Maestro, 80, tears down young woman’s climate banner
NewsThere was trouble at a concert at Warsaw’s National Philharmonic Hall celebrating Antoni Wit’s 80th birthday and 60 years of service to music in Poland.
Climate activists mounted the stage shouting ‘This is an alarm. Our world is burning. We are the last generation that can stop the climate catastrophe. We demand radical investments in public transport.’
Wit, still conducting, grabbed a ‘Last Generation’ banner from a young woman before they were ejected.
Watch.
"To jest alarm! Nasz świat płonie" pic.twitter.com/in31HVQ4mU
— Ostatnie Pokolenie (@OstatniePokolen) March 3, 2024
I support the cause they espouse, but this is really the worst way to go about trying to make a change. It only alienates the people targeted, most of whom are too old to change their minds anyway. They should target those who truly have a major environmental impact, meaning governments and corporations
This happened at the Lucerne Festival this past summer. At least Vladimir Jurowski invited the protestors to speak for five minutes. Then the concert went on uninterrupted and the protestors left. This would have been the better way to handle it, but it came at the wrong time in the concert.
I read it first as Woke Phillips.
Then I read the comment and realized that person is indeed Woke Phillips.
They have no right to speak at the concert!
I laugh at the Wokesters & Co, but it is a pity they do not leave even Poland alone.
At least, a Polish Maestro knows how to react when these pieces of tolerance show up to contaminate the earth.
Even though I support activism of raising awareness for climate change, I would have done the same as the conductor. This demonstration is like pissing on the fence and ruining the party in someone’s birthday garden party to raise awareness to something completely unrelated.
Their point is precisely that it is not completely unrelated at all. Climate change impacts everyone and everything, due to its effect on geopolitical, economical, and social conditions. These activists are indeed annoying, but their point is to be annoying, because when the temperature rises by 2 degrees, things will be A LOT more “annoying” than them interfering a concert. They’re saying “it’s all very well that you go see a concert now, but what are you doing now to ensure that your children and grandchildren can enjoy concerts in the same way in 50 years?” And for the majority of us, the answer to that question is “nothing”. That’s why they keep being annoying. If we want them to stop, let’s take action.
Their point is true; the problem is that their approach alienates support rather than stimulating it. It’s the very definition of counterproductivity.
Does it necessarily alienate support? The radical flank effect of such movements is widely noted. This is the effect whereby extreme activism prompts people to accept its more moderate form. The fact that the climate movement has become mainstream so quickly in the last decade is an indication that it is working. The question is, do we still need it? Is this activism better than nothing? Or is it actually doing harm? That’s what’s important to consider, and I do not see any evidence that it is actually causing more harm. People are increasingly becoming aware and concerned about the climate. The mere fact that we are discussing this here, is a sign that their goal has been achieved.
Their p[oint is fascist slander. There is nothing true about the climate disaster. It is a completely fabricated tissue of lies promulgated by tyrants. These mind numbed children are brain washed into an evil doctrine intended for evil purpose.
Lots of people have their personal causes that are just as important to them but this is a completely ineffective way to advance that cause. Are you pro-choice? And if so, would you be swayed if pro-life protesters interrupted the next concert you attended?
Except this isn’t just personal to any one human, gender or race; it impacts us all. Can’t think of anything more important than being able to continue to have food, water and shelter. Can you?
David, action is being taken by many people and governments but the World is not united and the only nations that can really make a difference don’t care about concerts and don’t allow protests in their countries. Demonstrations like these achieve nothing but annoy people enjoying a concert before the climate warms up 2 degrees.
Such fatalism is misguided. Perhaps unfortunately true in the near future, but not yet. Many countries are running behind what they stated at the Paris agreement. There are plenty of things we still can do, including putting more pressure on the governments to at least stick to their goals, which will also put pressure on the countries that are less cooperative.
For the record, I am not an extreme climate activist, and I entirely share the frustration of being interrupted. However, that does not stop me from seeing the merits of such activism. Radical flank effect on the climate movement is real, and your frustration will hopefully contribute to your increasing support of more moderate activism.
Such jerks are only harming the environmental cause. Shooting themselves in the foot. This woman has, obviously, no feeling for the sanctity of music performance. Maybe someone should arrange for Death Metal bands to crash environmental demonstrations, so they get a feeling of what it’s like to be rudely and inappropriately interrupted.
One does wonder if they are equal opportunity disruptors: would they disrupt a death metal concert in the same way, or do they only target performances of certain kinds of music and not others?
Nobody would hear or care about them in a “death metal” concert, and security guards would propably take them away very fast if it’s a big event.
Good for him!
Impressive how Wit picked up so quickly in the score where he left off. Just another day at the office!
