Daniil Trifonov is out of BBC Proms

Daniil Trifonov is out of BBC Proms

News

norman lebrecht

July 20, 2023

The Russian-American pianist has pulled out of the Proms owing to what the BBC call ‘a processing delay with his visa’.

He was supposed to be playing the new Mason Bates concerto on July 30. Since no-one else knows the work, the BBC has replaced it with Korngold’s violin concerto, with Vadim Gluzman as soloist.

Comments

  • Tony Sanderson says:

    What a shame! I had booked tickets for that concert.

  • Tamino says:

    You can’t call it pulling out, when the country doesn’t give him a visa. He is pushed out in fact.
    Small minded bigots, those Brits not giving him a visa.

    • MJA says:

      @Tamino – grow up and stop trolling. And in any case, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

    • Maria says:

      He and his agent would have known a year ago or more that he was booked to come to London, not just find out last month, so had more than enough time to have secured a visa like anyone else in the queue coming to Britain or the UK, or just London.

      • Tamino says:

        How would you know they have applied only a month ago? That‘s very unlikely. Don‘t spread lies.
        No, he is canceled because he is Russian traveling with a Russian passport.

        • Sue Sonata Form says:

          Isn’t DT a US citizen? Married to an American.

        • MJA says:

          @Tamino, how would you know he is “canceled [sic] because he is Russian traveling with a Russian passport”? That’s very unlikely. Don’t spread lies.

          • Tamino says:

            How would I know. Well, he has no problem playing anywhere else. Somehow only in Britain they do lately not manage to process his visa in time. A bit strange, don‘t you think?

  • Nick H says:

    Thank God for that. Changing to a familiar work.

    • Red Roram says:

      Ew no, one of the big draws of the Proms is exciting new works. If these become absent from the festival, there goes all the younger generations’ interest and within 20 years, no more Proms.

  • Santipab says:

    Trifonov is becoming fatally unreliable. This is the fourth concert he’s cancelled in the UK since March this year (ie. all of them).

    Back in March the visa was also given as the reason. If we even believe it this time it suggests carelessness at best or incompetence at worst.

    • Dinara Klinton says:

      Have you tried applying for a British visa once?

    • SviatoslavRichter says:

      You make several assumptions about what’s going on—interesting that you first put the blame on him. Why?

      • Santipab says:

        As I mentioned all his scheduled apprearances in the UK this year have been cancelled. The first time and this time, the visa was given as the reason. At the very least it suggests lessons have not been learnt.

        Obviously if the visa excuse is true maybe it’s his management or agent at fault, or maybe even the BBC if they did not supply supporting documents in time. On the other hand maybe he just changed his mind.

        Either way he’s become more unreliable than any other artist, with the possible exception of Jonas Kaufmann.

    • Dmitri says:

      This is your brain on Brexit and Russophobia. If the UK is going to limit visas to innocent Russians based off its political stance, it will need to develop a music education system that can compete with Russia’s.

      You really think one of the world’s top pianists learned and passed up on premiering a piece by a famous composer at one of the world’s most prestigious music festivals because he’s careless? How do you think visa applications work?

      • Santipab says:

        The reason given the first time was delay in visa processing (ie. the applicant had not applied in time) but if the visa has been denied then it should be made clear but the explantions are always vague.

        All I know is that he has cancelled 4 times this year alone for a variety of reasons, which suggests something else is going on and that excuses are interchangable.

    • guest says:

      His Barbican concert in June was also cancelled due supposedly to illness. Something is going on here….

    • Maria says:

      Yes, that’s about it. More to it than just a visa delay.

