Free Republic

The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra scrubbed the famed composer from an upcoming program, calling his music "inappropriate at this time."In light of Russia's invasion into Ukraine, many westerners are understandably doing their level best to distance themselves from President Vladimir Putin and those loyal to him. But some of those gestures look increasingly like performance art. The latest utterly pointless sanction is the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra's announcement that it would remove music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the Russian composer, from its all-Tchaikovsky concert, calling it "inappropriate at this time." In the last week, conductor Valery Gergiev and superstar soprano Anna Netrebko...

Bright and shiny new art video. In 1881, Tsar Alexander II was fatally wounded in St Petersburg by political nihilists. In 1883, his son, Alexander III, began construction of this privately funded Russian Orthodox church over the place where his father was assassinated. "On Spilled Blood" refers to that murder. The church was completed in 1907, under Tsar Nicholas II. Today it's a museum. The music is parts 6 and 15 from Rachmaninov's Vespers.

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