Posted on 03/15/2009 6:47:51 AM PDT by Borges
BEFORE A TEARY AUDIENCE of war-fatigued residents and young Russian soldiers standing on tanks, Valery Gergiev conducted a concert last August in Tskhinvali, the devastated capital of South Ossetia in Georgia.
The burned-out hulks of bombarded buildings testified to the fury of the fighting that took place when Georgia unsuccessfully tried to seize control of its breakaway region. Russian troops had occupied the town barely a week earlier, in support of the secessionist Ossetians. Speaking in English as well as in Russian on a live television broadcast, Gergiev told the crowd, “I am Ossetian myself,” and explained that he had come “to see with my own eyes the horrible destruction of this city” and to perform a concert in honor of the dead. “If it wasn’t for the help of the Russian Army here, there would be thousands and thousands more victims,” he said. “I am very grateful as Ossetian to my great country, Russia, for this help.”
It was an extraordinary moment — yet it was classic Gergiev, both in his bold flair for the unexpected and in the visceral power of his musical program. He opened with the brooding, resigned strains of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, and then, in a gesture heavy with political overtones, he followed with the tragic and defiant Shostakovich Seventh, the “Leningrad” Symphony, which was composed during the Nazi siege of that terribly suffering city and became a worldwide emblem of Russian resistance during the darkest days of World War II. As if his selection of this hallowed music was not charged enough, Gergiev made it explicit. Tskhinvali “can be called a town hero,” he said to the cameras, in fractured English. His point was clear: like Leningrad, the Ossetian capital had withstood ruthless aggression.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Classical Music Ping
The title should read:
“The Loyal Stalinist”
The NYT! Who else?
Thanks for the PING
Long article and I couldn’t get passed the 2nd paragraph
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