Russian pianist: All I can do is pray and cry
NewsThe young pianist Alexander Malofeev, sacked by a Canadian recital series this summer, has responded in some bewilderment to the present state of affairs.
Malofeev, 20, is not a Gergiev or Putin favourite. He was eliminated early from the last Tchaikovsky competition.
His anguish, however, will resonate in all quarters of the music world.
He writes:
It is very painful for me to see everything that is happening. I have never seen so much hatred going in all directions, in Russia and around the world. Most of the people with whom I have personally communicated these days are guided by only one feeling – fear.
I am contacted by journalists now who want me to make statements. I feel very uncomfortable about this and also think that it can affect my family in Russia.
I still believe Russian culture and music specifically should not be tarnished by the ongoing tragedy, though it is impossible to stay aside now.
Honestly, the only thing I can do now is to pray and cry.
It would seem that there are obvious conclusions: no problem can be solved by war, people cannot be judged by their nationality. But why, in a few days, has the whole world rolled back into a state where every person has a choice between fear and hatred?
I do understand that my problems are very insignificant compared to those of people in Ukraine, including my relatives who live there. The most important thing now is to stop the blood. All I know is that the spread of hatred will not help in any way, but only cause more suffering.
He’s a Phenomenal artist and clearly a sensitive and deep human. Tragic situation we’re all in.
Nice boy, shaving still a novelty, careful of what he says and what he doesn’t. No mention of the Greatest Musicologist of This Century, no lies about all those Polish fascists banning Russian music, a careful mention of relatives in Ukraine and family back in Moscow.
They are not “facists”. Poland is NEXT on Putin’s shopping list, Poles they realize it all to well. It’s not a good moment to play Russian music just now, that’s all.
I am sorry if the irony did not come across.
Being a favorite Matsuev protege and saving his performances in the West is a difficult balancing act. This very carefully worded statement was written by someone else, undoubtedly.
He wanted to benefit from both Russia and the West, definitely a hard balancing act
No matter how talented or how well he plays, he benefited from Gergiev and is a product of Russia, and no matter the argument it does not feel morally appropriate to sit in a concert hall and applaud a Russian artist while so many Ukrainian people could lose their lives any second.
This is indeed very sad, but surely he knows that he doesn’t _have_ to answer journalists questions? He is 20, not 12, and by no means a newbie to the classical music “business.”
“I still believe Russian culture and music specifically should not be tarnished.” I am afraid it is a little too late for this now. Russian culture has been tarnished for at least two decades by Russian politics and being used for propaganda, a “tradition” of very long standing in the Soviet Union. What’s done is done and can’t be undone. It wasn’t any different 90 years ago in Germany and Italy. What Russian artists can do now is to dissociate themselves from politics and hope for more peaceful times in a non-totalitarian world.
“But why, in a few days, has the whole world rolled back into a state where every person has a choice between fear and hatred?” I believe we all know the answer to this question, and there’s no use for him to pretend he doesn’t know, or that he doesn’t understand. He is 20, an adult by the laws of most countries, minimal understanding is expected from him. It is also a little disingenuous for him to say there’s only the binary choice of fear or hatred at the moment. If it were so, the millions of Ukraine refugees, and the Russian refugees, wouldn’t have anywhere to go. We all know this is not the case.
“The most important thing now is to stop the blood. All I know is that the spread of hatred will not help in any way, but only cause more suffering.” We all know how bloodshed can be stopped – simply by stopping to use arms. Yes, hatred will not help, but I don’t like the wording of his statement – it suggests that what’s happening to him now it’s the consequence of hatred. It isn’t. Russians would do well to remember that a part of the Russian population has elected Putin, repeatedly, that Russians are alive while many Ukrainians aren’t, that Russia isn’t part of the European Union or overseas Unions, so any engagements abroad aren’t just for the asking. There is an entitlement undercurrent in his statement, and a tendency to paint himself as a victim, that I don’t particularly like. Thwarted ambitions of Russian artists aren’t more painful than being shelled in the streets, or the economic disaster that is going affect all Europe, hundreds of millions of people, who will have to pay for this huge mess, if they are allowed to stay alive. Otherwise, nice talented young man.
It’s interesting that you think this young man should be to confidently face journalists and yet you don’t even use your real name on this site…
Look, of course this young man is in a better, more entitled position than Ukrainians on the run. But this is true of almost everyone visiting this site. There is nothing virtuous about privileged people on this site making demanding requests on Russians who are in difficult situations. What is it costing you to come on here and anonymously make patronizing statements about those who, if in far better circumstances than the Ukrainians, are facing personal dilemmas much more profound than the caustic commenters on this site?
