Famed Russian pianist makes controversial return home
NewsThe so-called Grande Dame of Russian Pianism, Elisabeth Leonskaya, has lived in Vienna for the past 40 years.
Now, in the thick of Putin’s war, she has announced a Mozart concerto in St Petersburg and a signing session at the Philharmonic Museum.
The events are sponsored by Rosneft, a sanctioned energy company.
Does she know?
Of course she knows. Austria ought to revoke her citizenship (and not just hers) against which she has benefitted immeasurably.
By that logic, Austria (which is not in NATO, and, even if it had been, NATO is not formally at war against Russia in any case) ought to revoke the citizenship of artists who perform in the UK (which played a leading role in recent illegal acts of aggression against the people of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, to name some of the most obvious cases), the USA (which is currently occupying a vast swathe of oil-producing territory in Syria illegally), and various other countries that have at least equally bad records as Russia when it comes to compliance with international law and human rights. Or we could accept that cultural exchange should take precedence over politics, stop punishing artists for cultivating connections with countries that are out of favour with the NATO establishment, and stop trying to deprive ordinary people in those countries of the opportunity to listen to a wide range of artists from all over the world.
“Of course she knows. Austria ought to revoke her citizenship (and not just hers) against which she has benefitted immeasurably.”
Let me guess: An asylum seeker, who has received an asylum and citizenship, but commits rape and murder, must be allowed to stay, on humanitarian grounds?
Leonskaja may not be a Putinist, but she is certainly making a statement against cancel culture.
She is a Putinist, she supports Russian régime and believes in all their Propaganda. Completely unfair that all the artists who live in the West do not go there in solidarity with Ukraine and she can do just whatever she wants to
Music is music; politics is politics.
Will continue to comment this til the cows come home until this important message is ingrained by everyone in the community.
Am I being cruel and unfair, when I say that, if you decide to proceed with this plan, your best option is to pursue the argument in English (or, at least, in Russian)?
If you’ve ever lived in Russia or Ukraine, you should know that cows always come home, while soldiers often don’t.
Irrelevant. She’s a pianist playing Mozart. So let her be. End of story.
It is stupid nonsense,not an important message.Therefore it will not be ingrained by anyone with moral standards. Music isn´t an entetainment in a bubble to divert some morally bankrupt individuals from watching their fellow humans enslaved,tortured ,slaughtered…Music is humanity!!!! Has always been….Beethoven,Verdi,Shostakovich,to name just a few political composers..
My jewish parents told me,they heard this”music is music,politics is politics”crap the first time in 1945, when the chimneys wewe still smoking.
You can repeat this blatant nonsense until the cows can home….It doesn´t make it any more truthful or valid.
Irrelevant. Music is just scientifically sound waves. Politics does not affect its sound waves. End of story.
You are wrong about music BEING sound waves.
Music is TRANSPORTED by sound waves. But the BEING of music is ONLY in the maker/creator and the listener, not in-between…
And these music experiencing humans can not be separated from their ethical/moral personality.
Brave musicians in Nazi Germany chose to quit unable to square their principles with those of an abhorrent regime. Here is a direct clash between music and politics. Do you blame them?
What was Gergiev’s message in Palmyra, Syria ? Music, or politics ? Or both?
IIIRC Gergiev’s message in Palmyra was: Had the Americans not started this mess in Syria, like so many other messes in the Middle East that were about instigating “regime change” by providing “rebels” with large piles of weapons, training and support, we wouldn’t be playing here today and hundreds of thousands of Syrians would still be alive.
So: it was 100% politics, and nothing to do with music.
Thanks for this confirmation 🙂
Of course Palmyra was political.
But Palmyra has nothing to do with Leonskaja playing concerts in St. Petersburg.
counter question:
Is Betthoven’s 9th last movement with “Alle Menschen werden Brüder” political or about music?
I hope you get the trivial truth, that it can always be about both.
Actually, Putin’s message in Palmyra was: “I can bomb aid workers, aid convoys and innocent Syrians because I am leader of Russia. Look, I just did! Ha! What are you going to do- stop me? You’re in the middle of a civil war. “
Lots of Russian trolls, pro-Putin bots, and brainless followers thinking they’re being clever like to claim US interfered in and bombed Syria, while hoping the world forgot that Putin and Russia bombed Syria first, while USA repeatedly declined to get involved despite Syrians asking them to do so, until they eventually had to.
Sorry but your timeline of Russia getting involved before the US in Syria it total bollocks as any informed follower of recent history knows. Which troll factory pays you?
And no matter how many times you repeat this, it still remains completely irrelevant and meaningless in relation to what Russia is doing in Ukraine for 14 months now, which is daily war crimes including targeted mass murder of civilians and countless other crimes against humanity -nothing to do with “politics” at all.
Other countries also do wars and crimes against humanity. this is not the first war that’s ever happened.
So leave music out of it. End of story.
You just like the sound it makes it seems.
Reducing a savage invasion by one country into another to mere “politics?”
You never see people complaining people performing in NATO countries when the US invaded Iraq innit.
The old “Whatabout.” Plenty of Americans of all sorts opposed that invasion/occupation, without fear of arrest. And the U.S. eventually left Iraq.
Is that really the best you can do?
Is she Russian?
She was born in Georgia to Polish-Jewish parents from Odesa and migrated to Austria as a Soviet citizen in 1978.
