500 French classical musicians call for anti-Le Pen front
NewsSome leading personalities have added their signatures to a petition to stop the far-right.
Among them are the singers Natalie Dessay, Julie Fuchs and Sabine Devieilhe, pianists Alexandre Kantorow (pic) and Alexandre Tharaud, conductors Debora Waldman and Alain Altinoglu, violonists Antoine Tamestit and David Grimal and the composer Philippe Manoury.
The biggest names are staying silent.
Anti Le Pen front… why? The election happened already. Democracy is good only when it suits you?
Blah
There is a second round.
The petition was posted days before the first round of voting, and the elections haven’t finished, the 2nd round is next weekend.
Only about 30 percent of the population has the intelligence for democracy.Population is like an amazon package. 30 percent valauble content, 70 percent worthless stuffing. without intelligence, education, character, ethics, moral compass. That´s how fascism works.Riff raff always votes for riff raff. History has shown us what happens when the plebs reigns. In Nazi Germany, the USSR, fundamentalist islamic countries, and soon everywhere. I am glad i already have spent the biggest part of my life.
“without intelligence, education, character, ethics, moral compass.”
So you are claiming that these qualities go hand in hand?
I don’t think so.
The People have spoken. We don’t like it. We need a new People
In 2017, a research group of professional musicians have measured the intelligence of the German population in a project of 3 month, carried-out on a representative number of inhabitants, randomly taken from all walks of life. In the first round, not only the rational IQ was measured in 8 precise tests, but also the emotional IQ and social IQ, followed by a test on Cultural Awareness (Kulturverständniss). By way of conclusion, an extensive rohrschachtest was taken, where the testees had to find meaning in random blops of ink spread over pages from the score of the Eroica.
In the second round, 68.000 of Amazon packages were randomly chosen from various post distribution points in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Brandenburg and Bayern, and the percentages measured of stuffing against valuables. To the surprise of the researchers, the 30% of valuables happened to correspond exactly with the 30% of sufficient intelligence of the testees.
Although there was one researcher who objected to the way both testees and packages were collected, claiming he had seen one of his collegues measuring them beforehand, which could have influenced the outcomes.
But all in all, the results were enthusiastically published in the Wissenschaftsabteilung of the Stürmische Beobachter and offered in translation to the Journal of Clinial Irregularities, who however rejected it, to great disappointment of the professional musicians.
The election did not “happen already”. Only first ballot did. In most constituencies, the election is still very much in play. Nothing anti-democratic in calling to vote against a given party.
France is, and has been for a very long time, among the most out of touch, xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic country in the EU. That the French repeatedly make VERY wrong decisions should come as no surprise to anyone. Having lived in France for many years, I quickly learned that the country and most of its people are really not very exceptional nor interesting compared to other European and non-European countries. It is a country of extreme narrow mindedness, conservatism, of suspicion and mistrust of the other, of no team spirit and no solidarity between people. The touristic image of Paris as romantic is laughable, as few cities could be more unromantic and hostile. Combine that with an appalling level of education where, in 2024, it is actually still possible to meet supposedly educated people, professors, renowned doctors, leading politicians and others who love to give lessons to the world, criticise and debase other cultures, when they themselves can’t even speak a coherent and understandable sentence in even the most rudimentary English and only read things written by French journalists in the French language. Of course there are exceptions, but they are very few. They are probably more closed in their minds and attitudes than most “third world” countries in Africa and a lot less friendly and interesting. France is one giant smoke screen, with most of its pseudo intellectuals, pseudo philosophers and pseudo know it alls just loving to hear themselves speak and rarely listening to others, just interrupting each other mid sentence, showing their renowned arrogance and extremely bad manners.
So, nothing that is happening in France should come as a surprise to any person who is familiar with the country. To now have musicians writing petitions to resist the RN and vote for the new cobbled together left alliance, led by the LFI and its former Trotskyist/Communist anti-Semite leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is as absurd as everything else there.
The French are getting what they deserve and the smoke screen is dissipating and now the world can see what that country has been all along, a giant fake living in a time warp with some of the most out of touch people living in a developed country. The current turmoil and probable collapse is necessary if France is to have any hope of joining the real world and not remaining a closed museum of the mind.
Don’t know about the French, but you seem to be describing the Dutch outside Amsterdam.
How true that is.
There seems to be a bit of a Lepeniste reaction to asylum seekers in the Land of All the Welcomes at the moment, faith.
