Classic Voice magazine in Milano reports that the Russian musical Vozhd will conduct the National Youth Orchestra of Iran.
It won’t be his first visit to Putin’s blood-soaked brothers.
Gergiev employs the Iranian Ali Rahbari as principal guest conductor in St Petersburg.
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He passport has many evidences of visits in Israel ( though not since 2010)… they might not allow him to enter there.
Next destinations- North Korea.
These contemporary developments have something of Tolkien about them: a shift happening with on one side the orks under their monster leaders and on the other side the hobbits and elfs, trying to make sense of it all.
that’s great to hear that the young musicians will learn something from him.
regardless of the opinion of the mainstream he is one of the greatest living conductors!
Oh yes, yes!!
“Putin’s blood-soaked brothers” where also delighted to receive the visit of the Ezelente Maestro Riccardo Muti in Teheran in 2017. And he was delighted to visit them.
George Loomis — in his masterful article ‘Could Verdi help bridge the divide between Iran and the west?’ — wrote: “With such a line-up, the July 6 [2017] concert constituted the most significant display of western musical talent in Iran since at least 1975, when Herbert von Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic there. On the Iranian side was the Tehran Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, which was disbanded under the hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, but was resurrected two years ago. Its ranks include both men and women; the visiting Italian women players were required to cover their heads. The soloists were all men for the simple reason that appearing as an opera soloist is considered unacceptable for women under Islamic law.” … “Muti … shook hands with first-desk string players, a routine practice in western orchestras. An Iranian woman who played second violin demurred. “Women are not allowed to have contact with men in public …”
https://www.riccardomuti.com/en/2017/08/01/could-verdi-help-bridge-the-divide-between-iran-and-the-west/
Putin’s conductor – Gergiev – in turn visited Muti’s festival in 2020 – in the midst of COVID rage – to conduct the marvelous Cherubini Orchestra. This article has a picture of everybody rigorously without mask (in the summer of 2020).
https://bachtrack.com/review-video-orchestra-giovanile-luigi-cherubini-gergiev-rana-ravenna-festival-june-2020
Muti is a recipient of the Putin’s award ‘the Russian Order of Friendship’, and an honorary member of the Russian Academy for the Arts (presided by Tsereteli, the sculptor famous for creating statues of Putin in a kimono). Maybe Gergiev put in a good word with Russian dictator for Muti to receive these extraordinary awards? We don’t know.
Muti used to boast about the Putin award, but recently he has removed the award from his biography (though, to our knowledge, he has not returned it).
If you want to see the statue of Putin in a kimono, click here:
https://www.alamy.com/a-sculpture-of-russian-president-vladimir-putin-by-zurab-tsereteli-seen-in-tseretelis-gallery-in-moscow-friday-nov-23-2007-the-bronze-president-wears-a-judo-kimono-in-honor-of-one-of-putins-favorite-sports-ap-photomisha-japaridze-image526143945.html
Thankfully Muti, on a good behavior in Teheran, only tried to shake her hand.
Everyone talks about music “uniting us, building bridges” yet everyone also attacks and pulls those down who actually try.
LSO went to Iran in 1964. I was told by one who was there that there were guards with machine guns at the corners of the stage.
The enigmatic Gergiev is one of the world’s top conductors, regardless of the company he keeps!! Rahbari has been frustrated by the sanctions against musicians, which he disapproves of. History will be the judge.