Igor Levit takes Gaza hostage crisis to Berlin
NewsThe Russian-German pianist played Brahms opus 117 at an event designed to draw attention to the 130 Israelis and others who have spent more than 100 days held in Gaza captivity by Hamas murderers.
The yellow piano is part of his campaign to secure the hostages’ release.
Levit said: ‘Showing empathy is nothing to be proud of. It doesn’t take much effort. It’s nothing. At best the bare minimum.’
I love how he helpfully and conveniently explains – as if we didn’t all know, and in the exact manner of someone merely protesting that they’re not a hero – that “showing empathy is nothing to be proud of”. Nice way to cut off criticisms of virtue signaling before they arise, of course – a preemptive and well known PR tactic likely instructed by his PR shill, Maren Borchers.
Of course, the reason that that is necessary is: this is not empathy. This is blatant self-promotion, at the expense of the hostages and using them and the whole situation as a platform.
Dude, you’re literally turning a protest for kidnapped people into a concert stage for… that’s right, YOU, and your little piano. And no one dares to call it what it is, because you’re a Jew in Germany.
Disgusting. And by the way his own BS argument still works against him: if empathy is the “bare minimum”, and this is “empathy” (it isn’t), then this must also be the bare minimum, so what are you bla bla-ing on about? (Oh, I forgot! yourself, as always).
It’s the height of arrogance that classical musicians find these little ways to promote themselves by inserting themselves into everything they can, as if all the world really needs to make everything OK is a little sloppily played Mendelssohn, as long as it’s at just the right event and done in front of just the right number of cameras. If so, it could be any pianist up there and the benefit would be the same. But by some magical coincidence, it’s always Mr. Me Me Me!… Igor Levit.
This is too much autopilot. Had Mr. Levit warned of holocaust in 1942 by playing some Brahms pieces, I’m sure you would have written the same thing. Please note! I usually am fed up by Mr. Levit, but here he is spot on. It’s despicable how the hostages are ignored, now after more than three months.
He does it so that Nicolas Nabokov types will take notice and proceed to write endless panegyrics on him for the New Yorker.
And what are you, you, you doing to promote humanity, not-Adam?
To “promote humanity”? Strange question, but easily as much as Mr. Me-Me-Me. Elbowing your way onto the stage an event focused on ACTUAL HOSTAGES so you can run through your Brahms for likes isn’t “promoting humanity”. It’s “promoting Levit”. One would think someone as intelligent, and cynical, as you, would be able to see it for what it is.
Cynicism isn’t a sign of intelligence. Contrary to popular belief.
Just like antisemitism is a genetic condition and can’t be addressed by any arguments of reason, Jews have a memory of all the horrors done to them over the centuries imbedded in their blood. Nobody expects you to understand.
What a totally foolish and deflecting comment. I, like any sensible person, regard the Holocaust, or rather the Shoah, with the greatest possibel respect, humility and sorrow. Which is why I object to this sort of action. It is self-promoting. What could be more disrespectful?
And how ridiculous to say that antisemitism can’t be addressed by reason. Do you really believe that? What do you think Igor himself would say – after all, he just donated the (supposed) profits from his Mendelssohn album to an organization that fights anti-semitism. According to you, that was a pointless action! (According to me, it was not a pointless action – because even though everyone knows that no classical album would have enough profits for this to make a bit of difference, it was a good virtue signal for Igor Levit, so it had a profit for someone, of course).
And don’t you dare tell me about horrors imbedded in blood as though I don’t know.
Adam: “Shoah” is not necessarily a synonym for the Holocaust. It does not acknowledge the 5 million non-Jewish victims of Hitler’s atrocities.
Why not call it the “Porajmos” or “Samudaripen” (“Mass killing”) which are what what the Romani call it? Pretty sure they don’t speak Hebrew.
Quite right, and please pardon my mistake.
Bravo dear Igor. Thank you from the bottom of my heart
He still doesn’t get it. Afford the Palestinians the same standard of living as Israelis as the problem will be instantly resolved. Hamas will be out of the equation for once and for all.
Oh, come now. Surely that can’t compare to some high school level Brahms on a digital piano, which no one asked for? Surely that would be better? Yes? Surely? Surely it’s stunning and brave? And Germany is such a terrible, terrible place to live, yes? …Yes???
Perhaps Igor should borrow a harpsichord and become its self appointed saviour and shout me me me? Sound familiar ?
