LSO conductor Valery Gergiev leads defiant South Ossetia concert (supporting the Russian invasion)

The Times (London) ^ | August 22, 2008 | Tony Halpin

[MaestroLC]

The theme was Russia’s victory over Georgia; the spirit was Second World War defiance; the music was from Leningrad — and the conductor was from London.

Surrounded by soldiers and barbed wire, hundreds crowded into the centre of Tskhinvali to see Valery Gergiev conduct the Maryinsky Orchestra from St Petersburg as Russia staged a victory concert amid the ruins of the capital of South Ossetia.

From the mournful first bars of Shostakovitch’s Symphony No 7 (known as the Leningrad) in the makeshift arena, it was clear that the theme of the night was a stirring appeal to patriotism and the memories of Russian suffering during the Second World War.

Gergiev is an Ossetian, and grew up in North Ossetia. He is also a close friend of Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister. The two men are godfathers to each other’s children. [...]

The concert, organised by the Kremlin, was broadcast live on television across Russia. [...]

Gergiev arrived on stage with a group of children and said that he had come to Tskhinvali “to see with my own eyes the horrible destruction of the city”. He told the audience that Tskhinvali reminded him of pictures of Stalingrad, the city where Soviet troops began to turn back the invading Nazi army. He flatly blamed Georgia for the destruction and repeated earlier Russian claims that 2,000 people had died, which led the Kremlin to accuse Georgia of genocide. [...]

Gergiev, addressing the crowd in Russian and in English, said: “It was a huge act of aggression on the part of the Georgian Army . . . I think Tskhinvali can be called a hero city, we know how much people suffered here.

[MaestroLC]

And from The Independent (London), this info:

In Tskhinvali yesterday, Gergiev reiterated that this was not a concert to remember both the Georgian and Ossetian victims of the war, this was an attempt to tell the world that the Russian invasion of Georgia was not a crime but in fact a courageous and humanitarian act.

[ecomcon]

“Liberal Arts”. Meh.

Gergiev = Leni Riefenstahl.

[SolidWood]

Dr Goebbels would have been proud.

[Sans-Culotte]

Well, fortunately, I only have a few recordings by Gergiev (Tchaikovsky Symphs 4, 5 and 6). I think I may just toss them in the trash. Gergiev is a wildly erratic conductor whose overuse of rubato mars most of his work anyway. That and the fact that he is nothing more than a Commie apparatchik makes me not want to hear him anymore.

[Norman Bates]

Ping (UGH)

[Norman Bates]

I will never buy his Tchaikovsky set now nor anything else by Gergiev. The ass...

[sitetest]

Dear Norman Bates,

Thanks for the ping!

Classical Music Ping List ping!

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[Captain Jack Aubrey]

“In 1997, Gergiev became principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. His current contract there runs through the 2007-2008 season.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Gergiev

[wolficatZ]

Have you ever seen..

 

The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin

 

http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/warsymphonies.html

[BusterBear]

Time to start organizing protests at the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall in New York City (where Gergiev conducts quite a bit)- the same way people protested musicians who played for Hitler and the German troops.

Any time Gergiev shows up on one of my subscriptions, I’ll exchange the tickets and let them know exactly why.

Let him play in Russia.

[GAB-1955]

Well said. I was going to record the BBC Proms with him doing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in C, but after this, I don't think so.

[Sans-Culotte]

Actuallly, I am reconsidering tossing Gergiev's recordings out. I bought the 3 Tchaikovsky symphonies because I'd heard his recording of the 5th on XM one day, and liked the over-all fast tempo of the first movement (though not all the tempo changes). I have the SACD version of the Tchaikovsky 6th, and I hate to lose an SACD version of anything.

What has changed my mind is that even though Gergiev is a Commie appartchik, he has never pretended to be otherwise. During the cold war, I had several recordings and videos by Russian conductors and orchestras and filmmakers (Svetlanov, Rozshdestvensky, Mravinsky, Eisentein's films etc) and never let the fact that they were commie tools keep me from listening or watching. I guess we are now in a new cold war, so Gergiev is like the Russian propagandists of the past. I'd be more bothered if he was an outright supporter of Al Quaeda. Or someone like Gore, who was a strong anti-abortion democrat until he was told to switch sides in order to be a veep. Gergiev is just the same commie tool he has always been, and believes what he reads in Pravda, and does not even know what an idiot he is.

That said, he is not an over-all favorite of mine other than those Tchaikovsky recordings. I don't like his recent Mahler recordings at all, and the LSO Live! recordings do not sound all that great, even in SACD. So, I doubt I will be adding any more of his recordings in the future.