The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra is facing ridicule after removing the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from its forthcoming program due to the war in Ukraine.
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which celebrates Russia’s victory against the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte, was due to be included in the orchestra’s upcoming concert at St David’s Hall on Friday next week, but the entire program has been abandoned due to events in Ukraine.
A statement on the venue’s Web site said that “in light of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra, with the agreement of St David’s Hall, feel the previously advertised program including the 1812 Overture to be inappropriate at this time. The orchestra hope you will continue to support them and enjoy the revised program.”
The 1812 Overture was written to celebrate Russia’s defense against Napoleon’s army and is notable for featuring a volley of cannon fire. The orchestra would instead present a program centered around Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major. It would also include John Williams’ The Cowboys Overture and a performance of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations in the second half.
The move came after the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was dropped by his management after he refused to condemn the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The treatment of Gergiev prompted some disquiet among right-wing commentators, but the decision to cancel Tchaikovsky has been more widely derided in the UK and the US.
“Cancelling a Tchaikovsky concert is so daft ordinary Russians will write it off as mad Vlad overdoing the propaganda,” comedian Geoff Norcott wrote on Twitter.
Cellist Max Weiss, editor of Baltimore magazine, said that “everyone needs to get a grip.”
“We had our HSO [Hopkins Symphony Orchestra] concert on Saturday. We began the program, fittingly, with the Ukraine National Anthem. We then went on to play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1,” she wrote on Twitter.
Matt Duss, the foreign policy adviser to former US Senator Bernie Sanders, said that the orchestra’s move was “doubly absurd because Tchaikovsky spent a lot of time in Ukraine, and incorporated a lot of Ukrainian folk music and stories into his work.”
Former UK member of parliament turned talk show host George Galloway described the move as the equivalent to “fascistic book-burning.”
Many have pointed out that Tchaikovsky shunned nationalism.
“The irony. Tchaikovsky was one of the first (and only) composers to eschew Russian nationalism and try to integrate his music with the west. Also, he died over a century ago. We’ve lost our minds,” Billy Binion, editor of the US magazine Reason, wrote on Twitter.
“Tchaikovsky composed some of the richest, most affecting music I’ve ever heard. We need more of that in times like these, not less,” he added.
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