At least D. Matsuev can play the piano, FWIW.

      I’ve always been at a complete loss as to the conducting merits of Maestro Gergiev … when I look at him conducting, I am reminded of some bad jokes about Furtwängler and not able to follow his beat. Of course, that doesn’t diminish Furtwängler as a musician. So maybe there is an added dimension with VG in which I cannot participate?

      But — let’s get real:
      VL does not play all of the notes; DM does.

      Whereas I would rate both of them on the (my…) “goosebumps scale” somewhere at around minus 5 or so.

      This performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto remains my favorite, BTW (a pirated radio broadcast of A. Weissenberg with Seiji Ozawa and the BSO from 1970, live performance probably from Tanglewood):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTE94BRaMgo

    • Saxon Broken says:

      Yes, the current recognized government of Ukraine are certainly “no saints”. But nevertheless, Valentina Lisitsa has supported an armed uprising against the state by a group of people who are ethnically cleansing the area they control of “undesirables”. I don’t think Montero has ever been accused of supporting anything like that.

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