Kirill Petrenko on the Middle East
OrchestrasThe Berlin Philharmonic chief conductor made some sphinx-like comments in response to press questions yesterday:
‘To be fair, you have to look at the matter objectively from both sides. You have to try to maintain a dialogue with both sides, everything based on mutual respect….You can achieve a lot because music builds bridges. We are in a privileged position to live this, so to speak.’
When will these people come to the realization that slogans such as “music builds bridges” is nothing but hogwash? That they have no basis in reality? Look at the state of the world all around. Further, that no composer ever wrote anything to make the “world a better place” or to “make a difference” or to “build bridges” and so on and so forth?
Agreed!! There is absolutely nothing that ‘music’ can do to help fix a situation such as a world crisis etc. It is a cliché that makes people in the arts feel better, without actually having to have the courage to go fight on the battlefield. Petrenko isn’t making any difference: he’s in his dressing room and on the podium. Get real.
“Look at the state of the world all around.”
I do, and I come to diametral opposite conclusions than you. The state this world is in, it is, because of hatred and pathological greed and psychopaths.
Now music in itself changes nothing, true, but humans who aspire to self actualisation and empathetic growth together(!) with other humans, over archetypical tribal and primitive, often also collectively hallucinatory imprints, those humans change something. And music is a great vehicle and purpose for that.
What would be the point of human existence, if we only reduce it to war for supremacy over territory and primal resources?
To be just animals with iPhones?
What is your solution? That all take up weapons and go to war for their hallucinated tribe? Cease all artistic and scholarly aspirations?
Very good comment.
Barenboim’s Divan orchestra is obviously not listened to.
I love your phrase, “….animals with iPhones… That’s a very, very good one for the human race these days.
Pierre de Geyter certainly wrote the Internationale to make the world a better place, or at least, to make a difference.
Yeah, and how was it used? To bolster totalitarian repressive regimes! Great example of music bringing people together 😉
So did Horst-Wessel-Lied. But who told you people get together only for a Yoga class or a BBQ?
‘To be fair, you have to look at the matter objectively from both sides. You have to try to maintain a dialogue with both sides, everything based on mutual respect….You can achieve a lot because music builds bridges.’ I think this was the goal of Barenboim and Said, and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra.
I don’t see Hamas getting much interested in orchestral ensemble playing, unless they could decapitated a couple of heads there.
To say nothing of the 34,000 Palestinians killed so far, 78,000 wounded, and 7000 missing. Quite a bit of hatred on both sides.
and it seems this hatred will last for another 50 years or so. two generations at least
Mutual respect? Hate-saturated Hamas has a single over-riding goal: eliminating Israel and killing Jews, Palestinian citizens be damned.
Kirill Petrenko is likely expected to make a statement on the matter. I find it hard to believe that he is sincere in this statement (he can’t be that naive).
He is naive and he doesn’t really care.
Since 1947, Israel has had a single over-riding goal: eliminating Palestinians from Palestina/ Israel
Demonstrately not true. This comment should be censored.
History tells a very different story.
What was first? Hen or egg?
First was the rooster, the others came later.
Unfortunately, the Likud-ruled Israel has the same goal of eliminating both Palestinian territories. The “bad” (under Hamas) Palestinians in Gaza are eliminated by blockade and military assaults, and the “good” (not under Hamas) Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are gradually forced out by land grabbing and water deprivation. According to the UN watchdogs, IDF and other Israeli security forces were killing 1 Palestinian a day on average in 2023 in Gaza before Oct 7th, so they had Oct 7 coming. For a non-Jewish observer like myself (or, I guess, Mr Petrenko) Israel has no right to claim moral superiority.
With 34,000 Palestinians dead, 78,000 wounded, and 7000 missing, I think both sides are consumed with hatred.
Naïve. One cannot “maintain a dialogue” with anybody who believes one’s country should not exist.
The naivety is thinking he was making a political remark.
He’s just kicking a subject into touch which is nothing to do with music or musicians yet people will hang you out to dry on professionally.
There have been others, but the growth of Hamas’ growth is largely due to its antagonist, if we trust quite reputable sources, even wilfully so.
Sphinx-like? Common sense 101. Common also in the sense of shared.
Common sense, sadly absent from most dogmatic demonstrators.
I perfectly understands what he means. And I feel the exact same way. The world is not as black and white as this page time and time again tries to suggest.
