The famous Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin, was dismissed at the last minute from a series of performances this weekend at Carnegie Hall, the prestigious New York hall announced on Thursday, on the first day of the concert. Russian invasion in Ukraine.
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His replacement at short notice by the musical director of the Met Opera in New York, Yannick Nézet-Seguin, was announced jointly by Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which Gergiev was to conduct for three concerts from Friday.
In their press release, the two institutions do not give a reason and do not link the announcement to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, while a call to protest in front of the Manhattan concert hall had been launched on Facebook .
On Thursday, the prestigious Scala in Milan has already asked the globetrotting conductor to plead publicly for a “peaceful solution” to the conflict, threatening to part ways with him for two upcoming performances of Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades, scheduled between March 5 and 13.
Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Orchestra also specify that pianist Denis Matsuev, also a supporter of Vladimir Putin, will be absent on Friday when he was to perform.
Director General of the prestigious Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, Valery Gergiev, 68, is one of the most sought-after conductors in the world.
His closeness to Putin, whom he has known since 1992, and his loyalty to the Russian president on the annexation of Crimea, as well as his participation in concerts in bombarded South Ossetia and in Palmyra alongside the Syrian army, have been the subject of much controversy over the past decade.
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