How many of the people demanding things of Russian artists care enough about the crisis to volunteer to help refugees in the war zone? Or have you decided to open your home to shelter refugees? If your great claim to moral superiority consists of banging on about why you don’t like how Russian artists handle a situation more complicated than anything you face, I frankly wish you would just shut up and do something more productive.
You are wrong on many points.
1. I didn’t say he should confidently _face_ journalists, I actually said the opposite, that he doesn’t have to answer their questions.
2. “There is nothing virtuous about privileged people on this site making demanding requests on Russians who are in difficult situations. What is it costing you to come on here and anonymously make patronizing statements ”
I didn’t make _any_ demands of him. My comment wasn’t patronizing, nor was it caustic. You may not like my comment, but your dislike still doesn’t make my comment patronizing or caustic.
3. “How many of the people demanding things of Russian artists care enough about the crisis to volunteer to help refugees in the war zone? Or have you decided to open your home to shelter refugees?”
Recalling to your attention again that I haven’t make any demands of him. As to helping refugees, you don’t know me, so stop making assumptions that feed your confirmation bias.
4. “If your great claim to moral superiority consists of banging on about why you don’t like how Russian artists handle a situation more complicated than anything you face”
I made no claim to moral superiority. As to situations I had to handle in my life, recalling to your attention again that you don’t know me, so stop making assumptions that feed your confirmation bias.
5. “I frankly wish you would just shut up and do something more productive.”
Unfortunately for you this is a uncensored site, I have as much right to comment as you are, and won’t shut up just because you want me to. As to how productive I am in my job, this is nothing for you to concern yourself with.
Lastly, I find your comment embittered, and hundred percent ad hominem. It is all about your assumptions about my person, and not at all about what I wrote. In my experience this what posters do when they have no arguments, they discus the poster, not the post.
End this spat now.
Responding to your first paragraph drew – if you want to be a public figure, you have the responsibilities of a public figure. Private ppl don’t.
This pianist is hardly a public figure.
If you really know him he started his career by the supporting of conductor Valery Gergiev and pianist Denis Matsuev. A truly product of Russia!
Because it was carefully worded, does not make it less honest and sincere. I share the sentiments as to the consequences of war with him.
Alexander Malofeev is the most astonishing talent to appear since the death of the great Svjatoslav Richter. He isn’t the protégé of anybody. He doesn’t need it. One just has to look at the critical appraisals of his concerts and the audiences response. Having lived in a totalitarian state, in my view trying to scapegoat him from the safety and comfort of a democratic world is cowardly.
I have no way of knowing if you are playing dumb or genuinely ignorant. There are many exceptional pianists of at least the same or higher caliber there who have never gotten a chance. There you are either on the Gergiev-Matsuev gravy train or in a ditch, there is no other way. If you think “he doesn’t need it”, then it would be interesting to know what planet you are posting from. He needed it as much as anyone else, and he fully used that close association, being talented as he might be.
No one tries to _scapegoat_ him for anything. Cut the hyperbole, this high melodrama has to stop. Astonishing how brazenly Russian supporters try to twist this terrible situation into Russians being victimized. Have you all studied at Putin’s school for propaganda? All that it takes is a guy writing he prays and cries, and voila he’s a victim (And I bet he didn’t write that statement himself, it is too well written.) Children half his age are praying and crying _for real_ , not just writing about their emotions, yet it doesn’t prevent them from being shelled. What a hard boiled lot you Russian apologists are. Children shelled, now that’s okay as long as they aren’t Russian, but Russian adults being deprived of their Western gig, now this is a true injustice, can’t have it. Is this a taste of the “Russian soul”? It would do you well to remember that gigs in the West aren’t just for the asking, Russia being neither in the E.U., nor part of any overseas Union. In times of peace, there’s cultural exchange. Now there’s a war going on in case it has escaped your attention, a war started by the Russian gov. War sanctions and boycott are still war sanctions and boycott, never mind how often you try to twist them into scapegoating, hatred, and whatnot.
As to audiences response, Bocelli gets a lot of that too, and critics have long sold their soul to whomever calls the shots.
Alexander Malofeev is a young artist who has seen his Western ambitions thwarted, no more and no less. No a victim, not a scapegoat. He has his whole life before him. I wish him luck. He can thank his president for those thwarted ambitions.