We tried this logic – we believed that prosperity would bring moderation and compromise. Israeli citizens who are Christian Arabs enjoy the same education and economic status as European Jews. Muslim Arabs who are citizens of Israel are much less educated and their economic situation is correspondingly less good. The Palestinians have many educated people, but they have always chosen to turn the conflict into a zero sum game. In the end, they have already been offering the Jews the same offer for a hundred years: leave here and give us the whole country.
I think what THEY say is “give us back…”
Hope Igor has some leftover sympathy for all the displaced, maimed and killed civilians by the Israeli army. Of course we all want the hostages to be released but seeing Gaza levelled to the ground is an absolute horror and utterly disproportionate. Impossible to just claim either side is not at fault at this stage.
According to the Palestinians, 23,000 people were killed in Gaza. Of these, 10,000 are Hamas fighters. It’s a ratio of about 2:3. Hamas chose to conduct the war from among the civilian population, from residential areas and public institutions. The abductees are kept in private homes of people who are “not involved in the fighting”. In this type of war there is no army that has ever managed to harm so few civilians. The war can of course be stopped tomorrow: all that is required is for Hamas to return the kidnapped and surrender. Of course it won’t happen. Since the goal of Hamas is to destroy Israel – and its leaders have vowed to return and kill every Jew they can – there is probably no escape from the continuation of the war.
And no empathy for the 21K Palestinian civilians killed?
And in no way am I minimizing the horrific slaughter on 7 Oct.
Damn if you do it, damn if you don’t.
Hardly. No one would “damn” him if he showed a little respect instead of inserting himself everywhere. I really don’t see people at the next remembrance ceremony looking around and saying, “Damn that Igor Levit! He should be here, thumbing his way through some unrelated piano music lifted from whatever he happens to have close to hand! How can we honor (whatever political cause) without him and a small plug-in electric piano with huge text on it just so that he can be absolutely sure no one misses the virtue signal? Damn him! Damn him!!!”
He would command much more respect if he were to dedicate the concert to not only the kidnapped Israelis, but also the victims of October 7th. plus of course the 30,000 dead Palestinians,
I agree, and I would support him if he did, but that would require releasing his death grip on the right to outrage, which is a useful tool in positioning him to receive the maximum possible publicity.
It reveals his bias that Norman refers unequivocally to “Hamas murderers” when we have no idea whether Hamas militants murdered civilians (from a resistance movements point of view, as it was for Irgun and the Stern Gang, the military are legitimate targets) or whether they were murdered by other groups and vengeful, opportunistic elements who broke out of the Gaza “concentration camp” at the same time. Hamas itself declared no intent to kill civilians. This might or might not be true but there is much we still don’t know about that awful day including the numbers killed by Israel themselves as they applied the “Hannibal” principle, killing their own people as acceptable collateral damage in order to eliminate the insurgents.Much of what we were initially told about those events on that day have turned out to be propaganda. Let’s recall that Israeli violence towards Gazans goes back to 1956. I am Jewish myself and am aghast at the level of dehumanisation and brutality meted out by a State that has become fascistic and supremacist and does not speak in my name.
We have massive evidence that Hamas knowingly massacred civilians. Stop this casuistry. Your name, by the way, is not Simon Cohen. Everything about you is fake.
Hamas may have massacred civilians, but so has the IDF. Things are not helped by Netanyahu’s declaration that he opposes a Palestinian state. Once this is all over Israel will rule “everything west of Jordan.” From the river to the sea?
Igor is not that wonderful person he wants to make us believe.
I had two dates with him!
He is selfish and manipulative.He is not listening when you say:STOP .
He is doing nothing without a calculation how it looks and what he gets out of it in return. I know him as a very dishonest person.
He is just playing for the Israeli hostages not for the other 20000 dead children, people from Gaza.How is this possible?
His PR manager is organizing his entire life. All about fame.
What a terrible function he has in this classical music world.
Can you offer evidence that you had 2 dates with him?!
Marvelous legacy and playing. Now are there any Goldenweiser students still living?
To be clear, the Yellow Piano is not Igor Levit’s initiative, and he does not claim it. From The World Jewish Federation’s X account: “22-year-old pianist Alon Ohel was taken captive during the Nova Music Festival near Kibbutz Re’im on 7 October 2023.
The Yellow Piano initiative was launched to pay tribute to Alon Ohel’s fate and that of all other hostages.”
There are Yellow Pianos in other cities, including Washington Square, New York, and anybody who wishes to can play them – as can the one in the Berlin Museum. Here is one in Tokyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk1KWg1GRZg