The Russian conductor Valery Gergiev (1953), who has only conducted in Russia since the outbreak of war in Ukraine because of his ties with President Putin, will give concerts in the Chinese capital Beijing next week. This was announced by the Chinese National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). Gergiev’s arrival is seen as a form of cultural exchange between Russia and China. With the Mariinsky Orchestra, with whom he has been collaborating for more than fifty years, Gergiev presents a popular program with music by Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy and Rossini.
In the Netherlands, Valery Gergjev was chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1995 to 2008, after which he continued to come for his own Gergjev Festival, among other things. The orchestra cut ties when Gergjev refused to speak out about the invasion of Ukraine, the Munich Philharmonic fired Gergjev as chief conductor on the same day.
Read also: Orchestras worldwide are breaking ties with Gergjev
China does not see that need. “Music knows no boundaries. People need cultural exchanges,” said Xu Hua, an expert on Russia-China relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Wednesday in the Chinese Global Times. “In the context of strengthening political mutual trust between China and Russia, cultural exchanges between the two countries are also expected to become more frequent,” said Xu. Some European musicians are also known to be performing in China again now that visas are possible again.
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