In his années de pélegrinage across Europe, Franz Liszt played on all the best pianos of his time.
Many are still kept in prime condition.
The musical city of Odesa was particularly proud of its Liszt piano.
Until the Russians bombed it.
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Thankfully, it appears to be largely undamaged and thus reparable. Until the next bomb or drone or missile…
Loss of a piano, even one with historical associations, is of course as nothing compared to the loss of lives and livelihoods.
As if the monster Putin cares!
Quite.
He may even like the irony of destroying an instrument of the composer who wrote “Les Préludes” – misused by Nazis as soundtrack to their propaganda.
I’m about to enter my 7th decade and I can’t remember a leader of a major country who was as depraved, amoral and evil as Putin. They need an extra circle in hell for someone at his level of depravaty. Bombing innocent children and seniors – beyond repulsive.
That’s probably more about our short memories than the world’s lack of depraved, amoral and evil leaders.
I agree that Putin is a very evil man and I would like to see him tried in the Hague, but I also feel I should point out that Nikita Krushchev sent tens of thousands of his own countrymen to their death and died in 1971. Chairman Mao caused the death of between 40 and 40 million and died in 1976. Lyndon Johnson approved Operation Rolling Thunder in 1965 (and Kissinger is still alive) which killed 27,900 military and 48,000 civilians by 1967. Khomeini ordered the killing of around 60,000 during the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Russia’s indiscriminate attacks on civilian and non-military targets in Ukraine demonstrate a total disregard for places of historical, religious, medical, educational, and cultural significance. These are not simply acts of war; they are deliberate attempts to totally annihilate and eradicate an entire country from the face of the earth! These atrocities must not go unpunished!
When you’re a thug from the mean streets in Russia and a KGB operative what in the world would you know about anything of even a remotely civilized nature?
Big tables, big rooms, big sycophants = little man. Reminds me of a small fellow I used to date; he had a huge American car, but that didn’t increase his stature one iota.
And yet, there will soon be on here apologists for Russian terrorism, claiming ‘Ukraine asked for this’ – or in various iterations thereof. Just wait.
Sadly they reflect the views of the vast majority of Russians – a uniquely morally depraved population.
Fortunately the piano seems to have been hit only by small pieces of debris. The floor and walls seem quite intact; I’m pretty sure the instrument has survived.
They will bomb anything but they prefer babies and small children. If you speak Russian, just look at their social media.
Well, I love The Triff and I adored the late Dmitri H.
Liszt no more, but maybe a lot of Cage.
What that photo brings to my mind is a photo of Tchaikovsky’s summer home (and piano) which was bombed and destroyed by the Nazis in World War 2 – a/k/a ‘The Great Patriotic War’. That Putin and his Russian fascists would so easily mimic what Hitler and his German fascists did is breathtakingly shocking. And there is no apparent embarrassment or acknowledgment of what they’re doing and how exactly alike it is to what Hitler did to them.
Stalin was a worse mass murderer, as it happens, than Hitler.
I own a piano once played by Liszt in Ireland. A Clementi square piano he played in a concert in Cork. Had it restored by a fellow over in France who makes forte pianos.
Putin suffers from a problem with his rear end folks. Anusol plus is unobtainable in Russia, it sells more than crack cocaine on the black market.
https://ukrainetoday.org/2019/10/25/vladimir-putin-suffering-from-hemorrhoids/