I can think of several countries in which it is still possible to meet, doctors, etc., who are unable to understand the simplest sentence in the French language, and only read English language journalists and only listen to each other.
How do you get to meet a doctor in the UK?
Buy an airline ticket to Australia.
Quelle extra déclaration de haine contre les Français ! Et quel mépris pour les artistes !
France has been like that since the 1300s.
I don’t know where you lived in France for many years but I cannot recognise myself in your comments. Your post is very offensive to me and many other French people, in particular the 67% of the population who didn’t vote for Le Pen. This website is a cultural platform not a political one where you can post slanderous comments.
Agreed. It was a biassed, narrow-minded, ignorant rant.
Funny, I’m often in France and in Paris, spending my holidays there and I must say the french are the most polite, friendly, supportive and softhearted people I know. Only I don’t speak or understand french so that may play a role, I never know what they are saying.
Sally
Only the first round happened. The second round is this Sunday. So it’s not too late. Check your facts.
Stephane Degout has also signed a petition of this kind and made it public on his FB page.
Link to petition please.
Certains musiciens français sont malheureusement de grands hypocrites. Prenons l’exemple de Renaud Capuçon qui ne pense qu’à son image auprès du grand public.
Cet homme est honteux d’avoir provoqué la faillite de l’Académie Internationale Menuhin (IMMA) dont il est le directeur artistique. Il a très peur que cette histoire particulière soit rendue publique et utilise tout son pouvoir pour encourager les personnes connaissant la vérité à garder le silence.
Je connais de nombreuses personnes qui connaissent parfaitement l’histoire de l’effondrement de l’IMMA à Rosey, en Suisse.
Ce n’est qu’une question de temps pour que tout ce gâchis soit rendu public…ce ne sera pas une belle histoire pour Renaud…
Because the Muslims in France are big classical music lovers… We need to recognise the truth, musicians are mostly leftists, many of them buy into this multi culturalism nonsense, which is destroying the same culture those musicians represent. Useful idiots for cultural suicide.
Perfectly put.
Is this satire? Yes, us musicians perform for everyone, including Muslims and those who may not like classical music initially. How is this destroying the culture of classical music? The only people destroying it are racists like you. If you don’t want to support us “leftist” musicians, you are free to stop listening to us. I assure you, the old racist generation will disappear soon anyway, and the music culture will thrive and continue regardless. I’m sorry that the legacy you will leave is simply that you could not accept that everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy music. We will remember you forever for this ridiculous position you took, and will be making jokes about it long after you’re gone.
David, beggars can’t be choosers. You will play for whoever pays you. Most likely it will be in a Church than in a mosque. The audience most likely will be non muslim. So stop wasting our time with this multicultural BS.
Regards
Also a musician
Exactly! Classical musicians rooting for Islam are as stupid and shortsighted as the liberal Jews who supported the BLM racket in the USA only to be betrayed by those Marxist thugs in a split second as they pledged their allegiance to the Islamic terrorists who committed the October 7 atrocities on account of the latter being “brown.” American leftists represent the epitome of political myopia and stupidity.
You’re not a musician if you consider yourself a beggar. No, we musicians play for whomever, and most importantly, for ourselves. If integrity and authenticity is news for you, then find another job, Dani. It’s probably why you are dirt poor. Music without soul is as meaningless as lighthouse in a desert. Might as well actually beg. Again, good to know natural selection is taking care of you lot.
I thought this would happen sooner rather than later.
These times are funny. The French working class is voting for Le Pen, while the Paris bourgeoisie, with no problems at all, is asking for votes for the radical left. Not a good future for France…
France is the most irritating and infuriating country that I know of. I stopped going there more than ten years ago. Just can’t stand pretentious, very rude and unfriendly people…and their cuisine is totally overrated and pompous.
At every stay in Paris I’m struck by the friendly sophistication of the locals – mainly in the 16th of course.
Just say you have no taste and that you don’t respect other cultures. It’s a dead give away when you critique their food lol It’s ok, France needs less tourists
By the way, Mélenchon, the no Le Pen guy, is deeply anti-Semitic (among other things).
He is not, how easy to spread misinformation with zero proof, seems like Cnews’ propaganda worked on you.
Oh right, thank you for enlightening us! So reliable, coming from an anonymous post on a classic music gossip site! You’re doing so much good for the world!
Who are the biggest names?
Those that are written with all upper case letters.
