Tchaikovsky names juries – including Putin’s banker
NewsMoments before the official start, the Tchaikovsky Competition has named juries for the major disciplines
At first sight, they look feeble in comparison with the recent calibre of Tchaikovsky juries.
The piano jury has some familiar names – the Kremlin pianist Denis Matsuev, the 1988 Leeds winner Vladimir Ovchinnikov, the infinitely biddable German Justus Frantz, a Belgian called Maxim Mogilevsky and a supporting cast of Russians and Chinese.
The violin panel is led by Yuri Bashmet and Vadim Repin, both Putin loyalists, along with Gergiev’s former Munich concertmaster Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici.
The cello jury is mostly Russian, with Vladimir Putin’s money smuggler Sergey Roldugin the standout participant.
Full details here.
An orchestral friend coments:
Cello jurist Suren Bagratuni is Professor of Cello & Chair of Strings at Michigan State University. Piano jurist Vladimir Viardo is faculty at North Texas College of Music. These artists & several others on the juries aspire to international careers in both the US & Russia.
And who the heck is the Spanish guy on the brass jury – Maximiliano Santos Ferrer? What is he even doing there? He’s a low level horn player from Valencia, who doesn’t have significant playing or teaching experience even within Spain, let alone internationally
No Lisitsa?! After all she did to support Russian aggression?
Adds new dimension to the term “rogue’s gallery” …
Spare a thought for the competitors!! Virtually every winner of the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition has had an international career.
I am surprised to read that Maxim Mogilevsky, son of famous Russian pianist Yevgeny Mogilevsky, is from Belgium.
That’s how he’s listed on the website
Maxim Mogilevsky was fired from the piano faculty at Bowling Green State University for having an affair with a student. Clearly this competition has no morals.
Proof – or it didn’t happen.
Thу сomments are sinking to a tabloid-level all-time-low. Scandalous, unsubstantiated allegations, mud-slinging… Anything to besmirch the jury members — and to revel even more in one’s own infallibility and sanctimonious blather.
If you’re being sarcastic, brava. If not, then I’ll respond by saying that it’s redundant to use the word “sanctimonious” in a paragraph that epitomizes it.
Apparently, we have very different ideas about what “sanctimonious “ is. The words the Pianoman’s post invokes for me are more like “libelous”, “slanderous, “defamatory”, though.
It’s not libelous or defamatory if it is true and already public. In fact, it is already very public knowledge in the BGSU community.
Allegedly, that’s a very polite way of describing his dismissal from BGSU. Others might use a word that starts with “r.”
Try telling that to the female Asian-American contest I’m just listening to now.
Pianoman now has earned the honorary title of Gandon. This denotes utmost respect towards his position.
If my memory is right, you once wrote, you had visited in 1995 Gergiev’s Mikkeli Music Festival. Maybe you had heard then Maxim Mogilevsky playing as member of Lexo Toradze’s piano studio.
I was surprised that he was listed on the website as Belgian. Why?
I have no memory of Mogilevsky. Whatever he is, he has chosen Putin.
Toradze I remember vividly as a highly independent spirit.
The sad irony of Maxim Mogilevsky’s participation is that his late father, the fine pianist Eevgeny, was a Ukrainian (born in Odesa) of Jewish heritage who was denied an exit visa by the Soviet Union for 18 years.
Yevgeni lived in Belgium
For some reason, Vladimir Viardo, the Cliburn Gold Winner, from the United States (a fantastic pianist and musician), isn;t mentioned as one of jury members.
He is listed.
Personally I have even more contempt for the wannabe famous young instrument plonkers and screechers who are simply desperate for public attention.
The contestants like Sam Lucas and George Harliono deserve to be cancelled and blacklisted forever.
I think 1 out of 10000 has a reason to be anonymous on the internet. You’re not one of them. You’re just a coward.
Frustus Schwanz, lol!
“Frantz came under criticism after justifying the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, calling it “making amends for historical wrongdoing”[2] and labeling himself a Putinversteher (Putin sympathizer, literally: “Putin understander”). He repeatedly criticized the sanctions imposed on Russia, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “cultivated man”.[3] In February 2023, Frantz was one of the initial signers of a petition calling for an end to military support to Ukraine in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
[2] Entspannung viel zu leicht gemacht sueddeutsche.de, 10. Oktober 2018.
[3] Das seltsame Russland-Gefühl der Deutschen spiegel.de, 7. Mai 2018.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_Frantz
“Useless Frantz”…..
Meeeeooooow.
No role for Mr. Prigozhin? After all he has done to promote music. . .
The only way we can show them our criticism is to ignore them. Don’t watch their streaming, don’t support them adding a viewer number, I am sure at the end they will tell ‘the world’ that their successful contest had millions of viewers, the best propaganda to say that, even as an aggressor country, people forget/forgive it and things are same as before February 2022.
You seem to be confusing the Russian people (there are lots of them!) with their murderous dictator. And you seem to think they have some choice in having him!!
You aren’t serious, are you?
United States and Great Britain are two nations that garnered the most prizes in Hitler’s Summer Olympics of 1936.
In April 1933, an “Aryans only” policy was instituted in all German athletic organizations. “Non-Aryans”—Jews or individuals with Jewish parents and Roma (Gypsies)—were systematically excluded from German sports facilities and associations. The German Boxing Association expelled professional light heavyweight champion Erich Seelig in April 1933 because he was Jewish.
However, knowing all this, three years later, you sent your athletes to the Nazi Olympics. And now George Harliono should stay home because you hate Russia more than you hated Hitler????…
Bodaika, don’t forget that non-Aryan US athletes who participated in the 1936 Olympics & won those medals were shunned by their German hosts.
Jesse Owens, a Black US 1936 Olympian, infuriated Hitler when he won his gold medal. Hitler refused to shake his hand. Archie Williams, another Black US medalist in 1936 was also publicly disparaged & ignored by Hitler & the Germans.
Yes, the US participated in the 1936 & they brought with them Black & Jewish athletes who did well & publicly defied Hitler’s theory of Aryan superiority in sports. They embarassed Hitler. Sam Balter was Jew from Los Angeles who won a gold medal in basketball for the US in 1936. How do you think Hitler felt about that?
These US athletes who you’re complaining about defied Hitler by proving him wrong. We should be glad the US participated in the 1936 Olympics.
Also, who the heck is Hideko Kobayashi on the piano panel? There’s isn’t a single reference to her anywhere outside of this competition – neither in the small local university they list in her bio, nor any of the competitions she allegedly judges. Closest thing is a violist under that name in Mannheim. Clearly a plant.
https://www.tokoha-u.ac.jp/teachers/junior-college/music/kobayashi-h/
We have seen much written about sport washing but here we have prime “music washing” to lend a thin veneer of cultural respectability to the Russian government. It’s a shame to see anyone from Europe taking part, the best response would be to ignore it. The jury is an embarrassment and winning here is meaningless.