Exclusive: Does Gergiev still have Munich agreement?
NewsThe Russian conductor, fired by Carnegie Hall, is chief of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, but rumblings are being heard in Bavaria about his wholehearted support for President Putin’s Ukraine aggression.
The city of Munich is twinned with the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Several members of the orchestra yesterday added Ukrainian flags to their social-media profiles. The include the violinist Konstantin Sellheim (pictured), who is the players’ chairman.
The former principal horn Jörg Brückner has published an open appeal to the conductor:
Dear Maestro Gergiev,
You know how much I appreciate you as a human being and an artist. You were a wonderful chief conductor in Munich. I loved being able to play music with you. You were always a musical friend, a world figure and an open-hearted man.
I therefore urge you to stand up for Ukraine and condemn this murderous attack on Ukraine.
Don’t let Putin instrumentalize you still further. Expose your heart and show yourself to be peaceful huuman being.
I send you a warm greeting,
Gergiev is next due to conduct in Munich, Bruckner’s eighth symphony on March 17.
UPDATE: Munich to Gergiev: You have 3 days to condemn Putin or get fired
Just wondering. Is Gergiev still with CAMI? What’s the situation with him being cancelled by Carnegie etc.? Do venues still have to pay the fee?
I hope the sponsors don’t pay his fee and hotels and stores forbid him to enter.
I assume his various contracts include a morals clause that the organizations will point to, arguing that Gergiev’s off-stage behavior with Putin would harm the reputation of the organizations if he were allowed to perform. And good luck to Gergiev finding a sympathetic court in the U.S. and Europe.
No, he signed with Marcus Felsner’s new agency about 18 months ago, and still proudly displayed on the homepage for Felsner Artists…
It’ll be dependent on the contract. For titled positions there may be mechanisms built in for removal, but that would be highly unlikely for guest contracts such as Carnegie.
His Bruckner cycle with MP is so excellent.
What a shame he’s not speaking up to safe-guard his musical legacy.
Munich should sack Gergiev as soon as possible. And the Bavarian State Opera should sack the other Putin cheerleader, Anna Netrebko, also as soon as possible. She has some Lady Macbeths slated there later this season.
Oh, besides her political and social stances (e.g., anti vaxxer, anti Me Too, etc), her out of tune warbling ought to be taken into account, too.
https://slippedisc.com/2022/02/munich-to-gergiev-you-have-3-days-to-condemn-putin-or-get-fired/
Moreover we all should avoid playing Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich – they are Russians too !!
cowerds , false and hypocrytes.
English spelling is KIEV.
The English spelling of the Russian pronunciation is ‘kiev’. The English spelling of the Ukrainian pronunciation is ‘kyiv’.
What naive crap from the musician. Europe will have to wake up to the fact that there are good and evil people, and that the time is over for blissfully dozing in the uncritical belief that the continent became a peaceful La-La Land with the collapse of the USSR. The wolf is alive and well under a new name. Who is next on the paranoid’s menu?
Munich is better off hiring Vanessa Benelli Mosell as their next chief conductor. Gergiev’s career is over.