Antoni Wit, my new hero.
Not permitted in Poland.
When is this climate change scam going to stop? As if the world were lacking in real problems that need serious consideration. Well done, Maestro Wit!!
It certainly is an elaborately orchestrated scam, with unprecedented and terrifying weather events happening on a regular basis worldwide, if anything progressing even more quickly than scientists warned us they would. Perhaps it is all being orchestrated by George Soros. Is he diabolically melting the Greenland icecaps and Alpine glaciers from a secret lair, Vovka?
Oh well…you can’t reason people out of an opinion they didn’t reason themselves into in the first place.
Give it a rest, Raimi. Your smug, pseudo-virtuous posturing is impressing no one.
Thanks for engaging the substance of what I wrote. I would be tempted to counter with a similar ad hominem attack, but for some reason you choose not to stand behind your real name here. What a courageous fellow!
Spot on, but don´t waste your time on such tin foil hat fools, Mr.Raimi. They ´re living in a paralell universe..
The son of one of the greatest musicians of the 20th cenrury has become a ridiculuous tin foil hat crank…Pathetic and sad.
Hallelujah! A good job had their Wits about them.
She sounds like a few Klytemnestras I’ve heard.
Wit has made many fine recordings for Naxos. Happy Birthday, Maestro! It’s amazing that at the age of 80, and without interrupting his performance, he dispatched them in no time. Brevity was the soul of Wit, in this instance.
Like most contributors to this thread, I am all in favour of ending the use of fossil fuels and replacing them with clean sustainable alternatives, and people should have the freedom to demonstrate peaceably. But those who disrupt concerts amd other public events, glue themselves to the roads and damage property are nothing less than terrorists, causing fear and distress to innocent people. I wonder how many of these thugs have been to see their MPs, written to the newspapers, stood as local councillors, organised petitions and exercised their democratic rights in other ways. Did any of them organise concerts whose proceeds went towards the cause?
Gandhi drove the British out of India without shedding any blood except, ultimately, his own. I also wonder how many of these thugs drove home after the event, flew in aeroplanes, travelled on buses or ever used fossil fuels, directly or indirectly, to heat their homes during the cold Polish winter. By causing loathing and resentment, they damage the very cause that they claim to espouse.
I don’t agree with their cause and I don’t agree with their methods. The West is already decarbonising at an unprecedented rate and if we followed the advice of these naive and brainwashed idiots the only effect would be to impoverish the West to China’s economic advantage. What about all those stuffed dummies in the audience? Why was it left to an 80-year old who already had his hands full to try and deal with this? The protestors are complete hypocrites whose only intention is to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of life. Look at the industrial processes involved in their hi-viz jackets. Look at the lifestyles they lead. All carbon intensive as is every single human pursuit and every single product we buy. Look at John Kerry on his perpetual circus, shaming Western countries into renewables as the U.S. flogs its fossil fuels at unprecedented rate. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
A shame that security was so soft with them. They should be treated as any other disruptive people at sporting events – grab them immediately and forcefully lead out, no questions asked. They looked less like security and more like suicide prevention squad. Truth be told, these activists do need mental help.
Happy Birthday btw.
no class at all…
The activists? Yeah, none at all. Disrupting a birthday concert for a me-me-me stunt.
Like many people, I am sympathetic to their cause, but disrupting a great work of Art – to the disadvantage of those who haved paid serious money to hear it, is the WRONG way to go about gaining support…. It will produce a negative backlash – just as they did when blocking ambulances on the M25. They need to fight through the political process. The conductor showed much sang-froid; I felt for him!
Hilary, I’m sure you would not have left these crusties disrupt one of your Albert Hall Christmas jamborees! And quite right too.
A quick jab in the solar plexus with the Boult baton and a karate chop as they bend over, and over to security.
Don’t mess with Poles: I’m just sayin’!
I sympathize with the young people, but attacking climate deniers in art venues is misplaced. They should go to Davos, and other watering places of the uber-wealthy, instead. They are the ones funding poor policy made by politicians.
The forests in Italy that produced the world’s greatest string instruments are all unhealthy, many of the trees dead or almost so. I drove through the forests a couple years ago. A sad sight. The trees would not even be suitable for housing projects.
Do you hear the weeping of the Pines of Rome?
The loss of trees in Germany is even worse because warmer temperatures have created a massive, nationwide explosion of bark beetles that can kill a tree in as little as 2 to 4 weeks. Entire forests have died. I lived in the Black Forest for 30 years and watched this happen. It is devastation on a scale people can hardly comprehend.
