Counting Russia’s mounting musical losses
NewsFrom an article in Foreign Policy magazine by Elisabeth Braw:
Russia likes to think of itself as a superpower, but there aren’t that many things it’s actually world-class in. The list today mostly comes down to oil and gas, sports, and classical music. That first is looking shaky, with the developed world scrambling to divest from Russian exports after Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year. As for the sporting success, well, Russia’s doping scandal has resulted in the country being banned from the Olympics.
Russia may be on its last gasp when it comes to classical music and other fine arts, too. Even during the Cold War, Soviet musicians dazzled the West during their guest appearances. To be sure, there were the odd, embarrassing defections, like those of the dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev, and the forced exile of husband-and-wife team Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya. But Soviet state backing of the traditional fine arts helped maintain excellence, even as censorship and disdain for modern art and music cost the chance to develop new scenes. But even after the Soviet Union crumbled, Russia was able to keep up its classical strengths—and attract artists from all around the world.
But now its musicians are leaving, and Western ones have stopped arriving…
Read on here.
At least the Tchaikovsky competition will happen next year, and all eyes will be on that major event. Politics will stop for two weeks.
A war will not stop the Tchaikovsky competition being one of, if not the greatest music competition in the world, regardless of what the self righteous WFIMC thinks.
If the Rachmaninoff competition was anything to go by, TCH17 will be a damp squib. The normal classical news outlets assiduously avoided reporting on it.
That’s because the Rachmaninoff competition was overshadowed by the Cliburn.
The world’s eyes will be on Tchaikovsky. You cannot simply cancel something that’s been happening since 1958.
It should be noted that the author of the article, Elisabeth Braw, is a member of the American Enterprise Institute, a right to far-right think tank funded by the Koch brothers. AEI, for example, was described as the “intellectual command post” of the 2nd Iraq War which was unjustified and led to about a million deaths in the region and the rise of ISIS. (I mention the AEI’s viewpoints because I first linked the article in an earlier post.)
I think Putin is a war criminal and a thug, but Braw’s assertion that Russia’s cultural life is suffering is more polemical than factual. Look, for example, at this list of full-time orchestras in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and ask yourself what sort of image the USA’s abysmal support of the arts creates in the world, and why in ideological struggles this might be important. For good measure, I also list the full-time orchestras in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
Moscow
+ Moscow Chamber Orchestra
+ Moscow City Symphony Orchestra
+ Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
+ Moscow State Symphony Orchestra
+ Moscow Symphony Orchestra
+ Moscow Virtuosi
+ National Philharmonic of Russia
+ Russian National Orchestra
+ Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
+ State Symphony Capella of Russia
+ State Symphony Cinema Orchestra
+ Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra
(Moscow also has more opera performances per year than any other city in the world, including Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and London. Meanwhile, New York is no longer even in the top 10.)
St. Petersburg
+ Honored Philharmonic Orchestra
+ Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra
+ St. Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra
+ A Capella Symphony Orchestra
+ Symphony Orchestra “Classics”
+ Governors Symphony Orchestra
+ Mikhailovsky Theater
+ St. Petersburg Opera Theater
+ Children’s Philharmonic Orchestra
+ The Tauric Symphony Orchestra
(There are also four orchestras of Russian folk instruments)
Minsk
+ National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestra
+ Belarusian State Academic Musical Theatre Orchestra
+ National Academic Concert Orchestra (jazz/pop)
+ Presidential Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus
+ State Academic Symphony Orchestra
+ State Chamber Orchestra
+ State Academic Zhynovich Folk Instruments Orchestra
+ State Radio Symphony Orchestra
By contrast, very few US cities have even one full-time orchestra. And even the single, partial year, orchestras often face financial problems. Here is a list of US orchestras that have declared bankruptcy during my career: San Diego, Miami, Kansas City, Albuquerque, Syracuse, Tulsa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Denver, San Jose, Colorado Springs, Honolulu, Miami, and Philadelphia. When they manage to return they are often depleted and their musicians demoralized. Many more orchestras are in continual financial trouble even if they skirt bankruptcy. Miami has a metro population of 5.5 million, and is incredibly wealthy, but does not even have a symphony orchestra. (The New World Symphony is a training orchestra for students and young professionals that regularly rotates its personnel.)
This is the sort of thing you won’t hear Ms. Braw talking about in Foreign Policy Magazine. It wouldn’t make the Koch Brothers happy. And again, this isn’t to defend Putin who is a thug and criminal. It’s to say we can’t defeat our enemies by living in a bubble of ideological delusions.
I don’t know about the other cities, but in Moscow, while there’s a concert every night in all the halls, most of those orchestras play a limited number of shows, some maybe only 1-2 per year. Even the big ones like the Tchaikovsky SO probably don’t play more than about 20 concerts a year in Moscow. The NY Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall probably combine for nearly as many performances (though fewer individual programs) than Moscow.
If you google these orchestras, you will see that they are far more active than you describe. They often perform in other Russian cities, and some are radio orchestras, which might account for your impression that they rarely perform in concert in Moscow. Note also their lists of recordings.
One interesting note is that the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Veronika Dudarova from 1960-1989, the first woman in the 20th century to be the Music Director of a major orchestra.
It was after the dissolution of the USSR that Russian orchestras faced terrible times. Virtually the entire state structure that supported them collapsed. The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, for example, which is world famous, was thrown out of its rehearsal space by Orthodox parishioners who wanted to right the wrongs they had faced under communism. (See the url below.) The orchestras in Russia are facing nothing like this now.
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/25/arts/noted-russian-ensemble-seeks-a-place-to-rehearse.html
But now its musicians are leaving? They’ve been bailing out since 1991 – chasing after the money that the West was throwing at them, for both Russian performers and teachers! And the Russian-Jewish musicians were bailing out since the 1970’s.
The only difference between Soviet and Current Russia is that in soviet times no one couldn’t freely leave the country.
So not everyone were so brave as Baryshnikov to flee like he did.
Right now it is more democratic – and yes, I know, this sounds ridiculous – if you do not agree with goverment – please, you can leave. Just buy ticket on the plane and leave, so simple.
I think that comparison done in the article completely misses this point.
Were Shostakovich alive today, he’d been denounced by the social justice fighters in social media for being a member of the Soviet communist party and for accepting the Lenin and Stalin price. And no way he’d be able to visit the West. His mucis would probably have been banned to.
I think people were more intelligent during the cold war. They realized the gray zones of human life. Now, it is only yes or no. Good or bad. Friend or enemy. Remember when George Bush said “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists”. This is where we are now. We can only hope for a more enlightened public conversation.
Sadly, Russia has chosen an enormously stupid path to follow. Rather than be a great nation leading by example by pursuing excellence and stability in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, Russia chooses to declare the West and Western values as evil, corrupt and dangerous. It is currently inconceivable to see Germany invade France or England to sorty into France. Empire building belongs in the dust of past folly.