Named Bolshoi musicians pose for propaganda on the Ukraine front

Named Bolshoi musicians pose for propaganda on the Ukraine front

News

norman lebrecht

June 07, 2023

We have received two photographs of members of the Bolshoi orchestra posing for propaganda shots near the battlegrounds, prominently displaying the letter Z that is the symbol of the illegal invasion.

In the first picture you can see:
Boris Lifanovsky, cellist and musical journalist, chief editor of the main Russian classical music news website.
Dmitry Usov, violist
Anna Yanovskaya, violinist
Teymur Usubov, violinist
Kirill Nosenko, double bass, administrator of a Telegram channel ‘From Bolshoi to the Front’.

In the second, concertmaster Anna Yanovskaya shoulders a missile while fingering the letter ‘Z’.

Comments

  • Ned Keene says:

    A large proportion of Russian people – yes, including musicians in our cosy, liberal world of classical music – believe in Putin and in the just cause of his war against Ukraine.
    I don’t. But they do.

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      Russia is rapidly becoming a rogue state which can only have friends which are also vicious rogue states or murderous totalitarians, like China. Spoiler alert: we do business with the latter. Please, no more hypocrisy.

    • Grabuge says:

      Oh for God’s sake, they don’t “believe in Putin” at all. They believe it helps them to get more government money which spends to the war propaganda (and now they spent billions per yer), and helps to promote their own carrier or to get some dull diplomas from the Ministry of Culture, at least. Btw, Mr. Lifanovsky is very proud of it. It’s all about the money and personal benefits and a little scare of repressions against opponents of the war, and they call it “find their bearings”. Very practical approach.

    • Tom Phillips says:

      The vast majority it would seem. It’s “as if” (i.e. most likely IS) the case could be made that Russians seem genetically incapable of possessing a moral conscience.

  • Anon says:

    Oh god. Music and politics. Why? Surely music is to liberate you from every day life. Shameful.

  • Couperin says:

    Would be cool to see what a missile does to a cello.

  • Save the MET says:

    In a word, “despicable”.

  • Jobim75 says:

    Their country is at war, an unfair one from our Western point of view, but lots of Russian are dying….who are we to judge, do have we a clean slate history in our respective country??? I feel sorry for Ukraine, but for Russian people too…

    • Save the MET says:

      To the best of my knowledge, unless conscripted into the US military, no musician has ever posed with military weaponry. When the Bolshoi Orchestra wants to tour again in the West after this is all over, these photographs will reappear. I suspect it will be many years before a Bolshoi Opera, Ballet, or Orchestra tours the West again.

      • Tom Phillips says:

        Almost impossible to make the case for morality to the average Russian (much like Trumpists/MAGA types). Or to empathize with anyone non-Russian.

  • Tiredofitall says:

    May God have mercy on their souls. On earth, we will not.

  • Mystic Chord says:

    Smiling like in holiday photos before death is rained down on soldiers or civilians. It is difficult to comprehend.

  • Genius Repairman says:

    Russia is so terribly fragile they quaver with fear in having the great Ukraine leaning to the west and leaching liberal views into the dusty archaic Russian culture. Why else would they ruin lands and lives on such a vast scale?

  • Ethan Stiles says:

    just leave a couple of lines here…. when China launches an illegal invasion of Taiwan, I sincerely hope that everybody here will use the SAME standards to judge all Chinese classical musicians on what they say and do at that time.

  • william osborne says:

    Response: Don’t give me none of that Bolshoi.

  • Anthony Sayer says:

    Naming and shaming, eh? How typical of the caring, inclusive left.

  • SAM says:

    Disgusting! They are no better than the murderers and rapists.

  • Appalled says:

    There’s a reason propaganda is so widely and expertly used – it works.

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