    • Kln says:

      Totally correct, he had a big concert with the LPO and this lame excuse was given. I commented very much the same as you and got pelters. Don’t book him over here. It’s as simple as that

    • N says:

      I’m just wondering, have you ever tried to get a UK working visa having Russian passport and being abroad? It can take months and no one cares it’s a famous pianist. And those people in bbc usually have no idea how long it takes and send all the documents too late. I was getting some visas for competitions and masterclasses before the war staying in Russia and sometimes it took months (even before the pandemic and before the war). And no one from the management took that into account. I was always getting everything last minute though being super responsible and not that insanely busy as Trifonov is. Keep in mind he’s traveling and having concerts all that time while he’s supposed to keep his passport at the UK embassy. That means he has to have the second passport to get that visa. And it takes another 3-4 months (and efforts, and money) to get the second passport being abroad. You also have to be being super mindful sharing visas between your passports. He’s obviously supposed to have a US visa and work permit, a EU visa and work permit and probably Korean, Japanese etc ones.
      So you’re obviously one of those privileged people who had never dealt with all these visa requirements and you dare share your priceless opinion on this matter. You know what? You’d better shut up. Since we’re blaming people for the things their governments made, you guys made brexit yourselves, so don’t complain artists aren’t prioritising you to the rest of the world

      • Santipab says:

        As you make so clear, this is not an unknown problem. I get that everyone wishes that things were different but you say it yourself:

        “those people in bbc usually have no idea how long it takes and send all the documents too late”

        “no one from the management took that into account”

        This is my point and that’s called incompetence.

        Please don’t make assumptions about me, you know nothing about me.

        In the past I have had two passports for this very reason and secondly if I’d done my job this badly I’d have been fired.

        Maybe all this is just an excuse for an artist who is overcomitted and changed his mind. Who knows?

  • Monty Earleman says:

    He needs new management- one that can get his visas done on time.

    • Tamino says:

      Interesting how many people/avatars post on this site in an attempt to discredit Trifonov and his management, when in fact British officials are cancelling him by making his Visa applications Kafkaesque…

  • Unvaccinated says:

    You can hear the boring Mason Bates here

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lex6nhW3etA

    Sounds like John Adams, but with less notes.

  • Alan says:

    The man has no problem playing anywhere else in Europe.

    What could the problem be I wonder…….

  • Guest says:

    Speaking as a travelling musician who has had to buy many visas for Europe (post-Brexit), has asked about British visas for European/Russian musicians coming to perform in the UK together, and who has (pre-war) had to buy visas to perform in Russia, I can confirm that this is nonsense. Yes, there is a long wait, yes there is a lot of red tape for all of us – Brits, Russians, Europeans – to work anywhere. The vast majority of us can plan in advance and secure our visas without problem. For someone like Trifonov who has been booked long in advance and whose management knows to purchase visas – well this sounds more like an excuse than anything else I’m afraid to say… to confirm, no bitterness towards Trifonov, I’m just calling a spade a spade.

  • pvl says:

    There was no problem for Trifonov or France to come to Paris to play at the 14th of July concert. That was 6 days ago.

  • Ex-agent says:

    Others had said it but this is an awful cock up by the agents of Trifonov, who had not only sufficient time to apply for visa by the standard route but even enough time to go through backchannels.

    It is very irregular for an agency to let blame be put on them if this isn’t the case, so they are either going well above their duties to protect his reputation or there are some serious issues at Opus 3 artists!

  • Robin Blick says:

    The Boris Proms. Brits only.

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    The Korngold VC would be very enjoyable as substitute. I only watched a documentary on EWK yesterday and didn’t realize he was a prodigious talent. When he composed film music in the USA his critics complained, “he was a genius and now he’s merely talented” – a completely false proposition.

  • Zarathusa says:

    It’s about time they changed the name! No serious musician wants to play at a “prom” — it’s so “high schoolish”!

  • Jaime Lachine says:

    Well, do I smell something fishy?! Someone at the Home Office happened to be delaying his visa application!
    I wonder could it be the job done by the very top guy at the HO? A certain racist of coulour, female non-English civil servant?!

  • Thea says:

    Very dissaponted. I was looking forward to this concert. As I know you can get UK visa within 24 hours.

  • David Aston says:

    Ridiculous. This concerto was first performed 18 months ago in January 2022. How many professional pianists are there? They would have plenty on time to learn it. But just happy to keep taking the public’s money for playing the same old stuff we’ve all heard 100 times before. It’s a wonderful new work and nobody apart from Trifinov can be bother to learn it. Disgraceful.

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