Bonjour français Champs-Élysées. À votre santé!
Bonjour Bordeaux Chateau Margaux.
Bonjour Paris Vichy.
Perhaps the antidemocratic clowns who signed the petition against the FN —a party now favored by a majority of French citizens who are sick and tired of seeing the illustrated values of « liberté, fraternité, égalité » trampled by the hoards of Muslim immigrants imported by the globalist elites— assume that they will be allowed to play “haram” classical music when and if France continues on its path towards full Islamization if they get their way and the FN is stopped. Luckily, for once, thanks to the same globalists they are swearing allegiance to, the general public does not give two rat’s asses about classical music, let alone classical musicians have to say. Shame on them.
In what way is signing a petition against a political party prior to an election antidemocratic? They are simply campaigning against a political party. There is nothing unusual about that, it’s something which is surely the democratic right of anyone in a country which upholds the values of ‘liberté, fraternité, égalité’.
Oh, and it’s not the FN, it’s the RN now, and they are not favoured by a majority of French citizens. At least you don’t hide behind a pseudonym to express your opinion, respect for that, though reading what you have written I do ask myself what is your reason for being a member of the European Cultural Parliament.
Dear Mr Pons, perhaps, as a dual citizen yourself (Germany and Mexico, is that right ?), you should consider the fact that just because you are not muslim, does not mean the RN would treat you any better if you were in France. They actually want to forbid dual citizens from having some “strategic” positions.
Funny you would speak badly of immigrants when yourself you have lived in many countries (oh, let me guess, you don’t define yourself as an immigrant but an “expat”).
I would also advise you do not use your real name to post such racist and islamophobic nonsense. Just because your career is basically dead does not mean it cannot sink any deeper.
Unlikely to be many contracts in France heading his way any time soon!
You’d be surprised to hear that I have absolutely no interest any longer in the opera world since it’s overrun by the same type of virtue-signaling “Islamophilic” leftofascist western traitors who are opposed to the RN. I care not to waste my time around such brainwashed cowards, which is what 60% of opera singers, conductors, stage directors, etc. are. The other 40% agree with me but are also despicable cowards who are too afraid to voice their opinions given the vindictive nature of most of the petty people involved in this business. Oh, and worry not about my career: I’m doing financially QUITE OK without it!
Anyone who by now still uses the term “Islamophobia” in a non-ironic way is a moron. Sorry, not sorry. There have been more than 44,000 Islamic terrorist attacks worldwide since 9/11 alone and you STILL concern yourself with “Islamophobia.” You will only learn once your dumb ass is Allahu-Akbar-ed into oblivion and you are forced to face the consequences of your virtue signaling.
That is only one of the problems of Ressentiment National, this ‘dual citizenship’. Their plans are full of potential violations of the constitution. They want only muslems getting out, as if they are the real cause of all the other problems. It is simple scapegoating and rude generalisations.
It seems like you may be suffering from delusion and schizophrenia? FN does not exist, and the majority do not support them. Nothing you wrote represents the “general public” so please just check yourself in and retire. It’s all going to be fine.
With the cultural-political left over the past several months embracing both pro-Israel and anti-Israel, and pro-Hamas and anti-Hamas, the ideological waters are very, very murky.
Billons of dollars are also being poured into Ukraine (corrupt or otherwise) that neighbors Russia (corrupt or otherwise) by countries (corrupt or otherwise) that don’t exactly have bottomless sources of money for their own citizens.
There’s the cliché that people living in glass houses should not be throwing stones.
Can someone please explain why the current Rassemblent National is said to be dangerously “far right” but La France Insoumise isn’t dangerously “far left”?
Both the Ressentiment National and La France Insuffisante are extremist parties with ideas that are impossible and violations of the constitution. They merely mobilize frustrations of the population to gain power, but as soon as they carry real responsibility they find-out what the real difficulties are and tone-down their distorted songs, which again leads to frustrations of their voters. And so it goes on.
La France Insoumise is not a far left party. Don’t believe me, believe the Conseil d’Etat, which stated officially that the RN is far-right but France Insoumise is only left. The reasons are simple : the program is a reformist program (basically similar to the program of the PS, the socialist party of Mitterrand in the 80s). It is not anti-capitalist and also is pro-Republic, pro-democracy, pro-laicity etc. These characteristics do not match the ideas of far-left (which include direct democracy – as opposed to representative democracy – , anti-capitalism, abolition of salaried work and private property). The political compass in France has drastically gone right, but 30 years ago, La France Insoumise would have been seen as a very “soft” left.
