Pussy Riot in New York

Via the Guardian:

At an unannounced appearance at a radical feminist bookstore in New York, two members of the Russian punk rock group that sparked an international crisis for Vladimir Putin took off their iconic colorful balaclavas and revealed their faces.

Pussy Riot in Finland

Via Yle: 

Two members of the Russian political performance group Pussy Riot are in Helsinki for this weekend's World Village Festival.

The women are in Finland to talk about the status of political prisoners in Russia and to plug their new book on human rights. It’s a manifesto entitled A Punk Prayer for Freedom of Speech.

They are to appear onstage at the free festival in Kaisaniemi Park at 11am Saturday with the popular Finnish female duo PMMP, who recently said they will end their career this year.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/pussy_riot_members_to_appear_at_helsinki_multicultural_fest/6658092

Update:

Weekend performances in Helsinki by two members of the Russian political performance group Riot Pussy, as well as scheduled interviews, have been cancelled. Concerns for their safety seem to have led to the cancellations.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/pussy_riot_members_cancel_appearances_whereabouts_unknown/6658931

Update: According to Yekaterina Samutsevich, interviewed by Hbl  in Moscow, a performance by the two Pussy Riot members at  the Maailma kylässä festival in Helsinki was never planned, as Pussy Riot does not perform outside Russia, and doesn't announce its performances in advance: 

– Det stämmer att två av våra medlemmar har åkt till Finland. De skulle träffa stödtrupper och delta i utgivningen av en bok. Men det var aldrig meningen att de skulle stå på scen. Det måste vara ett missförstånd, säger Jekaterina Samtusevitj i en Hbl-intervju i Moskva.

Hon är mycket förvånad över att de finländska arrangörerna över huvud taget har tänkt sig att de båda Pussy Riot-medlemmarna skulle delta i ett evenemang som offentliggörs i förväg.

– Pussy Riot fungerar enligt helt andra regler. Vi meddelar aldrig i förväg var vi är och vad vi gör. Dessutom står vi enbart på scen i Ryssland för det är det här landet vi vill påverka och förändra. Jag förstår inte alls hur det här missförståndet kunde ha uppstått, säger Samutsevitj.

http://hbl.fi/nyheter/2013-05-25/454376/pussy-riot-upptrader-inte-utomlands

Pianist launches anti-Israel bias campaign

From the JC:

The Russian-born pianist Evgeny Kissin, who became a British citizen in 2002, has accused the BBC of “slander and bias” against Israel, broadcasting material he describes as “painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda”.

Surprising Strings

In the WSJ, Will Friedwald writes about the work of the British jazz researcher and archivist Anthony Barnett, and reviews three new releases of historic and jazz violin recordings issued on Barnett's AB Fable label.

Berlin Philharmonic offers virtual concerts

Starting from today, it's possible to hear the concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic in its Digital Concert Hall, either as a live stream or as video-on-demand. The first live concert is on January 6, with a programme of works by Dvorak and Brahms conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Tickets can be bought for the live events: for the opening concert the price is 5.5 euros, and for subsequent live events it will be 9.90 euros.

Kristallnacht concert

Tomorrow, November 9, is the 70th anniversary of the Reichskristallnacht, the Nazi-inspired pogrom throughout Germany and Austria in which more than 91 Jews lost their lives, more than 1,000 synagogues were damaged and some 7,500 Jewish businesses were ransacked and looted.

The British violinist Daniel Hope has organized a concert in Berlin to commemorate the victims of Kristallnacht. From Daniel Hope's website:

I came across Gilbert’s book recently, and while I knew about the “Reichskristallnacht”, it wasn’t until I read the book that the historical consequences of that night’s events became clear to me. The horrifyingly meticulous description of the violence against the Jews was utterly overwhelming. Since then the question as to what I would have done in such circumstances has begun to haunt me.

“Reichskristallnacht” took place 70 years ago and yet its consequences are still reflected in today’s society. Situations that require civil courage, individual or collective, continue to arise, whether it’s an individual attack on a defenseless fellow human being or the brutality of groups such as rightwing radical skinheads. Remembering the 1938 pogroms is a much-needed symbolic action in our society today. It echoes a call to all civilized people never again to ignore unacceptable violence by inaction.

For Hope, whose family was forced to flee Berlin and the Nazis, the event has urgent political importance as well as obvious personal significance. Throughout his career, Hope has advocated – both in live performance and with recordings – the music of the so-called “Entartete” composers – those composers deemed “degenerate” and subsequently destroyed by the Nazis.