I’m a 65 year old Englishman living in Scotland……I haven’t been able to speak openly on any number of issues for fear of reprisals for years despite living in a Western Liberal Democracy.
Bingo. And I’ve said exactly the same myself for years.
A friend of mine lived in Soviet-dominated Poland until he was 40 and said the western ‘democratic’ world is growing closer to that Russian regime daily. He wondered why he’d emigrated!!
Move! Namibia….you can say whatever you like….they would not understand anyway!
He’s 20 years old, for heaven’s sakes. Just leave him alone.
Sadly, Russia and its culture IS tarnished by the reckless, ruthless actions of its leader and government, for the foreseeable future at least. Let’s not forget that Putin still enjoys plenty of support in his country and many Russians are now sporting the letter Z in solidarity with their troops (who are currently indiscriminately bombing Ukrainian civilians). Of course it’s hard not to have a degree of sympathy for the artists caught in the middle, although we’d do well to remember that certain artists, like Malofeev, are very much products of the Russian state system. He was mentored by its Putin-friendly stars like Gergiev and Matsuev. Those like Malofeev who rise to the top become unofficial cultural ambassadors for the country. A symbol of Russia’s cultural greatness. That’s all well and good in regular times but these are NOT regular times. The world is sending a very clear message back to Russia on so many fronts. Some of us don’t want to sit politely in concert halls and applaud Russia and its stars right now. Let’s spare a thought for the young Ukrainian musicians whose music schools have been reduced to rubble by the Russians. Some of them won’t survive this war.
Still doesn’t feel right when a Russian who was supported by Gergiev proudly plays Russian music while millions suffer in Ukraine. Absolutely ignoring the feelings of Ukrainian communities outside concert halls.
This is a 20 yr-old artist, for god’s sake! He can’t help the society into which he is born! He is not out there REPRESENTING Vladimir Putin, or any ideology associated with him. He’s just a kid who has the misfortune to come of age during the double whammy of Covid and Putin. I feel very sorry for him. His parents very probably chose his mentors purely for their ability to take his playing forward and now he is being put in an impossible position by society’s irrational tendency not to examine nuance. We can’t just cancel everything Russian because of Putin-the-Great and his emperor complexes! We absolutely must differentiate between artists who knowingly, willingly, profitably REPRESENT the dictator whose bidding they continue to do, despite years of warning – like Dudamel and Gergiev, whose respective dictators are close allies, no less – and artists whose lives simply coincide with external forces totally beyond their control. Yes, artists who sacrifice all the money and connections and opportunities in order NOT to support the paymaster in question, and, better still, actively protest their despotism, ought to receive highest honours and respect. But not everyone is in a position to do that, and 20 yr-olds should not be put under that microscope, especially when they are in the public eye and their families are back in Russia, where dissenters are poisoned at worst and imprisoned at best. It is utterly wrong. It ought to be possible to simultaneously condemn Putin’s calamitous war AND absolve innocent Russians from personal responsibility.
And, the last time I looked, Trudeau was crying over the passing of Soviet Russia’s Fidel Castro! Canada is swimming in a murky mire of cognitive dissonance these days!
If he cannot help it he just should SHUT UP!!!
Without Gergiev’s strong support when he was younger he wouldn’t have the career he has today. Now that Gergiev dropped him, he is seeking the love of the west. Smart!
Just wondering if this is a family member –
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Malofeev
– or an unrelated namesake. Does anybody know?
Many people posting their fine words and lofty sentiments here and in response to other of Norman’s posts on the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine at the heavy hands of Putin – I have to wonder how bravely they would speak out if they were located in Russia, or had family there? It’s very easy to trash and indeed make calls to cancel others who don’t publicly fall into lockstep from the comfort of one’s home in the West. Not such an easy decision when the safety and even freedom of oneself or one’s loved ones in Russia could be jeopardized by doing so. I think that instead of expending time and energy in tearing some down, it would be better spent in assisting with relief efforts for the Ukrainian victims of this illegal war, both those trapped in Ukraine and the over 1.5 million refugees. And in lobbying elected officials to do something more meaningful than economic sanctions and sending token military aid, like establishing a no fly zone over Ukraine and then enforcing it, even if that means we also are dragged into the conflict. Or does everyone’s concern not reach that deep? Well then, how about signing up to take in a Ukrainian refugee family? Providing a few weeks of food and shelter until they can be more permanently accommodated would be a God-send for so many. We need more people to step with with more than criticism of others. I am so sick of the thought police who do little more than criticize others!