By every relevant definition and by every substantive measurement, yes she is.
Can you explain these definitions and measurements? What is it that makes her Russian? I’m genuinely curious as it’s not obvious to me.
Even she was born and finish high school in Tbilisi, Georgia and recently label her Georgian pianist. Her culture and main language’s Russian. And she’s not Grand Dame of piano.
It‘s so silly and clueless to reduce somebody like her, born into a rich mixture of cultural influences, onto being ‚Russian‘.
You sound like a Stalinist. They were thinking like that.
At this point it is not important where her parents or herself birth spot was…her present thought and decision of performing as an artist In Russia IS WRONG !
Of course, she knows. … what a shame!
Sadly, she doesn’t share your exquisite values, virtue and sense of righteousness.
Maybe she got cancelled by western concert promoters for nothing else but being Russian, and has to make up her lost income somehow to keep paying the bills?
I think it is an incredible shame for our Austrian state to let a Russian artist lose her Austrian citizenship simply because she is Russian and Putin is commanding a criminal war and awful war crimes. She has not the least gilt for this.
Prof. Josef Seifert
Of course she knows.
Did you also called for boycotts of the US and UK over the illegal invasion of Iraq? Or is it okay when “we” do it, just not “them”?
Leonskaya is now 77. Maybe she wants to go home one last time,
She does not believe music is politics. Meanwhile she is also a devoted Putinist.
Is she a devoted Putinist? How do you know that. Has she made a statement?
Well she is. You can go to her concert and ask directly
The Russophobia expressed by many on this site, led of course by Norman Lebrecht, is shameful. The USA and its poodles in NATO are the sole instigators of this conflict. Those who believe otherwise are dupes.
Russian culture expressed in music and other arts is infinitely superior to that of the USA and the UK.
“ The USA and its poodles in NATO are the sole instigators of this conflict. Those who believe otherwise are dupes.”
Are you from the FSB or just extremely stupid? The facts on the invasion of Ukrainian territory are clear.
And don’t muddy the waters with more stupid comments: I and many others are very positive about Russian culture and very negative about the war criminal Putin and his lackeys.
The “facts” on the last step of escalation in this conflict, and now war, are clear, yes. But as clear are the previous steps that led to this escalation. And while I don’t agree with the original commenter and his hyperbolic and simplistic comment, there is a lot of truth in it, that this conflict was consciously escalated by the US to the level where a weak and in Soviet-times-glorifying-think confined Putin couldn’t see himself acting differently. Well played… well played…
“Fuck Europe, fuck the Ukrainians, fuck Russia.”
Seems to be a culture both historically and in the present time consistently lacking any sense of humanity.
Of course she knows, but for money a russian will sell not only his/her conscience but also his/her life.
Why is it ok, to make such deeply hateful and derogatory comments on this blog? I would say a good test could be to replace [insulted ethnicity/nationality] with ‘Jews’ and see how you feel about it… Stop the hatred. Stop the mental genocides.
Who clicks ‚dislike‘ on „stop the hatred“. Wow. People. Sad.
Humanity, a lost cause? Let‘s nuke it and start all over from microbes?
Everyone has their price and Rosneft & the Kremlin just found out what Leonskaja’s was. Half a million dollars ? A million? Certainly Madam Leonskaja seems to have increased her concert schedule by 300% these last 12 months- she went from hardly performing in Britain at all, to about half a dozen in the space of a few months. There’s a story behind all this.
Never mind cancel culture, think of the Ukrainian musicians bombed in their own homes or Ukrainian kids who can’t get to a music lesson because their street is continually shelled by Russian forces, or who are starving in a basement. Cancel culture is a first world problem – or perhaps an excuse for not trying hard enough. Lots of Russian musicians and performers outside Russia have demonstrated they are on the side of humanity by performing numerous fundraisers for Ukraine humanitarian aid for free, cancelling engagements in Moscow, protesting the war, etc. Some have publicly left the country altogether and denounced the invasion. Try harder, and stop using cancel culture as an excuse. A humanitarian is always in demand.
History won’t give a toss that you lost a few bookings when you’ve made quite a lot of money previously while innocent citizens have had their homes, cars and workplaces bombed. History will however ask if you were silent and complicit, or spoke out against evil.
Ask Victoria Nuland (State Department) what she thinks about all the killed Ukrainians.
She thinks they are very useful.
Talking about evil…
Мusic is above.
In the meantime, you can watch the performance online in YouTube, it starts right now, at this very minute.
Music is not above.It´s a part of life,and humanity…This whole story is not about “politics”….It´s about humanity…When my families came back to Germany the first time after 1945.some former non jewish friends ,neighbours and colleagues said: ” OMG,we missed you so much,but we weren´t involved in politics”….To which my grandfather replied”Fuck off”!!!!
Could be there more to the story????In the 70s and 80s ,she opposed fervently the Soviet system,choosing to leave her homeland finally…..I always admired her.She gave a wonderful concerto with Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra in Amsterdam a few weeks ago.It was a real treat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgboiYW3b7E&t=147s….fascinating interview.
Norman Lebrecht’s (non)-review of the new Leonskaja disc of Beethoven Concertos takes the cake for indulgent self-righteousness. Well done Norman. For the record, I’ve just ordered my copy of the disc