Musical America is censured for Putin propaganda
NewsThe President of the International Federation of Music Competitions has written to the US subscription site, objecting to articles it published by a Chinese guest at the Tchaikovsky Competition who served as a mouthpiece for Kremlin Propaganda.
Here’s the rebuke to Musical America, leaked to slippedisc.com:
Dear Ms. Elliott,
… I am somewhat puzzled by the positions that you reveal in your article “Update from the Tchaikovsky Competition” published on June 27, particularly the fact that the exclusion of the competition from the World Federation of International Music Competitions has been called “unfair”. The author goes into great details describing the effort of hosting the competition, praising it more than implicitly between the lines. This appreciative attitude is even taken further by letting two foreign jury members praise the competition to the skies and even abuse the hackneyed image of the peacemaking, reconciling power of music.
At this point it seems rather helpful to reiterate the decision taken by an overwhelming majority of all WFIMC members to exclude the Tchaikovsky Competition and the process that preceded the poll. In two polite, but very firm conversations, it was made clear to the director of the Tchaikovsky Competition that the instrumentalization of the competition for the purpose of propaganda (The competition’s website features a personal welcome message by the warring president) is considered unacceptable, because it provides young talents with a completely distorted idea of the values that music conveys. The director also had the opportunity to explain the position of the Tchaikovsky competition to all WFIMC members and wasted this opportunity by speaking of the infamous “specalnji operatji” and the “denazification of Ukraine”.
Furthermore, the great Valery Gergiev proactively participates in this distortion of obvious values by suggesting that a war-declaring and war-mongering country can still take an apolitical stance in music. The Tchaikovsky Competition is organized by a corporation completely controlled by the Russian Ministry of Culture. “I believe that the Tchaikovsky competition has a historic chance to host apolitically thinking young bright musicians, and they should think only about music, about the profession, about the future, about the composer.” Valery Gergiev says.
Neither the judges nor the contestants who are participating did music as one of the core values of a humanistic society a great favor. Nevertheless, the effects on global musical life will be minimal, since the competition cannot fulfill its original mission of initiating careers.
At the conclusion of the last meeting with the Director of the Tschaikovsky Competition in April 2022 I, as the current President of the WFIMC, informed the director of the Tchaikovsky Competition: “As soon as this war is over, the sovereignty of Ukraine restored and the Tchaikovsky Competition relinquishes its function as a propaganda instrument and instead redeems its former reputation as a high-quality music competition, we will be the first to wish for the Tchaikovsky Competition to be reinstated among the world’s leading music competitions – this is our idea of fairness!
Peter Paul Kainrath
(pictured)
President WFIMC & Director International Piano Competition Ferruccio Busoni
Wow. I’ve been watching this journalist who’s reporting for Musical America in Moscow. In his defense, he’s made a strong effort to avoid politics, including when Moscow was nearly invaded. This comment was not something the journalist himself said, but rather one of his interviewees.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that either the journalist or the interviewee were acting as Kremlin mouthpieces. The journalist, to me, has been quite focused on showing an inside look at the Competition with interviews, photos & short videos, all about music, not politics.
He mentioned that candidates were complaining about a NY Times reporter who was also covering the competition who was only interested in politics, not music. Sure enough, a very disparaging article appeared in yesterday’s NY Times.
The interviewee under fire here is the elderly Chinese pianist Liu Shikun, silver medalist to Van Cliburn’s gold in1958. He expressed his disagreement with the decision to exclude the Tchaikovsky from the WFIMC.
Of course he said that! He’s an original laureate. He’s 84 & that is the highlight of his career. The decision to expel the Tchaikovsky casts a shadow on his achievements. He is an old man defending his professional honor. He went on to say that “Russian musicians & composers should not be the enemies of Ukraine”.
I don’t know all that Mr. Shikun told the Russian press or in his interview in Chinese with the Musical America journalist but I truly don’t see either as being Kremlin mouthpieces. That’s my opinion, at least.
From what you write, one can rather conclude that he has become a classic exemple of so-called useful idiot. The Kremlin has always been a master at acquiring such naive influencers, combining their benefits with its own.
I wouldn’t exactly call him naive. China “disappeared” him during the cultural revolution & he spent 7 yrs imprisoned by his own govt. after that. The guards took sadistic pleasure in beating his hands. The Soviets circulated rumors that his hands had been cut off.
He had no access to a piano during that time & yet soloed successfully with both Phila & Boston Symphony not long after his release. He’s survived artistically despite horrific circumstances.
I think he’s holding on to the honor of a prize he won in the happier time of his youth, before he was imprisoned & beaten by his own govt. An old man who’s survived what he has has little to fear & not much need to ingratiate himself to the Russian govt., in. my opinion.
Musical America can say whether it took money from the Chinese conduit.
The World Federation, otoh, cannot say whether any career was “initiated.”
“Censured” is a pretty strong (and misleading) word for a letter of protest originating not from a state institution, but from the head of a private organization who is in no way able to enforce censorship.
“Censured” and “censored” are different words with different meanings. I suggest that you look them up.
He should consider suiting up and joining the winning side of history on the front line.
Hmmm. ‘Warmongering countries…’ Well that, I’m afraid, excludes most of the West from the happy family of musical nations then.
I don’t recall US and British musicians and musical events being ostracised during the Iraq, Libya etc etc adventures. Or as their governments provocatively increase their military bases and missile placements around the world to the nth degree.
I’m no fan of Russia’s action nor of Gergiev’s disingenuous drivel. Of course a big event like this is to some degree instrumentalised. Just like a US orchestra’s tour to Taiwan will be. But the hypocrisy of our supposedly free and morally spotless lands is truly breathtaking.
Realist: the WFIMC is a Swiss organization. Mr. Kainrath, who wrote the piece quoted above, is Italian. He is objecting to a comment made by a Chinese national with no connection whatsoever with the US or the UK. It was made during an interview with a Chinese journalist in Shanghai. A US publication simply published that interview. It’s not a political statement, it’s journalism.
Where exactly are all of these British & US musicians who you feel are not “being ostracized” properly? British & UK musicians barely have a presence at all in any international music competitions. It’s been that way for quite a while. There were exactly 2 who placed at this year’s Tchaikovsky – one UK & one US/Russian & they have both been heavily criticized here.
Yet once again here you are as someone who is trying conflate the entire foreign policy history of countries which you perceive to be powerful with the politics of an international music competition in which they barely have a presence.
Just stop it. Complain to Switzerland. That’s where this organization is located. Complain to Italy, where this complainant lives. Take it up with China where the person who made the comment as well as the journalist are citizens. Express yourself about Russia, S. Korea, Kazakstan, Bealarus or China which all had significant representation at the Tchaikovsky as well as at other major international competitions. Neither the US or the UK do.
Please leave us out of your political tyrades.