In Washington DC, don’t mention the war
NewsAcross the western world, from Chicago to London to Tel Aviv, conductors like Riccardo Muti and Zubin Mehta began their weekend concerts with remarks condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Not, however, in the capital of the USA, where music director Gianandrea Noseda failed to say a word about the situation in Ukraine.
Noseda was Valery Gergiev’s Principal Guest Conductor at the Mariinsky from 1997 to 2007. He is also music director of the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia. One can understand him being ambivalent about the present situation.
But audience members were furious. One messaged us: ‘It’s mind blowing and outrageous! The National Symphony Orchestra. The Kennedy Center. And they are silent as if nothing is going on!’
This is Zubin in Tel Aviv:
Good for him. I don’t want a facile lecture when I go to a concert (about Black Lives Matter, Ukraine, or anything else).
*****
Then continue to confine your listening to fox news propagandists and hope that someone meaningful to you isn’t a victim of violence.
Why did you assume I am (i) American and (ii) unconcerned by events in Ukraine?
Exactly, especially when it gives good conscience to sender and receiver but changes absolutely nothing to the reality going on. I have my own opinion, it worth any other, so no particular reason to share it
apparently somebody had forgotten to tell to Mr.Noseda to do so before that somebody went to Delaware ( to think over how it is going with some pre-planned actions somewhere)
…. from the other hand I hope you, Norman, paid much attention to Serbian musicians too, when Belgrade ( Nicola Tesla motherland by the way) were bombing by brave European aircrafts ( French were among others there and American of course ). I bet you did …. and to Odessa people, when some music lovers ( among others) were burnt down by Ukrainian nazis not so long ago. And on many classical Russian speaking musicians who fled Ukraine for the past few years only because they speak Russian ( more than a 75 percent of modern Ukraine still speak Russian)….
PS instead of sparkling anti-Russian hysteria here I prefer to do something for peace all over the Globe every day now and keep peace inside of my soul. What demon are you praying for ? I wish you well , and Old Granny Liz the second too ( some say she is dead now)…..
Huh? It’s hard to understand your pro-Russian rhetoric.
Can you cite some sources for the “burnt down by Ukrainian nazis”? Any article from a legitimate source will do.
It’s pretty easy for a conductor of Noseda’s stature to make a swift statement of solidarity.
It’s suspicious that he hasn’t. Anxiously awaiting your reply.
You are an idiot – “Ukrainian Nazis” ? The Slavs were considered “Untermenschen”…..
Read a history book. Or two. There were in fact larger fractions of people in Ukraine who fought with the Nazis against Stalin.
(I’m not commenting on the relevance of that on the recent history.)
Something for you to read to make your day
from Norman’s “fav” Guardian and from an international resource Wikipedia on Odessa massacre and on Ukrainian nazis (who, as people say, were the cruelest nazis ever)
I don’t impose my will about reading that on those who is emotionally unstable these days …. Peace and love to all and to ukrainian nazis and to people who are in Ukraine and in Russia and to Norman and to you, who are reading this message…. canadian truckers be with you to free you from swine flu restrictions all around the Globe … High vibes to all with reptile-minded souls ….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/ukraine-dead-odessa-building-fire#:~:text=Odessa%27s%20large%20Soviet-era%20trade,building%20was%20set%20on%20fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Galician)
The Atlantic Council is a NATO think tank. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/ukraine-s-got-a-real-problem-with-far-right-violence-and-no-rt-didn-t-write-this-headline/
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-azov-regiment-has-not-depoliticized/
Rights groups demand Israel stop arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/rights-groups-demand-israel-stop-arming-neo-nazis-in-the-ukraine-1.6248727
Guess it’s about time to separate the wheat from the chaff, conscience-wise.
If Zubin Mehta truly means it, he, along with the theater’s administration, will see to it that Netrebko is removed from the Turandots he is slated to conduct at the Staatsoper Berlin this summer. Otherwise, it’s just potato chips. To make it easy on him, these are the considerations: 1. Netrebko’s years-long support of the criminal Putin; 2. Netrebko’s years-long support of the Russian separatist movement in eastern Ukraine; and, last but not least, 3. Netrebko’s well-documented progressive vocal decline. Put those three together and BAM!, a nobrainer.
https://www.staatsoper-berlin.de/en/veranstaltungen/turandot.10340/#event-52893
I don’t remember any US or UK conductors speechifying when the US did the same thing, using many of the same lies to justify it, to Iraq and Afghanistan.
But. They. Were. Not. Bush. Or. Blair. Apologists.
Mr. Earleman, I did not support the Iraq War but the invasion was a response to 9/11-I don’t recall an act of war by Ukraine precipitating this invasion.
Putins coward and servant!!!
I miss the days when classical music concerts, live theatre, and most arts events were about the art and less about social studies.
You just want to go to a concert to “relax,” don’t you? Such a nuisance to have your privileged life interrupted with other people’s problems.
Those days existed only in your head….
I was at the NSO on Saturday night, and it’s true Noseda didn’t say anything. But the NSO isn’t drawing particularly well these days and the whole concert, while well played, lacked much of a sense of event or occasion (which is kind of true for almost any concert at the mausoleum that is the Kennedy Center). I think any statement would have been kind of perfunctory.
That said, they did a beautiful Mahler 4 and it felt all the more poignant given the events of recent days, certainly for me and the depression I’ve been feeling about it.
I was at Sunday’s concert and Noseda said that he’s deeply disturbed about what is happening in Ukraine, but believes that Mahler’s music is better than any words – something along these lines.
This is getting out of hand. Ghastly! Maybe it’s time for all musicians to just shut up and play! And the for us to stop expecting little PC blurbs from artists about this war and that other great cause. Silence is golden. Just listen to Zubin’s line… it is so great: he regrets those “being unnecessarily killed.”
Fire him. Better talent around. Not that I am the muster of everything, by far not, but I am listening to classic since I was maybe 15 so that s a few decades of exposure to classical conductors.
This guy? Never heard of.
Tells more about your limited knowledge than him.