tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post387133024148642362..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Don't shoot the pianist, shoot the music industryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-47025515529241058352015-04-12T09:01:18.410+01:002015-04-12T09:01:18.410+01:00And I think you are right, Johannes.And I think you are right, Johannes.Philip Amoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11739418522974972567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-51454760331547449642015-04-11T09:46:19.729+01:002015-04-11T09:46:19.729+01:00Since I never use Twitter I have no choice but to ...Since I never use Twitter I have no choice but to take that MT's compilation of VL's tweets for good. Nonetheless I do have a Fb account and I use it, among other things, to follow VL; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ValentinaLisitsa/posts/623465447754643:0" rel="nofollow">this</a> is what she has to say on the subject.<br /><br />From my point of view she's now just paying the price for challenging the official western views on the ukranian events while living and working in western countries (whether the price of challenging the russian pov while living in Russia would be higher could be of course subject of a legitimate, yet pointless, debate). I don't think it's the kind of thing one would do in order to propel one's musical career forward. She's rather probably achieved just the opposite.<br /><br />@Philip I also think her lack of proficiency in English, let alone her naivety (and by this I do not only mean her expectations on the effect of her commentaries on western audiences, but also her simplistic, unsophisticated approach to very complex events) has proved quite to her disadvantage.Johannes R. Becherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18253335936848628456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-4641302354196649772015-04-10T14:24:05.086+01:002015-04-10T14:24:05.086+01:00I do agree with almost all of what you write, Bob,...I do agree with almost all of what you write, Bob, though I'm a bit hard put to see a parallel with Hopkins in this case. I am intent upon putting the blame for the fiasco in the right place, and that starts with TSO CEO Melanson's statement. Read in isolation, anyone would think that it does not just suggest, but states, the Lisitsa did or intended to do what Anton Kuerti famously did during the Vietnam War: precede his concerts with long rants against the war, thus using the hall, the orchestra, etc., as a venue for politics. Lisitsa's tweets are totally divorced from the TSO and her concert.<br /><br />Second, the Ukrainian community in Canada, which has its roots many generations ago, has always been oddly sensitive and active. I remember outrage and a campaign when a Ukrainian-Canadian named his restaurant Hunky Bill's -- in fact, his own name with the sobriquet by which he was affectionately known, Hunky being a sobriquet by which Ukrainians were known. So, a very odd problem there for the courts to sort out.<br /><br />I suspect that Lisitsa's command of English is a problem here. She is herself half-Ukrainian, so its a bit hard to view her as spreading hatred of Ukrainians. She grew up in Kiev, her family is there. Nor is it clear that she is pro-Putin. She says she is not, and she sure as hell is not so in way of Gergiev and Petrebko. Should they be barred?<br /><br />One real oddity. It amazes me that the extremely powerful and ubiquitous Israeli lobby in the U.S. did not scream for the barring of Barenboim, especially as he was resident conductor of the Chicago SO. Never was there a more outspoken critic of Israeli policies re the Palestinians, a musical collaborator with their musicians, yet not a word from the lobbyists, who pounce on anyone, Jewish or not, who criticises Israeli policies and denounces them as anti-Semitic. They've managed to get many academics and guest lecturers barred from universities. But it seems even they discriminate.<br /><br />We have a mess of inconsistency, ill-worded statements from many, and the root of what I do consider an attack on freedom of speech lies with Melanson's disinformation, and the ever ultra-sensitve Canadian 'Ukrainian' community's disinformation (well, we now know lying on the matter of whether they tried to force the barring of Lisitsa). I think, speculate, that what Lisitsa meant to do was attack the Ukrainian Government, and there is reason to do that, and its supporters. Quite simply, she has never expressed herself well verbally, and surely didn't on Twitter. I don't think at all that she did it in the vein of Hopkins. It simply led to the TSO being made to look idiotic by Melanson. The cancellation of Goodyear as replacement remains a mystery. The Calgary SO, a better band anyway, is having none of this, and Lisitsa will be playing there. It will be interesting to see if an 'event' is planned to take place outside their hall that evening.<br /><br />All this is very Canadian, by the by. This is the country where PM Trudeau introduced the policy of Multiculturalism, and some twenty years later considered it a disaster. This is an illustration of why.Philip Amoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11739418522974972567noreply@blogger.com