Did they say anything about the river and the sea?
They’d have to change it to the river and the ocean.
Pardon me, dear Norman : which “biggest names” remain silent apart the Capuçon’s brothers and 2 or 3 names (Grimaud Thibaudet -they both live in the US- Alagna…) ? I would say at the opposite : all biggest “French” names have signed. All composers, 30 pianists (Tiberghien Guy Beroff Kantorow Planès Tharaud etc), many many singers and instrumentalists. And also : there is a second round (the crucial one in reality) next Sunday.
Capucon x 2, Lucas Debargue, Grimaud, Thibaudet, Nemtsov x 2, Edgard Moreau, Camille Thomas, Gastinel, Pahud…
No, Norman : read carefully, Gastinel and Pahud have signed. I mentioned the Capuçon’s myself. Grimaud and Thibaudet : who could mind ? They live their entire life in the US. Same fir Pierre-Laurent Auimard who lives in Berlin since years. Who is Camille Thomas ??? Nemtsov are 2 : both pianist and composer are Russian, not French.
Thank you for your clarity on this. I was asking myself the same question as it’s a very impressive list of most of the big names in French musical life. I couldn’t however find Marc Minkowski or William Christie on the list.
Camille Thomas is from Belgium, and big? really?.. you had better taste Norman 🙂
When mindless ideology trumps common sense. Why would Jewish artists support the Hamas – loving Mélenchon? Have they not been listening to his vile rants?
Because it’s France, where the working class votes for Le Pen whilst the Paris bourgeoisie insists on trotskyists, antisemites, and eurosceptics like Melanchon.
To the ones saying that LFI and Mélenchon are antisemitic : for months the French media has been trying to say that Mélenchon loves the Hamas and is antisemitic, even though NOT ONE France Insoumise deputy has shown support to the Hamas. If you think denouncing the genocide in Gaza is antisemitic, you probably are using words you don’t even understand.
They are lying saying that LFI is an antisemitic party (with zero proof) while the RN literally has deputies that were condemned for antisemitism and negationism.
It has gone so far that one LFI deputy made a video montage with a pizza (because the leaders of the Nouveau Front Populaire were delivered pizzas while they were negotiating the agreement, and a French newspaper made a headline about this, so it became an inside joke). The pizza that he found on Google Image (1st pizza that comes up when you type “frozen pizza” in French) is a Buitoni Pizza “cooked in a stone oven”. People have been trying to accuse the LFI deputy of antisemitism because of this, saying it is a reference to the Shoah ????! Because of the word “oven” ??? Do people realize how stupid that is ? For a google image pizza ? That’s the kind of “proof” the media and the RN are using to say that LFI is antisemitic.
Appalling.
There is no genocide in Gaza. Don’t use words you don’t understand.
So, just to be clear…
Musicians are now expected to sign petitions against a “far-right” European party engaged in the democratic process, but the music industry writ large is perfectly at liberty to continue doing multi-million dollar business with Venezuela’s far-left, a narco-regime that trounces all notions of democracy in favor of torture, the imprisonment dissenters and the refusal to allow opposition favorite Maria Corina Machado to run in the July 24th general election?
Gustavo Dudamel will conduct a Venezuelan regime-sponsored children’s orchestra in four major US cities this summer, but I don’t hear a squeak about petitions or protests on these pages. It doesn’t seem to matter that this act of music-washing is brought to us by a regime whose friends include Russia, China and Iran. At what point will the classical music world admit that lofty morals and ideals take a very, very distant second place to money?
It seems that no amount of documented, actual human rights violations by the very real “far-left” can ever compete for outrage against the unthinkable rise of a soi-disant “far-right” party to French politics. The hypocrisy melts my brain.
Why are so many classical musicians so far on the left, that they consider anything marginally right of center to be fascist?
Keep politics out of music, if the people are not happy then let democracy unfold.
People who have no problem say how to vote to people who have some and are victims on one hand of globalization, on other hand of uncontrollable immigration and complete loss if power on their destiny with massive transfer of power to blind and deaf Europe and with no intent to change anything, no intent to fix the least of their concerns… Did Meloni mean end of Italy, Orban end of Hungary?? Their hypocrit moralistic and elitist posture will just bring the lady to the job. They call for democracy but hate the people.Replace the elite before it replaces us….