Gergiev is back making lovely with the Vienna Philharmonic
NewsValery Gergiev turned up on Saturday for his tour curtain-raiser with the Vienna Philharmonic.
They played music from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet, followed by Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique.
The tour now rolls on to Germany and the US.
As if nothing has happened in Ukraine.
(There may be trouble ahead.)
Image: Gergiev at a pro-Putin rally last year
Why should the terrible events in Ukraine have any influence on the Vienna Philharmonic’s tour of Germany and the USA with Gergiev?
Because, in case you have not noticed, Gergiev is Putin’s biggest fan boy?
Maybe vice versa? (Like in Furtwängler’s case)
In case you forgot, Gergiev publicly (with his signature) supports Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. Nobody is forcing him to do this.
Some background:
https://euromaidanpress.com/2014/05/16/finnish-violinist-and-conductor-writes-open-letter-to-artists-supporting-putins-actions/
Just like back in the day with the Nazis then!! The middle class, academics and the wealthy all enthusiastically embraced Hitler – much as people have tried to airbrush away this fact.
What does it say that you insist on making false and irrelevant comparisons with nazis?
The truth upsets you so don’t read it!!
No, it’s idiotic that your exclusive go to for anything and everything that you do not like is a comparison with nazis. By now we get the infatuation it’s just irrelevant and insulting to those who were oppressed and perished at the hands of the 3rd reich.
Generalizations and questionable logic don’t add up to the truth, no matter how much you want them to.
Uh, perhaps because Gergiev is a Putin-product? And Putin is en route to being the 21st century’s Stalin?
Methinks you underestimate the number of deaths Stalin was responsible for!
Number sanctify nothing!
Stalin? Try the other guy.
Try sticking with Stalin
Go,Achim!
Perhaps he can make a quick side trip to Luhansk and without rehearsal lead a military band in a few fascist tunes. At the very least it might earn him a few medals.
Yes, I am absolutely with all of you, but he has conducted the VPO every year since the annexation of Crimea which has been a violation of international law. The orchestra isn‘t apparently caring for his ties with Putin. It is naive to think that it will be different now.
He did not just “turn up” on Saturday nor did he “dump” Vienna Phil on Friday (as you previously reported). He tested positive for Covid on Feb 10 or 11, went into isolation for a week and hence could not make it for the concert with Vienna Phil on Friday 18 and was just in time (and apparently without symptoms) for the concert on Saturday 19.
It should be interesting on Friday evening at Carnegie with the VPO, Gergiev and Matsuev………
Concert is scheduled for Saturday and is still up on Carnegie’s website. I imagine Gergiev will perform unless the State Department imposes sanctions on Russian artists in the US before the weekend (doubtful). Gergiev always gets picketed at Carnegie; I hope the NYPD is prepared for a larger than usual demonstration.
There will undoubtedly be picketing @ CH. I will attend Fri. and Sat.
Me too
The most overrated musician of the past 50 years,and bearing in mind the competitian that’s some achievement.
you forgot Rattle, FWM and many others who are overrated Gergiev can be fascinating exciting and is a very passionate conductor with the right repertoire
I would say the same about Rattle; his record of excellent to superlative concerts while on tour to NYC with various orchestras over the years has been pretty high. Welser-Moest, not so much.
Regardless of how anyone rates Gergiev, he still recorded lots of Russian opera that no-one else will even get a chance to record these days. Whether you think so or not, you’ve heard worse.
I have trouble with the mixing of politics and the arts. I didn’t like it with the McCarthy Era and also believe that the “cancel culture” is even worse. I recall very well that posters on another music blog endeavored to boycott Susan Graham because she sang at George W. Bush’s inaugural. This made me wonder if I should burn my Leontyne collection, as she sang at LBJ’s inaugural and he killed exponentially more people in Vietnam than Bush did in Iraq. This is a slippery slope. I also don’t think the average American knows or cares much about Ukraine and I think they regard Putin as a mastermind totalitarian who cannot be stopped. There will be much infighting here about the realpolitik of the situation, and it will quickly devolve into a Trump-slanted brawl. (Because everything does.) Yet if one stands for politics staying out of the arts, which few posters do these days, it’s still going to be interesting to see if Gergiev is welcomed with open arms in NYC.
