Breaking: Carnegie Hall drops Gergiev

The hall announced tonight that, in consultation with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, it has agreed that Valery Gergiev should not conduct this weekend, nor should Denis Matsuev appear as soloist. Both are close associates and apologists for President Putin.

Gergiev will be replaced by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

A great deal of private pressure was applied to the hall to lead to this outcome. It is not yet clear if US Government pressure was also involved. This is the worst possible outcome for Gergiev, who will now face aditional demands from his Munich employers to distance himslf from the Ukraine aggression.

The Vienna Philharmonic, too, do not come out of it well.

Here’s the Carnegie statement:

New York, NY, February 24, 2022)—Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra today jointly announced that Yannick Nézet-Séguin will step in for Valery Gergiev leading the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in three concerts at Carnegie Hall from Friday, February 25 through Sunday, February 27. In addition, pianist Denis Matsuev will not perform with the orchestra on Friday, February 25. The soloist for this program is to be announced. The concert programs for the Vienna Philharmonic’s three performances will remain as planned. Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra are immensely grateful to Yannick Nézet-Séguin for stepping in for these performances at very short notice.

UPDATE: Up to this morning both the VPO chairman Daniel Froschauer and Carnegie Hall’s president Clive Gillinson expressed a view that artists were entitled to political opinions. Both knowingly obliterated the fact that Gergiev and Matsuev are outright propagandists for Putin and his actions in Ukraine. Both will now need to justify themselves on assumptions of hypocrisy.