Exclusive: Gergiev signs a European as principal guest conductor
NewsWe hear that the Austrian-Iranian Alexander Ali Rahbari, who broke EU sanctions to conduct at the Mariinsky Theatre last week, has been named principal guest conductor in St Petersburg.
He will conduct ten performances next season.
Rahbari, 74, is now as complicit as Gergiev is in the crimes against humanity that are being committed on Putin’s orders in Ukraine.
This is so stupid!
Let’s stop to play in US for their war crimes against so many countries around the world.
Let’s stop to play in Israel for their war crimes against Palestine.
Let’s stop to play in Europe for their crimes against Africans countries
France gets around a 500 billions dollars every year from them, Belgium killed more than 15 million of Africans and never apologized for it
There isn’t enough space for the crimes of all the countries around the world, shouldn’t we stop to make music after all?
Spot on Dave. The only moral place left to play music is the moon.
If you want to argue, try not to use stupid Fake news (France gets around a 500 billion dollars every year).
https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2019/01/29/non-la-france-ne-pille-pas-chaque-annee-440-milliards-d-euros-aux-africains-a-travers-le-franc-cfa_1706075/?outputType=amp
KINSHASA, June 8 (Reuters) – Belgium’s King Philippe reaffirmed his deepest regrets on Wednesday for the exploitation, racism and acts of violence during his country’s colonisation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but again stopped short of formally apologising.
Philippe became the first Belgian official two years ago to express regret for colonisation, and some Congolese hoped he would issue a formal apology during his first visit to Congo since taking the throne in 2013.
Hear hear
Utter nonsense. Gergiev complicit and those who go to Russia .they can see out their miserable careers in Putin’s empire
Did I miss something? as far as I know there is not sanctions on artist going to Russia, are cultural activities under sanctions?
Good for him! Stop throwing the word complicit around when there isn’t any – it’s just music for heaven’s sake! His appointment won’t stop the war anyway, and most importantly, it has absolutely nothing to do it.
Let the music live and let live!
‘Just music for heaven’s sake’. Well there we have it – great art form divested of any moral dimension.
Musicians take themselves too seriously. The whole world is not watching.
How do you go from accepting a job AS AN ARTIST (not a speech writer, or a policy advisor), having said nothing in favour of the Ukrainian war, to “Rahbari, 74, is now […] complicit […] in the crimes against humanity that are being committed on Putin’s orders in Ukraine”??? Please, let’s be serious here.
As I said already twice, Ali Rahbari is neither “Belgian-Iranian” nor “Brussels conductor”.
He is IRANIAN.
He has only conducted in Belgium from 1988 to 1996, as he has conducted in Berlin, Tehran, Salzburg, Zagreb and so on. He had studied in Vienna.
Why do you absolutely want to link him to Belgium, is there a Belgian bashing now?
Mr. Rahbari is an Austrian citizen which would preclude the “Belgian” canard. Austria does not allow dual nationality (unless you are Anna Netrebko). The Belgian connection is, therefore, tenuous at best but it won’t stop the casual Belgian bashing on here. Anyone from Poland also gets a bad rap. Any Polish artist, however well known, is invariably referred to as “Pole” in the headlines.
Indeed, Rahbari isn’t Belgian at all. Yes he was music director of the -then – BRTN Philharmonic.
In 1978 the BRT orchestra is renamed as BRT Filharmonisch Orkest.
In 1988 Alexander Rahbari becomes chief –conductor.
In 1991 BRT becomes BRTN (N= Nederlands= Flemish) In 1997 BRTN becomes VRT, Vlaamse Radio en Televisieomroep.
Also in 1991 the Orchestre Symphonique de la RTBF is definitively dismantled.
In 1998 the BRTN orchestra is renamed as Vlaams Omroeporkest (VRO / Flemish Broadcasting Orchestra) and Yoel Levi becomes its chief conductor.
In that same year the orchestra is detached from the broadcasting organisation and restarts –in 2008 – as Brussels Philharmonic. Michel Tabachnik is followed by Stéphane Denève.
Isn’t he a resident of Austria?
Are You kidding us? If an artist conducts in Russia he is complicit of war crimes???
Please, stop this crap!
If what you say here is true, Norman, then American conductor Christian Knapp at the Mariinsky theatre surely must be equally complicit.
I would like to learn when was it last time that US was out of the war!? According to some statistics, around 25,000.000 people were killed in “defensive” wars that this country conducted thousands of miles away from its borders after the end of WWII. And, why we have 800 military bases around the world. I guess, just in case if our artillery has to participate in performances of recently canceled Overture 1812 by Tchaikovsky. Sic.
I know that this comment wouldn’t be posted. No problem. It’s not addressed to wider public anyway. It satisfied me enough that its known to whomever who is sick enough to creat these pages.
I never thought that someone will be accused for war crimes committed with conductors button.
O tempora i mores!!!
Isn’t Charles Dutoit the principal guest conductor there?
The kind of conductor they hire as first Kapellmeister in Pforzheim or Hof
we all have likes and dislikes therefore we can be cancelled for any reason. let’s remember olimpic principles.
Are you serious? As of today, we, the Western countries, still spend around one billion dollars a day buying Russian gas and oil, not to mention fertilizers, uranium, grain, gold and other “essential” resources while lecturing other nations not to do so; and yet, conducting Mozart in Moscow is now considered “crimes against humanity”?
A potent phrase such as this has a very well defined moral and legal definition. By using it so nonchalantly, you not only lose all your credibility, but also undermine the seriousness of the real war crimes.
I personally disagree with Mr. Rahbari’s decision, but knowing where my electricity is coming from, I rather not to lecture others, let alone accusing them of war crimes. And even if you choose to do so, there are plenty of real war criminals out there who are far more worthy of your self righteous rage.
There are 2 sides to this story.
NATO had one job:
1. Prevent a war with ex-Soviet Russia.
One can just observe the blood in Putin´s hands, if that makes the world seem safer. Most people passionately do.
What became of Dutoit in St. Petersburg?
Maestro Rahbari is against sanctioning artists as a punishment for the behaviour of their governments. On the whole I would agree with him. What is not known is that Rahbari has opened his home to a Ukrainian family. His decision to accept an invitation from Maestro Gergiev, Putin’s musical pal, is raising eye-brows. But perhaps Rahbari’s decision deserves further scrutiny, in view of his humanitarian act in providing refuge to Ukrainian family.
Rahbari, a student of Karajan’s decades ago, is a solid conductor who took on (unsuccessfully in the end) the Herculean task of bringing Western classical music to the Iran of the Mullah regime, is also a good person. That he’s wrong on the present situation in Ukraine can be attributed to old age.
Artists get involved in politics all the time so long as their own pockets and checkbooks are not affected.
Doing business with the mafia, does not automatically make one a mobster but any one with a minimum IQ such as a ‘conductor’ knows what could be right or wrong.
Rahbari, could have chosen anywhere in the world to conduct, instead he chose to go into the lion’s den at this particular moment in time. The last thing he’ll be remembered by are his conducting abilities!