An American house conductor resigns at the Mariinsky
NewsThe New York Times has a 2-hankie story on how Valery Gergiev’s house conductor Gavriel Heine has quit his job almost two months after the Russians commenced their atrocities in Ukraine.
Gergiev gave him a parting hug, you’ll be please to read here.
2 days or 2 months after the war started is not the point…to leave a prestigious job, move a family to an uncertain future is not easy, bravo Maestro Heine, wish you can have a brilliant career.
His wife and son left in early March. He was conducting in Switzerland. He came back last week and packed up, resigned and left. The inference of his tardiness in the face of what is happening in Ukraine in order to show him in the worst possible light is unworthy to say the least.
It often seems that the point of many of these postings is simply to take a swipe at anything appearing in the New York Times just because it is the NYT, no matter what the actual content.
What about Kuwahara? He is American too and at Mravinsky.
It took him two months to realize that this war wasn’t ok, and also because he knew his professional career could take a serious blow in the long run. These artists only care about politics, so long as their own paychecks are not at stake.