More on Iceland

Actions and statements from around the world about the crisis in Iceland continue to be characterized by excessive rhetoric and harshness. The Danish economic analyst Carsten Valgreen has said that Iceland will soon be "the Zimbabwe of the North Atlantic", presumably referring to Iceland's economic situation, and not to its excellent human rights record. Meanwhile, a tour of Japan by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra has been cancelled by the Japanese organizers, apparently on the grounds that they fear not enough Japanese concertgoers will attend the performances.

Ouarzon

RFE/RL's Sofia Kornienko has interviewed the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli at his home in Antwerp. The interview is remarkable for the insight it gives into the nature of the relationship - and the disconnection - between the arts, including music, and political thought and action. In a series of what amount to reflective miniature essays, Kancheli expresses his sadness at the terrible events of August, which in addition to killings of civilians and ethnic cleansing have included apparently gratuitous acts of calculated nihilism, like the torching by Russian forces of large areas of beautiful Georgian forest land. Kancheli also expresses bewilderment at the actions of his Ossetian friend and colleague the conductor Valery Gergiyev, "who didn't -- as he should have -- dedicate his performance of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky to fallen Ossetians and Georgians as well."

One or two excerpts from the article and interview:

The following is a note the 73-year-old composer included in a dedication to Mariinsky Theater director Valery Gergiyev on his 50th birthday:

"Dear Valery,
"Our creative and personal relationship, which has endured many years, has filled me with hope that the powerful energy you possess will travel the globe and return, like a boomerang, to the symbolic circle Bertolt Brecht called 'the chalk circle of the Caucasus.' This piece, which I have dedicated to you, I named an Ossetian word, 'Ouarzon,' which means 'love.' When I transcribed this word in Latin letters it turned out, to my surprise, that it sounds like 'war zone.' Unfortunately, this transcription reflects the reality of events transpiring in the Caucasus. It is commonly known that the difference between love and the creation of a 'war zone' is just one poorly thought-out step. The way back, on the other hand, is long and difficult."I embrace you,

"Giya Kancheli"

That was in May 2003.

- - - -

I cannot go there [to Russia] because people who were very close to me have believed this propaganda, and it's very unpleasant for me. But my attitude toward these people has remained the same, because they are innocent! I repeat this over and over: if these people had had the power to decide, then everything would have been all right.

I can see before my eyes scenes of Georgians being expelled from Moscow, transported out like cattle. I saw that giant military plane land and open its rear entrance, and people walked out, after having stood for two hours because there were no seats. Just like they transport cows, so they deported the Georgians from Moscow.

And in spite of all this, relations between ordinary people remained normal. They are still normal, and they will continue to be. They definitely will be! But some time has to pass, that's all. Some time has to pass, and I think something will change in Russia. Won't there be a time when Russia will go down the path of civilized life?

And:

Kancheli: You know, since Pushkin's time it has been a bit freer in Tbilisi for all the great men who have come there, and lived there. I won't list them. I would only like to recall the surnames of recent geniuses who could not live without Tbilisi, like Pasternak.
RFE/RL: What do you think he would say right now?
Kancheli: You know, when I saw what happened, when I felt it, I thought, "How lucky are those who did not live to see this and left life before it happened...." Boris Leonidovich Pasternak is among those fortunate ones. I don't think any of them could have imagined it. But it's normal: Pasternak could not imagine what Vladimir Vladimirovich imagines.

The Other Concert

In his Window on Eurasia blog, Paul Goble writes about a concert that was held in Tallinn, Estonia, last week to celebrate the anniversary of the restoration of Estonia's independence in 1991 and to declare solidarity with the people of Georgia in the face of Russian aggression:

Unlike the Tskhinvali event, what happened in the Estonian capital has attracted little attention. It deserves to be better known.

More than 120,000 people assembled in the Song Festival grounds on the outskirts of Tallinn, to listen to Estonian and Georgian music groups, to wave Estonian and Georgian flags, and to listen to and cheer an address by Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves (rus.postimees.ee/200808/glavnaja/estonija/39344.php, including a link to video of the event).

The Georgian singers expressed their gratitude to the support Estonia has given Tbilisi – Ilves joined the presidents of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in travelling to Georgia following the Russian invasion – and the Estonians in the audience cheered the Georgians. But the most important part of the concert in terms of its message was Ilves’ speech.

Read it all.

Celebrating aggression

Throughout the Georgian crisis, the Russian government's disinformation campaign has been so inefficient that it hasn't even managed to spread much disinformation. With few exceptions, the vast majority pf the international media have accepted the precise, credible and often deeply disturbing daily reports and updates by Georgia's official sources, including the country's multi-lingual President Saakashvili. Perhaps the saddest and most pathetic stage of Russia's attempt to distort the facts of its invasion of a sovereign state came yesterday, with the staging of a classical orchestral concert in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, to celebrate the Russian "victory" in Georgia.