Musicians shouldn’t worry though. Once all the firewood is gone, string instruments burn really well…
https://apnews.com/article/climate-germany-bark-beetles-harz-spruce-2211332b8e841ad18fc16267bcbec6dc
Especially violas…
While I don’t condone disrupting musical performances, please listen to the video. Aesthetically, it comes off perfectly; the urgency in the young woman’s voice is perfectly matched to the music and they enhance and build on each other. I admit I was moved after hearing it despite not understanding the Polish-language verbal improvisation. Imagine having this piece performed overlaid with urgent calls to address climate change in 40 different languages, as activists take the stage one by one…now that would be a powerful performance!
She would sound much more impressive if she interrupts a “Dies irae”.
… and the Haydn Mass wins!
*Mozart Krönungsmesse!
It’s credo from mozart’s coronation mass.
What a nasty boorish man, what a brave young woman!
Bravery is no guarantee of the wisdom of an action or the righteousness of the cause.
At Carnegie if this happened New Yorkers in the audience would have yanked them off the stage in seconds…………….
If you want to talk about climate change, let’s start with artists who are actually using a large carbon footprint with their need to amplify in huge stadiums, and travel by private jet everywhere. Meanwhile, an orchestra that needs almost no amplification, and is made of people who live nearby… is probably the better environmental option.
At the risk of posting too many comments, I want to say amen to yours. If the protestors (with whose cause I can be in sympathy even if not their tactics) feel the need to get attention at concerts, start with Taylor Swift, not Wit conducting Haydn.
I do support the cause and feel very much for the younger generation who are rightfully concerned about what kind of world is going to be left for them and their children. However, I’m afraid these stunts accomplish next to nothing, except perhaps for a temporary awareness that is the mere equivalent of a drop in a vast ocean. The only way to solve this problem is by political action — by electing officials who are truly committed to the cause and who do more than mere lip service. It also is a problem that requires rethinking consumption and transportation on a massive scale. You just can’t continue to consume as usual and realistically expect things to change. Unfortunately, I suspect that nothing will change until it becomes absolutely indispensable to the acceptable functioning of society — which means that more damage will have to be done until we take real action, as that implies first and foremost acknowledging there is a problem to begin with.
She should protest on Los Angeles’ 110 Freeway during rush hour so I can run her over in my gas-guzzling SUV.
I beg you to be indulgent about my English writing (it is for me a second language).
When I hear that a performance is interrupted or an art piece attacked, my first reaction is always to decide to protests against militants by doing a couple of “pollutant act”: take a bunch of plastic things from recycle bin and put it in regular garbage, let my motor on couple of minute before to stop it, etc.
Of course, I don’t do it: only my indignation and my love of the arts give me this idea to act in such immature way; and my green convictions are strong enough to keep me out of doing it.
But for sure, lot of peoples around the world have the same reaction and effectively do “pollutant acts” when they hear about those demonstrations.
Do activist realize that they may create a little bit more pollution when they demonstrate in front of people who, probably, are already convinced that we must stop climate changes ?
Demonstration in front of factories, ministries or embassies offices would be more efficient: THEY are not convinced again.
very typical 🙁
I also think that instead of tearing down while “conducting” Mozart beautiful Coronation Mass it would be much more elegant and better for sure to talk to the girls..Bravo Maestro Jurowski! filharmonika
All that Jurowski did was set up a bad precedent by bowing down to a deluded mob. Now it looks like the activists will have to learn the hard way. Bravo, Antoni Wit!
The carbon they want to reduce is you.
Warning, this clip does not contain enough violence to annoying climate activists.
The only thing worthwhile on this earth is the art created by humans. For the rest, who cares if they disappear completey at some point ?
IVF, used over hundreds of generations of genetic influence will make it impossible in the future for humans to procreate without the aid of scientists, and there are plastic micro (and nano-particles) all over the earth, affecting every aspect of our lives and those of animals and insects
It is highly questionable that climate change is the biggest problem of all that should be addressed.
Enjoy art while you can….
Good for Maestro Wit. About time these hysterical idiots got some proper pushback.
Good for them. Their cause is just and they showed courage. Why they don’t target pop musicians is another story, since classical music is pretty niche and climate friendly. In the end, we can hear these musical pieces over and over again, since classical music plays the same pieces over and over again, for centuries. There was little lost.
They don’t target pop performers because they know that they and their audiences are far less circumspect regarding response and it is highly like they will get the s#$% beaten out of them. Immediately. Before they can utter am mouthful of words and be gently shuffled off by security. Wish we were less polite in this end of the music industry; I’d pay money to see the first violin section jump on a climate idiot for interrupting their performance.
Cool and witty by Wit!
Brave woman, ridiculously funny conductor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlniVm70xjI