The madness of a Putin maestro
OrchestrasThe Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis, a beneficiary of Kremlin funds, is promoting his multinational Utopia orchestra on social media with this quotation from an interview he gave to Corriere della Serra:
‘Music is what connects people. We musicians are like Doctors Without Borders. We don’t ask the people who come to our concerts about their nationality, beliefs, or thoughts. The same goes for a doctor when they encounter someone in the operating theater whom they need to treat. Our mission is to bring people together, make them meet, even if they have different opinions. We must also love people who have different opinions from ours. This is the message we convey through music. Not only in the current period, but always…’
The effrontery of a supporter of Putin’s wars to compare himself to Doctors Without Borders is breathtaking.
Good way to get your gigs outside Russia cancelled.
and deservedly so.
Russia did attack, yet there was 30 years of failed US foreign policy, for those who bother to know. Few do. It would take minutes.
How many Ukrainian lives and territory were saved by the US & UK forbidding the negotiations with Russia?
The problem with the USSR/Russia and any nuclear power is that you better deal with it.
When it comes to insanity, Russia is not the only candidate.
Oh just stop. “Bad policy made us invade and rape and torture and abduct!” Also, discounting the Ukranian invasion, the Putin/Kremlin regime is a horrific one independent of US/NATO policy, and is utterly irrelevant to their crimes, inside and outside of their borders. What a useless comment.
If his orchestra is like Doctors Without Borders, they should go into Gaza… or take up residence in Kiev as Russia rains missiles down on them.
But who would be surprised? In Russia, the authorities and their dependents have created a fantasy bubble to live in.
Watching Germany’s economical suicide in real time and CRT enforced in the US, I’d say it’s not the Russians who live in a fantasy bubble.
Has he ever vocally defended the war?
Were American musicians forced to universally denounce their government after it invaded Iraq?
American musicians generally aren’t dependent on government funding, so why would they?
Sera : evening
Serra : greenhouse
Benvenuta all’ ernia discale.
The Greenhouse Courier would a very apt name given global warming from the greenhouse effect.
OK, so bring music to the world – but not war!
By the way, what has become of “The World Orchestra for Peace”?
No. To be fair, he compares all musicians to Doctors Without Borders. I don’t see anything wrong with that statement at all.
Doctors with or without borders don’t have to compare themselves to musicians.
Music is a truly international language and we surely might be better off not constantly playing the polemics game being driven and whipped up by the politics of hate. Can we, as musicians not imitate the quiet stoicism and admirably unprejudiced work of the Doctors Without Borders?…..(in a world that seems to be fast losing it’s mind)
Putin links or not, the guy is simply a horribly pretentious narcissist, as well as a terrible conductor who doesn’t give a s**t what the notes are in the score.
While I don’t make any arguments against the first point, it is not like fidelity to the score is a particular hallmark of modern performances of classical music. At least he is making deliberate choices instead of lazy ones, and that makes his recordings more interesting than 99% of the other stuff out there.
I nearly wrote this same comment, just about word for word. Piece of S**T. Needs to go back to his playpen with Gergiev!
He should start a music therapy business with Renee Fleming and name it “Opera without Borders”
He is disgusting.
But can he conduct? Who cares about his politics, or his eating choices.
Who cares about anything?
That haircut makes him look like the buffoonish Gary Oldman character from The Fifth Element. Wish we could post pictures.
I always knew that Currentzis was barking…
He is talking (how shall I put it without giving offence?) rubbish. Self-serving statement devoid of any moral responsibility and designed to deceive no-one. Sure, music can express no meaningful ethical sentiments but those who practise it can. Courageous musicians, at no little personal danger quit Germany when the Nazis came to power because they were not prepared to compromise their moral beliefs. Currentzsis.has no such scruples. Justus Frantz another useful idiot. Best if he’d he kept his mouth shut.
Isn’t it wonderful though, that no other nation of our times ever attacks other countries or territories illegally, killing thousands of civilians in the process? What a wonderful never hypocritical world.
Nobody really cares about dead Ukrainians any more than about dead Arabs or dead Serbs or dead Tutsis. The real Putin’s sin is that he broke the US/NATO monopoly of violence.