His comments are not sphinx-like. They are crystal clear and stand for humanity.
Petrenko could be accused of sitting on the fence over this continuing offensive! He may well have a point but, the collective boohs from the floor in last night’s Eurovision Song Contest when the Israeli representative appeared to produce that country’s votes said it all. People, globally, are furious with Israel and her supporters, including the US and UK governments – and Opposition in our case. What happened on October 7 was, of course, horrendous, but Israel can claim no moral high ground in killing over 30,000 innocent Palestinians in response. Obviously, the people of Palestine have no right or means to defend themselves! This conflict has gone way beyond any retribution. What is happening is ethnic cleansing on Israel’s part. ‘Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast’, but not in this case; the only music that seems to be ringing in the ears of the IDF is pure blood lust. Watching and listening to any Israeli Official or Representative talking in the media, they are so arrogant and spine-chillingly oblivious to anyone else’s point of view. I look forward to the anthems being sung after Netanyahu and his cohort have been tried and found guilty of massive War Crimes over many years in the Concert Hall of The Hague!
Kiril Petrenko is a wonderful musician. Why does he think he has to deal with political conflicts as well? Putin plays the piano; does it make him a bridge builder?
He had to answer the question.
There is no mutual respect and then Hamas pokes the bear with heinous acts and then cries wolf after they get their just desserts to earn the world’s pity. The Gazans allow Hamas to control everything and until Hamas is relegated to the scrap heap of terrorism, this will continue. Best the Gazans move to the West Bank and let Israel turn that 25 mile porous border area into a national park. From the river to the sea will never be.
Virtue signaling from the woke Berlin Phil. Germany–emasculated and in thrall of a foreign power since the end of WWII.
“You have to try to maintain a dialogue with both sides, everything based on mutual respect”………I take it that this imbecile has never encountered the Hamas Charter, three key elements are 1. Israel has no right to exist 2. There can be no negotiation with Israel 3. All Jews should be hunted down and killed. I don’t see much “mutual respect” in those three statements. Petrenko must have his head up his own arse to be so naive and uninformed!
But there WAS a dialogue, the so-called Oslo Accords. And who killed Yitzhak Rabin to stop it? He was not killed by a Palestinian, of course. Later, when Hamas took over Gaza, the Israeli govenment was “happy because this allowed Israel to treat Gaza as hostile territory [and therefore have an excuse to avoid dialogue]” as we’ve learned from documents released by WikiLeaks. So Israel is not interested in dialogue either. In fact, I can speculate that Hamas was an Israeli creation. By killing the Oslo process, Israel left Palestinians with no good choices. If Oslo Accords resulted in the creation of a Palestinian state, there would be no Hamas. But then Israel would have had to stop land grabbing.
from within Israel there are some noble people (Ilan Volkov, Gideon levy and Amira Haas to name but three) who offer an incisive and reflective commentary on the conflict. These people give me a modicum of hope in what otherwise seems like a recepie for eternal unrest in the region.
Yes music does build bridges and make the world a better place… for a few hours (and 25 minutes for pit stops). Then after that we all go back to killing each other again and doing what human animals do best.
OK, fine.
WHAT – according to the SD oracles – IS THE PURPOSE OF MUSIC (if we take politics and economy out of the equation)?
NB: “IF”.
IF.
Back in 1989 Peter Hammill wrote ‘They’re playing world music in Tiananmen Square’
(ponder on that for a moment)
Yes, Petrenko is right, music can build bridges in the right circumstances. For example, if the West wouldn’t fund the Hamas-overrun UNRWA and invest in a real education (including playing music) for those poor people, instead of educating the Gazan kids in hatred and destruction and radical religious beliefs, Gaza, and Israel, and the whole world would be in a much, much better place. Music can also heal the soul. Not sure how much singing and song-writing is encouraged or even allowed under the repressive religious Hamas rule in Gaza, but in Israel people mourn by making and listening to music. “Whole” souls have less need for violence and playing in an orchestra is the ultimate show of cooperation and respect.
Music builds bridges.
Beethoven’s 9th builds bridges.
The Berlin Philharmonic builds bridges.
The Berlin Philharmonic playing Beethoven’s 9th builds bridges.
The Berlin Philharmonic playing Beethoven’s 9th for the Nazis certainly builds bridges, just not the bridge you’d ever want to cross…
Good thing music doesn’t build train tracks.
Let us love one another as best we can; remember the jester before the Virgin Mary.