Even as it becomes increasingly clear that most of the destruction and loss of life in Tskhinvali on August 8 was caused, not by Georgian forces, but by Russian aerial attacks, the musical event, with its sombre programme of Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony and Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique", was intended among other things to mourn a massacre of innocents - not Georgian innocents, it was stressed by officials, but South Ossetian ones.The figures of dead reported by Russia were initially put at over 2,000. Yet most recent estimates put the number at below 100, and some even below 50. While any loss of life at all is tragic and deplorable, the exaggeration that is being practiced by Moscow and the South Ossetian authorities is really an insult to those who did die or were injured.

That the principal conductor of one of Britain's most renowned symphony orchestras should have lent his name and talents to this celebration of Russia's aggression is also regrettable. The Telegraph, whose  correspondent was present at the concert, probably best sums up the atmosphere:

Russian soldiers perched on the top of armoured personnel carriers, straining for a better view, as Orthodox priests, Jewish rabbis and even an imam passed through the audience granting benedictions to a self-proclaimed nation united in victory.

As the strains of Shostakovich filled the air, fresh smoke and sheets of flame from burning Georgian villages in South Ossetia rose from the hills - the latest sign that while the war may be over, the plight of civilians is not.

Yet Russian officers refused to acknowledge what was going on before their eyes. "What fire?", one snapped before striding off.

NY Philharmonic Arrives in North Korea

CNN reports the arrival of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in North Korea:

The visit comes as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended Monday's inauguration of South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak. She said before leaving Washington that she had no plans to stop in Pyongyang during a trip that also takes her to China and Japan.

"I don't think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea," Rice, a classical pianist herself, said Friday, while also conceding the benefit of the event in giving North Koreans a window to the outside world.

The concert will feature Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 and "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin. Among the encores planned is the Korean folk song "Arirang," beloved in both the North and South.

The performance will begin with the orchestra playing the national anthems of both countries and the U.S. and North Korean flags will stand together on stage, said the Philharmonic's president and executive director, Zarin Mehta.

Ahead of their arrival, North Korea was even tearing down the anti-U.S. posters that line the streets of Pyongyang, Mehta said Sunday. He cited a diplomat based there who briefed the orchestra before its departure from Beijing, the last stop on a tour of the greater China region.

Il Padre

This year sees the 20th Mondomusica international exhibition of handcrafted musical instruments, especially violins, in Cremona, Italy. This year the fair will be held on October 5-7.

The Triennale will launch its third exhibition devoted to the Amati family. Carlo Chiesa writes in the Strad that Andrea Amati was an important violin maker,

Maybe the most important in the history of violin-making... Amati was widely believed to have invented the violin, but this is inexact: it is a complex instrument, developed progressively over a long period of time by several artisans. However, a few violin makers made exceptional contributions to defining its general look,shape and character. Amati was one of these, and posterity has decreed that 'his' violin, with the proportions, the roundedness and the sound properties that he selected, should become 'the' violin.

Music

Consider non-representative musical expression. It is a sphere where the thing stated cannot be distinguished from the manner of stating it. In this sense and in this sense only, music has, strictly speaking, no meaning, but perhaps just because it is meaning. Explore this.

The fact is that we introduce a relation into the heart of the music, a relation between the content expressed (?) and the expression, which is of the same type as that which joins the expression to the execution. But this is an illegitimate transference. From this point of view the idea of objective music takes on a meaning, but it is a negative meaning.

But is the term 'expression* really one that can still be used with regard to music? Could there really still be expression when we can no longer speak of content expressed a content distinct from the expression itself? I think the notion of essence, anyhow so difficult to define, might be introduced here. There is an essence of Schubert, of the later Beethoven, of the later Fauré, etc. The expression would then be the opening-up of the essence to itself. I believe this is the idea to be explored. Combine the idea of essence with the idea of universe. The essence regarded as the highest point of a certain universe. It is almost impossible here to make abstraction from the metaphor of 'the summit', and this is the metaphor whose roots could usefully be laid bare. The idea of'the summit* could perhaps be replaced by that of 'the centre. In both cases there is a periphery, or to put it more accurately, precincts (zones of encroachment).

Gabriel Marcel, A Metaphysical Diary (1928-1933), tr. Katharine Farrer (1949)

The Producers - II

On YouTube, a number from the musical.

