Refusing to condemn Russian aggression, Vladimir Putin’s “artistic ambassador” is deprogrammed by many orchestras and concert halls.
It was the drop of water that broke the camel’s back. Ten years already that each visit of the superstar conductor Valery Gergiev to Carnegie Hall in New York was the occasion for demonstrations on the sidewalk of 57th Street. He was accused of having given a concert in the ruins of Tskhinvali, in South Ossetia, following the war launched by Putin and Medvedev. For having signed a letter of support to Vladimir Putin to justify the invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. For having given a concert on May 5, 2016 in Palmyra, Syria, de facto supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad. For not having protested once morest the legislative ban on homosexual propaganda aimed at minors, decreed by Putin. And, finally, to be an honorary member of Slekdom, the committee of inquiry of the Russian Federation, a sort of right arm of the Kremlin detached from the prosecution, having the power of life and death over any person suspected of a crime falling within the scope of the public order or state security. Still, each time, he climbed the podium and led his evening concert.
Ultimatums multiplied
But not last weekend, when summoned by the Vienna Philharmonic to disavow the military aggression unleashed in Ukraine by Putin, he was replaced by Yannick Nézet-Séguin for the concerts on February 25 and 27, in Manhattan, while his protege, also decorated by Vladimir Putin, the pianist Denis Matsuev, was also removed from the poster. Since then, ultimatums have multiplied: from the mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala, from the superintendent of La Scala, Dominique Meyer, but also from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, of which Gergiev has been musical director since 2015. His concert agent , Marcus Felsner, has announced that he is parting ways with this prestigious client and removing his biography and photo from the agency’s website. Faced with Gergiev’s refusal to condemn the aggression, his concerts as principal conductor or guest conductor, as well as at the head of his Mariinsky of Saint Petersburg, were canceled by these various institutions. This Monday, at the end of the followingnoon, the Philharmonie de Paris where he was expected for several concerts in April, informed that it was modifying its programming for the coming months. “out of solidarity with the Ukrainian people”. The statement announcing the cancellation of the concerts of the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, scheduled for April 9 and 10, specified that more precise information on all cancellations and replacements would be announced soon, according to the instructions given. by the government.
Cultural ambassador of the Putin regime
Born in Moscow on May 2, 1953, but of Ossetian origin, Gergiev won the Karajan competition in 1977, and was invited to conduct European orchestras in the 1980s. Following the collapse of the Soviet bloc, he is committed to restoring its artistic splendor to the Mariinsky theatre, historical rival of the Bolshoi in Moscow, with the assistance of the mayor of Saint Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, and his first deputy, defector from the KGB and “eminence grise” of the president of the council of the city, Vladimir Putin. The latter helped him to provide Saint Petersburg with a concert hall and a second opera house, rivaling in terms of acoustics and technology with the best American or Asian equipment, at a cost of around 700 million dollars. .
Gergiev is also president of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and never fails to be present during the Cultural Forum and the Economic Forum, which are held on the banks of the Neva in June. Asked regarding his role as a cultural ambassador for Putin’s regime, he said he admired him for having “understood very early on the importance of restoring the Russian people’s faith in their culture and heritage”. One of the first documentaries dedicated to him was called You Cannot Start Without Me (“You can’t start without me”), alluding to the fact that, despite the private jets, he always arrived late to the countless concerts that he chained on the planet. It seems that the latter has decided not to wait any longer.