“I also don’t think the average American knows or cares much about Ukraine…”
“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
― Mark Twain
Is he a musician ? I thought he was a stick waver
You mean a toothpick waver? Accompanied by fluttering hands.
And a Very small stick at the!
Stick waver?!? . . . you must be using a telescope.
Make that a toothpick.
I posted too soon–Gergiev is indeed scheduled to conduct on Friday, AND Saturday and Sunday. As someone once said, it’s gonna be wild.
Hopefully wild in the way the Svetlanov Shostakovich 10 at the Proms was in 1968 (given the evidence on the Testament CD of that concert). I don’t attend concerts to air my politics, I go to hear music performed.
Trust me, Gergiev is no Svetlanov!
Perhaps not, but both are characterized by inconsistency, and in both cases that has included some pretty great high points, at least from my vantage point. I only got to hear Svetlanov live twice in his last tour of the US, and it was pretty sad; I have to rely on his recordings to form an opinion. Gergiev I have heard in about twenty five live performances, and I would count about a third of those as being exceptionally good; and perhaps the same amount as underprepared or not fully engaged.
so he did not dump them after all? and please do not mix art with politics, it is boring and so biased it does not merit reading.
Maybe it would be appropriate to change the programme to “Ilya Muromets” by Reinhold Glière to pay tribute to the rebirth of the Kyivan Rus’ federation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxz_6RW8WJQ
Hitler promoted Wagner, Putin loves Gergiev; I guess it’s a fascistic dictator thing
You were lucky that Trump preferred golf over opera.
Golf. Something else he could cheat at and lie about the result…………
Does anyone know if Putin gets a cut of Gergiev’s earnings?
If so, Gergiev may face significant sanctions.
Gergiev pays income tax in Russia. It seems to me that Putin gets a pretty big cut of overall income taxes received, so – yes.
Which is Gergiev’s bigger crime – supporting Putin’s agression, or performing with Matsuev?
Um, the first?
Or may I add a still bigger one? – conducting.
“As if nothing happened in Ukraine”, as if the whole classical music business should have stopped when the US invaded
1. Grenada (1983-1984)
2. Bolivia (1986)
3. Virgin Islands (1989)
4. Liberia (1990; 1997; 2003)
5. Saudi Arabia (1990-1991)
6. Kuwait (1991)
7. Somalia (1992-1994; 2006)
8. Bosnia (1993-)
9. Zaire/Congo (1996-1997)
10. Albania (1997)
11. Sudan (1998)
12. Afghanistan (1998; 2001-)
13. Yemen (2000; 2002-)
14. Macedonia (2001)
15. Colombia (2002-)
16 Pakistan (2005-)
17. Syria (2008; 2011-)
18. Uganda (2011)
19. Mali (2013)
20. Niger (2013)
21. Yugoslavia (1919; 1946; 1992-1994; 1999)
22. Iraq (1958; 1963; 1990-1991; 1990-2003; 1998; 2003-2011)
23. Angola (1976-1992)
or when Great Britain invaded the Falklands…
Yeah, just like East Germany was overrolled by BRD.
“Novagerio”
Sooo, Novagerio… Erm, when did any of the aforementioned countries became US territory? Oh, they didn’t? I see, okay… So it’s basically just a list that has nothing to do with Russia invading Ukraine and more about you showing the world that you can make a list?
“Attaboy!”, I guess?
And an incorrect list at that. A rewriter of history from the Putin school.
The suggestion to perform “Ilya Murometz” was censored.
Novagerio : actually, it was Argentina which invaded the Falklands – and didn’t that go well for them ? If you want to make offensive comments which are blatant lies ( a bit like Putin when one thinks about it) go and do it somewhere else
I have apparently offended a thatcherist!
Or possibly an historian
Bit like Trump, too.
Putin’s behaviour in Moscow is about par for the course in that place.
What worries me more is Trudeau’s abuse of emergency powers in Canada…
It is unconscionable that Carnegie hasn’t canceled Gergiev’s concert when Russian bombs fall on Ukrainian cities. Shame on them and on all those who will go to listen to this travesty. The concert must be canceled.