Valery Gergiev’s last friend speaks out
NewsA statement by his North America agent, Doug Sheldon:
As manager for Valery Gergiev in North America:
I stand firmly for an independent Ukraine and against the Putin and Russian government policies of suppression, aggression, invasion and war.
Maestro Gergiev’s unwillingness to speak against those policies has made it impossible for the international music community to accept him on the concert or opera stage. I have cancelled his touring plans and appearances in North America.
I have had an extraordinary 30-year professional relationship with Valery and it hurts me deeply to see that relationship come to such an end.
The vision for music’s place in the world that Valery and I have shared remains constant.
Doug Sheldon
A day late and a few million rubles short, but glad he finally came around.
Read: “I regret that I will have to stop taking a cut from his fees as I have done for so long, but the present circumstances leave me no choice.”
Yes, he worked for him and got paid for it. Is that now also something terrible? How do you earn your money?
Slightly late in the day, but at last the penny has dropped with Sheldon and he has taken the right action
Late to the party … but OK.
Sheldon didn’t cancel Gergiev’s North American engagements. The presenting organizations did so.
Doug just can’t help himself. In the end, it’s always about him.
Oh yes.
Forty years ago he was rarely photographed and seldom spoke in public, rather like boxing manager Al Haymon today and Doug’s mentor, Ronald Wilford, yesteryear.
And he means what he says!
So why’s Gergiev still listed on Doug’s website, two days after this statement?
Why is nobody talking about Currentzis? His Russian orchestra Musicaeterna are fully backed by Russian government and under-sanction VTB bank. He is still silent! Musicaeterna still (as per website) scheduled to perform in Vienna and Germany. No statement from them either.
What is going on?
Perhaps it’s because his side-gig as a porn actor appeals to so many people.
https://slippedisc.com/2019/02/the-conductor-who-shows-off-his-parts/
Well, even being the hater of this Greek God, I think its funny that now you all persist on canceling Russia per se.
For instance, there is Tchaikovsky Conservatory led by pro Putin man. So, should I hate Tchaikovsky now? Gergiev played Rachmaninov with Vienna Phil. Gergiev is bad. Rachmaninov is also bad. No? The relation between Rachmaninov and Gergiev is the same as between VTB bank and Currentzis. They gave money for culture. Not for war, not for Putin, not against Ukraine. Just for music playing. Isn’t it so called “donations”? Most of orchestras live just by the donations.
If I have an orchestra with 10 Euro salary per month, Barclays bank gives me 99999999 GBP and after ten years UK is bombing Germany. What should I do? Am I already a person “non grata”? Or I could say – “take your dirty money back”? And should I ask my first violin to sell his/her flat bought with this Barclays’ donation?
Your pen name is _almost_ fitting. The _situation_ is understandable, it’s just _you_ who doesn’t understand. Your comment is one long string of false equivalencies.
The type of reasoning “Tchaikovsky Conservatory is let by a Putin man, let’s hate on the guy the conservatory is named after, whoever he may be” is the type of reasoning I wouldn’t expect even from social media kids with half a brain, who communicate through emojis because they aren’t intelligent enough to write.
If you believe most Western donations come from individuals who love “culture”, you are naive. They come from individuals who love themselves and like to see their name in print. Cast your tiny mind back and remember how many theaters were renamed after an individual who coughed up a very nice sum to renovate the theater. Ditto institutions like your beloved Barcay – it’s all advertising of themselves, not love of the arts, not to mention that a good deal of income is slated for the taxman anyway, so they reason “if we are to renounce it anyway, we could as well donate it with a bit of tamtam.”
Now to the kind of “donations” practiced by certain states. The corruption in financial circles notwithstanding, Barclay is not the UK government, they are still a _bank_ . The VTB is closer associated with the Russian gov than Barclay with the UK gov. The form of “advertising” dear to the heart of government of totalitarian states is called propaganda. It is done both inside and outside the totalitarian state. Abroad, you use a bank. At home, you use subsidies. The subsidies Russian flagship individuals and arts institutions receive, come from the Russian _government_ , not from a _bank_. There is always plenty of money for bolstering the image of the state abroad, using both donations to individuals who toe the party line, and by touring the flagship arts institutions, in Russia’s case Mariinsky and the Bolshoi.
And I hope Susan Carmel, a US donor of millions to Gergiev, has seen the light of day.
The point is, that VG has quite another vision of the place of music in the world, which he has clearly shown these last days.
the point really is that vg doesn’t feel compelled to show anything
I wonder, did you all barked the same way when hundreds of thousands were killed in Vietnam, Korea, Laos, Kambodja, Burma, Iraq, Afganistan……………!?
Also, I wonder how didn’t you come, as of yet, to idea about burning Tolstoy, Dostojevski, Ljermontov, Puškin, Gogolj, Jesenjin……
Hail!!!
The idea of burning Tolstoy, etc didn’t come to us (whoever “us” may be) but it obviously came to you. Good to know. Fulfilling a need?
VG is stuck between a rock and a hard place; condemnation by the western classical music fraternity and audiences or death and ostracism for him and his family in Russia if he criticizes that little maniac.
Which would YOU choose?
Exactly, not worth your life by speaking out in Russia against the regime.
I would choose “death and ostracism for him”.
Crossroads: When will solid ‘international solidarity’ with the Ukrainian people stop, to turn into the idiocy of the completely deranged, infamous Woke Brigade???
Let’s worry about the woke _if_ (not necessarily _when_) if happens. Until then, are you envious of the ‘international solidarity’ or what?
“The vision for music’s place in the world that Valery and I have shared remains constant.”
That vision is just next to the value of the dollar.
Thank you Doug Sheldon. Your breach of contract with Valery Gergiev is a small price to pay for flaunting your support of NATO’s Drang nach Osten.
Again the misundertanding about NATO. It were (are) the independent coutries themselves who wanted (want) to become a member, as we now see with Finland – to protect themselves from Russian agression. NATO has never intended to be a threat to Russia, in contrary, it was set-up because of the threat from the Soviet Union – the postwar paranoia of a inhumane regime. The cold war was initiated by the Soviet Union, and cancelled by the same, because it was entirely the product of Russian thinking.
Norm, when you run photos of people, please identify who they are. Unless I’m mistaken, that’s Veda Kaplinsky with Sheldon.