(via Leopoldo)

See also: The Producers

Rostropovich dies

Helsingin Sanomat reports that the great Russian cellist, conductor and human rights defender Mstislav Rostropovich has died in Moscow, aged 80.

The Shostakovich Legacy

The music of Dmitry Shostakovich occupies an unusual place in the history of Russian music, and indeed of classical music in general. Although the composer's roots were in the avant-garde experiments of the 1920s, and he learned a great deal from modernist practitioners like Alban Berg and Paul Hindemith, he also wrote much symphonic music in a romantic idiom that derives from the work of Gustav Mahler. The debates about how far Shostakovich succumbed to the pressures of Soviet cultural officialdom still continue today, and the truth seems to lie somewhere in the middle. A work like the tenth symphony shows the dichotomy at its sharpest. In it, a long, intensely personal and tragic opening movement that is almost a lyric symphony on its own is followed by movements that become more and more impersonally stereotyped and formal: the closing Allegro sounds almost like an advertisement for socialist realism itself.

Like Nikolai Myaskovsky, but for wholly different reasons, Shostakovich now risks becoming a historical figure of interest to musicologists and specialists, but uncongenial - and largely unfamiliar - to the concert-going and music-listening public at large. In the Chicago Tribune, Alex Rodriguez writes about the efforts currently being made by Natalia and Mark Matsov in Tallinn, Estonia, to find a permanent home for the composer's legacy:

For decades, Shostakovich was viewed by Russians and the West alike as a mouthpiece for Soviet propaganda. Even in today's Russia, he is dismissed as irrelevant or conformist. But Matsov and her brother, Mark, ardently believe the archive Shostakovich left in their apartment can help rehabilitate that reputation, making him not just a historical figure to commemorate but a creative voice to revere.

On a recent icy morning in the Estonian capital, Matsov, the daughter of Roman Matsov, Shostakovich's close friend and conductor, leafed through dog-eared folders of writings and scores: a batch of 1946 letters to doctors urging them to treat the elder Matsov, then a budding pianist and violinist recovering from a war injury to his right hand; a 5-inch thick file scoring all instruments for Shostakovich's last symphony; telegrams he sent to Roman Matsov in 1953 hailing the conductor's performances in Leningrad.

For three decades, Natalia Matsov says, Shostakovich's archive has languished here unstudied, a disorganized jumble of boxes and folders layered in dust.

The full scores are on the shelf, but the rest isn't catalogued," says Matsov, 38, a London opera singer who flies to Tallinn every few months to pay bills and check on the apartment. "I don't even know how many recordings there are."

Last year marked the centenary of Shostakovich's birth, a milestone Russia barely noticed. A concert in Moscow conducted by the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in September marked one of the only tributes Shostakovich's motherland paid him.

Estonica

Estonica is a web encyclopedia about Estonia, in English and Estonian. It has entries on the history, culture, nature, economy and society of Estonia, and much more besides. It’s a constantly growing project, and promises to become a central information resource on the country and its people. There are maps, photographs and illustrations, and it’s also possible to comment and leave feedback.

The essays on Estonian music are particularly noteworthy, giving a background not only to the latest avant-garde and pop expressions, but also to the more traditional symphonic, choral and chamber music that still continues to emerge from this intensely European nation, not least from the country’s Russian-speaking community, with its Narva Symphony Orchestra and Russian Philharmonic Society.

Indeed, the survey of Russian culture in Estonia makes fascinating reading. The encyclopedia notes that

On 14 March 2002 the Cultural Endowment of Estonia issued for the first time a literature award to an author writing in Russian. The first award winner was Larissa Vaneyeva (1955). Various other Russian writers live or work in Estonia, e.g. prose writer Mikhail Veller (1948), an Estonian citizen who lives in St Petersburg, Tallinn and Israel and whose works appear in Russia in hundreds of thousands of copies; Yelena Skulskaya (1950), poet and prosaist whose poems have been considerably influenced by the Estonian poetry of the 1960s; Svetlan Semenenko (1939) poet and an eminent translator of Estonian literature; and some others.

The output of Russian writers is mainly published in three literary and cultural magazines: ‘Vyshgorod’ (Toompea Hill), ‘Raduga’ (Rainbow) and ‘Tallinn’, although they contain a fair number of translations from Estonian authors as well. Quite a few books by both Russian and Estonian authors have recently been published in the Russian language, with the most active period falling in the early 1990s. Today, a few publishing houses specialising in Russian literature have remained: ‘Antek’, ‘Avenarius’, ‘Ingri’, ‘KPD’. Besides fiction, they also issue, to a lesser extent, scientific and popular scientific books by Russian authors.