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Polish pianist stops show with anti-US tirade
Guardian (U.K.) ^ | April 28, 2009 | Andrew Gumbel

Posted on 04/28/2009 4:23:52 AM PDT by Schnucki

Krystian Zimerman, the great Polish concert pianist, is usually a man of few words. He doesn't, as a rule, talk to the audience during performances. He says little or nothing in the press between his all-too-rare concert tours - not even about his habit of travelling everywhere with his own Steinway grand piano. He rarely grants them the pleasure of an encore.

So he triggered more than the usual rumble of discomfort when he raised his voice in the closing stages of a recital at Los Angeles' Disney Hall on Sunday night and announced he would no longer perform in the United States in protest against Washington's military policies.

"Get your hands off my country," Zimerman told the stunned crowd in a denunciation of US plans to install a missile defence shield on Polish soil. Some people cheered, others yelled at him to shut up and keep playing. A few dozen walked out, some of them shouting obscenities.

"Yes," Zimerman responded with derision, "some people when they hear the word military start marching."

According to Mark Swed, the Los Angeles Times's veteran classical music critic who witnessed the incident, Zimerman hesitated before deciding to speak up. He was about to strike up the first notes of the final piece on his programme, Karol Szymanowski's Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, when he "sat silently at the piano for a moment, almost began to play, but then turned to the audience".

Swed said he delivered his tirade "in a quiet but angry voice that did not project well".

Zimerman appears to have been upset by Barack Obama's decision, announced this month, to maintain the Bush-era policy of installing a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: misslespoland; obama; shield
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Excluding dictatorships, is there any country that's as happy with zero's policies as they were with his promises?
1 posted on 04/28/2009 4:23:53 AM PDT by Schnucki
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To: Schnucki
Philly, Detroit, and Atlanta.

Hotspots of Obama voters for HopenChangeTM.

Cheers!

2 posted on 04/28/2009 4:26:44 AM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Schnucki
but but but Obambi’s “I hate America too” tour was suppose fix that.....
3 posted on 04/28/2009 4:27:26 AM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Schnucki

Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya...


4 posted on 04/28/2009 4:29:06 AM PDT by thecabal (Hey Obama, when you gonna start sharin' the sacrifice?)
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To: Schnucki

Krystian Zimerman is a foolish man.


5 posted on 04/28/2009 4:29:18 AM PDT by bmwcyle (American voters can fix this world if they would just wake up.)
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To: Schnucki

No loss, we already have an ample supply of native idiot performers.


6 posted on 04/28/2009 4:31:29 AM PDT by steelyourfaith ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." - Lady Thatcher)
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To: Schnucki

I guess he might be happier if Russia got it’s hands back on his country? Poland doesn’t have choices when it comes to international alignments. It has been a pass through country since before Napolean and has to have allies on one side or the other. I think siding with the West is better but I might be biased.


7 posted on 04/28/2009 4:31:30 AM PDT by saganite (What would Sully do?)
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To: Schnucki
No country is more pro-American, nor more deserving of American support than Poland.

This guy is just one in a long line of talented, but thankless nitwits of all nationalities and shouldn't be mistaken for the vast majority of Poles.

Nie, nie jestem.

8 posted on 04/28/2009 4:31:58 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (The age of 0bama: the transient ischemic delusions of adequacy decade.)
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To: bmwcyle

Yes, very foolish.

Interesting to watch people continue to sound off when the great uniter/apologizer/appeaser is at the helm. Did he not get the email....all is well now.


9 posted on 04/28/2009 4:34:26 AM PDT by JudyinCanada
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

You are so right.
Poland is a great country....populated by good people.

This moron is a fluke and does not represent the vast majority of Poles.


10 posted on 04/28/2009 4:35:08 AM PDT by Bobalu (Don't despair, it will all be over soon.)
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To: Schnucki
He doesn't, as a rule, talk to the audience during performances. He says little or nothing in the press between his all-too-rare concert tours - not even about his habit of travelling everywhere with his own Steinway grand piano. He rarely grants them the pleasure of an encore.

He sounds like a temperamental a-hole. Still, he should have kept to his policy and kept a cork in it. I guess he thinks he is really showing us. I don't care how well you play the piano, the world doesn't revolve around you!

11 posted on 04/28/2009 4:36:19 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: Schnucki

I would say the chances are pretty good that the pianist will get what he wants. Since Obama has tipped his hand pretty well that he doesn’t want to deploy these weapons it shouldn’t be that hard for the Russki’s to talk him out of them. Reagan he ain’t.


12 posted on 04/28/2009 4:37:22 AM PDT by Belasarius (Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Job 5:2-7)
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To: Schnucki

Zimerman plays Chopin Ballade No. 4 - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_PBTGfhWD8


13 posted on 04/28/2009 4:38:08 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: Schnucki

I dont guess he objected to taking American dollars for his performance?


14 posted on 04/28/2009 4:39:46 AM PDT by Bulldawg Fan (Victory is the last thing Murtha and his fellow Defeatists want.)
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To: Schnucki

Presumably Zimerman has heard of Warsaw and therefore the phrase Warsaw Pact should also be familiar to him.


15 posted on 04/28/2009 4:40:37 AM PDT by relictele
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To: Schnucki

A very small pianist.


16 posted on 04/28/2009 4:41:44 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (What's Black and White and Red all over?)
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To: Schnucki

He sounds like a washed-up Commie tool. I’ll bet that for each one of him, there are hundreds of musicians just as good who have no problems bidding the ‘good old days’ goodbye!


17 posted on 04/28/2009 4:42:18 AM PDT by tanuki (The only color of a leader that should matter is the color of his spine.)
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To: Bulldawg Fan

Better to keep your mouth shut and thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.


18 posted on 04/28/2009 4:42:41 AM PDT by Bulldawg Fan (Victory is the last thing Murtha and his fellow Defeatists want.)
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To: Schnucki

“So he triggered more than the usual rumble of discomfort when he raised his voice in the closing stages of a recital at Los Angeles’ Disney Hall on Sunday night and announced he would no longer perform in the United States in protest against Washington’s military policies. “

OMG how can we go on without his music?? Oh, thats right, we have CDs, DVDs, video, tape, records, radio....


19 posted on 04/28/2009 4:42:46 AM PDT by Conan the Conservative (Crush the liberals, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the hippies.)
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To: relictele

Eurocommies will never change.
EVER.


20 posted on 04/28/2009 4:43:15 AM PDT by Flintlock
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