Massive fuss in LA after Krystian Zimerman used his recital debut at the Walt Disney Hall to criticise America's foreign policy and to declare that he will never play in the USA again.
About 30 or 40 people in the audience walked out, some shouting obscenities. “Yes,” he answered, “some people when they hear the word military start marching.”
Others remained but booed or yelled for him to shut up and play the piano. But many more cheered. Zimerman responded by saying that America has far finer things to export than the military, and he thanked those who support democracy.
There will always be those who tell musicians to shut up and play their music, including, sometimes, other musicians. Including even Opera Chic, who surprises me by doing so.
Also a lot of people don't have much clue about why America's effect on Poland should be an issue right now. I suggest reading up here (summary: Poland rushes into Iraq on America's exhortation when Germany said no way Jose) - and there's the small matter of America's plans to install a missile defence shield on Polish soil, which many Poles regard as effectively a military occupation and a potential provocation to Russia. Not to mention the economic fallout from America in Poland, for which please refer to Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine...
It sounds as if Krystian had plenty of support. If the world's leading musicians don't make a stand, then who will? I applaud his actions wholeheartedly, and only wish he'd done it a few years earlier.
If any Americans are wondering what they're missing by losing Krystian, just have a look at this review from Seattle which appeared the other day. Update: and this one from the LA concert itself.
Or simply watch this.
As for the various people who are saying "nobody cares what artists think" - that's not correct. They do. Otherwise there wouldn't be so much fuss.
And yes, I'd be pretty cross too if some idiot pulled my Steinway Model D to pieces because the glue smelled funny.
UPDATE, Tuesday 2.20pm: Responses to Zimerman in the press are starting to filter through, so I will update this post as and when, rather than adding extra posts. Here is the first: excellent piece by Tom Service, the Guardian's classical music blogger, saying Zimerman did The Right Thing.
Tuesday, 4pm: Editorial from The Los Angeles Times
Wednesday: Shirin Sadeghi in The Huffington Post: "In this age of vapid celebrity personalities who gurgle amidst a significant burgeoning of global political consciousness, too few of the high profile artists of our world offer anything in the way of honest political awareness. Krystian Zimerman is an exception to be admired. "
And an editorial in The Guardian (the one British newspaper whose editor is an accomplished pianist himself): "Poland has a heritage of patriotic and political pianists that stretches from Chopin himself through the nation's virtuoso post-first-world-war prime minister Jan Paderewski. To that tradition, now add Krystian Zimerman, an exceptional musician - and more."
UPDATE: Fellow piano glory Stephen Hough in the Telegraph blogs on moral decisions re concerts, from Sars to swine flu to this.
UPDATE weekend: my boss in the Independent, headed 'The pianist doth protest too much'. I foresee some discussions when next we meet.
7 comments:
The fuss isn't about whether anyone cares or not about what an artist thinks. It's about the venue. Someone spends $50 to hear an artist play and instead they get a polemic from the stage of an erstwhile recital? I would be pissed even if I agreed with what was said. Clearly everyone doesn't, but it shouldn't matter because THEY PAID FOR A CONCERT, NOT A LECTURE! It's not difficult to understand because at its core it's just good concert deportment. If an artist really wants his political opinions to be heard he can call a press conference, have his publicist issue a white paper or run for office. It beggars belief to think an artist could possibly assume that such tendentious digressions would be of any interest to or blithely tolerated by a audience paying for a concert. In this Zimerman has shown a self-righteous presumption more in keeping with the usual vacant Hollywood stars.
One more artist has chosen to speak and prove he's an idiot, rather than stay silent and allow us to presume his brilliance.
What a brilliant comeback: Some people when they hear the word 'Military' start marching! And the USA exports not just the military, but also firearms. I hope there are Americans who appreciate Zimmermann's position, and who are willing to be counted.
Why is Zimerman making this statement now, when there has just been a change in administrations? America's foreign policy can use an overhaul but it's not going to happen overnight.
I'm sorry but the statement that he will never play in the US again smacks to me of a child stamping his feet, picking up his toys and going home. A temper tantrum.
I am neither an die-hard interventionist nor a die-hard isolationist (we should never have gone into Iraq- that is indeed a war crime - but I believe that we need to work with other nations to eliminate the Taliban in Afghanistan, if only to help the women) but if people are calling on the US withdraw from all foreign engagements then they can't expect us to step in when they want out help.
Unilateral statements on either side don't help. And in Zimerman's case, yeah, shut up and play.
Hoping not to escalate:
(1) Venue: not a lot of choice is available to an artist. I wasn't there, but if the statement was brief, I think he deserves to be allowed to make it.
(2) New administration: most American administrations have been willing to haul out the troops. It is probably considered a sine qua non of being elected to the White House, a part of our violent roots.
(3) Shut up and play: I object to this culture of Authority, where a musician is only qualified to play, while a politician is only qualified to B*llshi*t. And the audience gets to censor the program.
I was at the concert last night. I thought he was more than entitled to speak his piece. In fact I admired his courage in speaking directly to an American audience, people who are in a position to work to change the policies he objects to.
Also, I can report that he played fabulously well and the audience absolutely got their money's worth. He was especially on fire in the final piece, by Szymanowski, which he played immediately after speaking.
If you read Mark Swed's piece for the LA Times blog, you will learn that a few years ago he had his piano, a customized Hamburg Steinway, confiscated and destroyed at JFK Airport because the feds thought it "smelled funny". I'm sure in his mind the USA is just one big lump of misery, and I'm grateful that he was willing to honor his contracts and perform here one last time. Our loss.
If you look at what I posted on Tom Service's blog (as referenced above by Jessica), you'll see I'm broadly in agreement with JW here.
It's not a question of Zimerman expressing or not expressing his political views. It's a question of time and place. Neither was right ... in the opinion of this classical music lover, anyway.
FK
Hats off, Mr. Zimerman!
Chopin, Paderewski and many others who loved their country, Poland as much you do, applaud you from their graves.
The only time to speak is when you have an audience. You won't make it on the dominant media in America you unless you've made an impression they cannot ignore. Bravo, for making the most of the moment.
One should also applaud the fact that Mr. Zimerman did not open with these remarks, but made them before his final number.
What new administration?
The one that has chosen to get out of Iraq in three years instead of one? the one that is escalating an unjustified war in Afghanistan? The one that wants to build a $750 million palace for CIA with Filapino slave labor in Pakistan al a Iraq?
Or, pertinent to Krystian Zimerman's remarks, the administration that wants missiles in Poland pointing against the same neighbor whose occupation Chopin and Paderewski protested?
Again, I ask as it pertains to these issues of hegemony by force, what new administration?
P.S. Thank you, Jessica, for news I may have gone unaware for my habit of preferring to listen to music over the clamour of an ugly world outside.
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