There is always a choice to remain silent, sometimes it is a better choice. And you don’t know how many people who read this blog have actually helped in different ways. And what their families have done. Making unfounded assumptions is as empty as questioning unknown people’s bravery. But I agree, of course, that the thought police is a bad and dangerous thing.
“I have to wonder how bravely they would speak out if they were located in Russia”
He doesn’t have to speak out. He was asked by journalists hankering for a story, not by Western authorities.
“And in lobbying elected officials to do something more meaningful than economic sanctions and sending token military aid, like establishing a no fly zone over Ukraine and then enforcing it, even if that means we also are dragged into the conflict.”
You should offer your tactics skills to the U.N. or NATO instead to this site. As to “us” being dragged into conflict now, I believe you don’t realize what you are suggesting, with Putin being as unstable as he is.
” Well then, how about signing up to take in a Ukrainian refugee family? Providing a few weeks of food and shelter until they can be more permanently accommodated would be a God-send for so many.”
Why do you assume that some of us haven’t already?
“I am so sick of the thought police”
For thought police you’ll have to visit Russia. Wrong address here.
I’m sorry for this young musician.
I’ve just read an op ed in a national newspaper suggesting that globalization itself is the new weapon of choice against Russia. The new world order of economics, where interdependency is the key, will prove effective in isolating Russia and reducing its standard of living to that of a rogue state like North Korea.
We live in interesting times when economics can be as powerful as the tank. When the Russian peoples’ standards of living plunge it is they whom Putin needs to be fearful of, if I know anything at all about Russian history.
It’s quite clear what’s going on here.
Many Russian musicians that have a good career in the Western world do not want that to be shut out because of the actions of the Kremlin. They may well be against what is happening as well. They also know, however, that burning the bridges in Russia is biting the hand that feeds. It’s clear what the correct stance in terms of career is. State an anti violence message and hope for the best. It is clearly just begging for work.
Yes it sucks to be a talented Russian right now. But with all the corruption and nepotism and other underhandedness that the Russian system has infected the classical music world with (not the only culprits but a big part) I can’t help but feel it isn’t that bad a thing.
Russia has long been held up as having a special status when it comes to classical music and it is completely down to their own projection. There is nothing about being Russian that makes you a great performer and many MANY performers have fallen by the wayside due to the Russian cultural propaganda machine.
Sympathy should be limited for those individuals that attempt to butter both sides of the bread and see their own career as if primary importance. They WILL earn enough in Russia. They have no guts to support or denounce it though.
I, for one, support the continued unrelenting punishment of ALL Russian individuals for the sins of their birth and the sins of their great leader. If they don’t like it they can just get a Tesla. Oh wait wrong stupid argument, they can riot or whatever.
Letter was probably crafted by the PR dept at Opus 3 Artists. It is their job to keep him engaged and making $ for them.
Indeed. One wonders why his managers didn’t think to cancel/postpone his engagements when the war started? Why didn’t they anticipate the strength of feeling? I find the “business as usual” aspect of some of this so very troubling. The notion that we should witness the horrific images coming out of Ukraine, like the mother and her children lying dead on the street in Irpin—felled by a Russian mortar as they tried to flee—and still feel it’s acceptable to pay to hear a Moscow-based pianist who pays taxes in his home country. We must ask ourselves: are we comfortable knowing that a portion of the value of our concert ticket is going back to the Russian government at THIS moment in time? On the flip side, there are Russian artists who have withdrawn from gigs in the West in protest at what their government is doing. We must applaud their courage.
Wins for Most Cynical Thought of 2022 So Far.
Never mind pray, just cry. This would be enough!!
Malofeev is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The fallout of war he has no control over, and what he did or who he worked with before coming of age really isn’t relevant. What IS relevant is what kind of message he sends now, in a time of war, being of the aggressor’s nationality.
In my opinion, he should be more careful in selecting his repertoire. He strikes me, in his interpretations, to have a nationalist mindset, even though he has publicly denied that. It is hard for me to understand what makes Western concert arrangers let this young man appear predominantly with such heavy Russian, ‘russianist’, material, if it were not to arise controversy. He would be well advised to focus more on non-Russian works, many of which he would be able to master relatively easily, given his formidable technique.
Malofeev is obviously very intelligent. He is capable of speaking for himself – he should also be able to make sound calculations on what he can do to distance himself from the situation he laments. As of now, I sense a bit of hypocrisy.