(Paris) The call of the famous Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky to stop supporting Ukraine and to cut off the electricity to accelerate its siege has sparked indignation in the musical world.
Posted yesterday at 10:38 a.m.
“I understand that we take pity on them, that we do things delicately, but couldn’t we stop caring about them, besiege them and cut off the electricity? said the world piano star during a talk show on the pro-Kremlin federal channel Pervy Kanal on March 10, specifying that he was talking about Kyiv.
To which a soldier participating in the television program replied that “we cannot create a humanitarian catastrophe with our own hands”.
Pianist and conductor Lars Vogt, musical director of the Orchester de chambre de Paris, reacted strongly on Twitter: “I can’t believe these words from my ex-friend Boris B. But I hear them from his own mouth. Our friendship is officially over.”
Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montera spoke of “huge disappointment” on Twitter, adding that “musical greatness and empathy don’t always go hand in hand”.
“It is beyond cynicism”, reacted for her part the Finnish-Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska.
Boris Berezovsky, 53, a regular guest at festivals and concert halls in France, such as the La Roque-d’Anthéron International Piano Festival or the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, also said that “what say the Western media, it’s a pure lie”.
“We need to win this war and then build something good and nice at home in this country […] In the end, the truth will reach the people, I am sure of it, a year will pass and the truth will prevail,” said the winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990.
Since the beginning of the invasion, artists considered pro-Putin, such as the conductor Valéry Gergiev or the soprano Anna Netrebko, have been declared persona non grata in the majority of western cinemas.