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Interested
Joined: 10 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 7:17 pm Post subject: Famous Polish pianist stops show with anti-US tirade |
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'Get your hands off my country'
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Krystian Zimerman, the great Polish concert pianist, is usually a man of few words. He doesn't, as a rule, talk to the audience during performances. He says little or nothing in the press between his all-too-rare concert tours - not even about his habit of travelling everywhere with his own Steinway grand piano. He rarely grants them the pleasure of an encore.
So he triggered more than the usual rumble of discomfort when he raised his voice in the closing stages of a recital at Los Angeles' Disney Hall on Sunday night and announced he would no longer perform in the United States in protest against Washington's military policies.
"Get your hands off my country," Zimerman told the stunned crowd in a denunciation of US plans to install a missile defence shield on Polish soil. Some people cheered, others yelled at him to shut up and keep playing. A few dozen walked out, some of them shouting obscenities.
"Yes," Zimerman responded with derision, "some people when they hear the word military start marching."
According to Mark Swed, the Los Angeles Times's veteran classical music critic who witnessed the incident, Zimerman hesitated before deciding to speak up. He was about to strike up the first notes of the final piece on his programme, Karol Szymanowski's Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, when he "sat silently at the piano for a moment, almost began to play, but then turned to the audience".
Swed said he delivered his tirade "in a quiet but angry voice that did not project well".
Zimerman appears to have been upset by Barack Obama's decision, announced this month, to maintain the Bush-era policy of installing a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Obama insisted the shield was part of a defensive posture against Iran, not Russia, and that he intended to remove it as soon as the threat from Iran subsided. But many Poles have accused the US of wanting to mount a military occupation of their country, and fear the shield could make them a target of Russian aggression.
Classical musicians are not exactly famous for political ranting. When Beethoven became disillusioned with Napoleon after he crowned himself emperor in 1804, the loudest thing the composer did was remove the dedication to him from his Eroica symphony. Leonard Bernstein spoke out against the Vietnam war and hosted a notorious fundraiser for the radical Black Panther movement, but never discussed his politics from the conductor's podium.
Zimerman, though, has developed something of a track record - especially since the 9/11 attacks. In 2006 he announced he would not return to the United States until George Bush was out of office. The same year, at Baltimore's Shriver Hall, he prefaced his performance of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata with a denunciation of America's prison at Guant�namo Bay.
At least some of his opprobrium appears to be personal. Shortly after 9/11, his piano was confiscated by customs officials at New York's JFK airport, who thought the glue smelled funny. They subsequently destroyed the instrument.
For several years he chose to travel with just the mechanical insides of his own piano and install them - he is a master piano repairer, as well as player - inside a Steinway shell he borrowed from the company in New York. In 2006 he tried to travel with his own piano again, only to have it held up in customs for five days and disrupt his performance schedule.
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Rather amusing. Though I must say, had it not been for his stunt, I would probably never have heard of US plans to install a missile defence shield in Poland.
Not sure I care for Polish nationalism - I do so love his renditions of Chopin, though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9tMFnKIij4 |
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samcheokguy
Joined: 02 Nov 2008
Location: Samcheok G-do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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Poland is the Korea of Europe.
Only wait...it would be much more cool if Korea were the Poland of asia.
I give up on making strange comparisons now. |
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Kimbop
Joined: 31 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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Becuase the US wants to occupy and control Poland. Right.
And rogue states like Iran (and maybe even Russia) don't pose a threat to Poland. Right.
Did this champagne socialist ever deride Russia and the Eastern Bloc in the 80s? I doubt it. He wasn;t brave enough. He left his hell-hole communist Poland to seek haven in the arms of the great Satan: the US. S'far as I'm concerned he ain't welcome in the US anymore. |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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| What somebody said something bad about the US military? Oh my God they must be punished. How dare people criticize the US army in their own country about something that may effect them? Free speech is all well and good just so long as people only say nice things about the US. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:08 am Post subject: |
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| It sounds like there is a bit of a debate going on in Poland right now about what direction its foreign policy should take. The man's statement surprises me a bit, as I was under the impression most Poles were solidly in favor of closer security relations with the US. They were one of the strongest backers of the invasion of Iraq. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:52 am Post subject: Re: Famous Polish pianist stops show with anti-US tirade |
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At least some of his opprobrium appears to be personal. Shortly after 9/11, his piano was confiscated by customs officials at New York's JFK airport, who thought the glue smelled funny. They subsequently destroyed the instrument.
For several years he chose to travel with just the mechanical insides of his own piano and install them - he is a master piano repairer, as well as player - inside a Steinway shell he borrowed from the company in New York. In 2006 he tried to travel with his own piano again, only to have it held up in customs for five days and disrupt his performance schedule.
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This is reason enough for his tirade. Don't mess with another man's piano! |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:15 am Post subject: |
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| Bingo! |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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| Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, this is the major key issue.  <--- cringe |
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moosehead
Joined: 05 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
| It sounds like there is a bit of a debate going on in Poland right now about what direction its foreign policy should take. The man's statement surprises me a bit, as I was under the impression most Poles were solidly in favor of closer security relations with the US. They were one of the strongest backers of the invasion of Iraq. |
that's what the media reported - sooooo - why do you think the people supported this? when everywhere else they were saying no ? (Hint: the Polish GOVT supports the U.S. in Iraq and the missle defense - no doubt favors and cash exchanged hands)
I admire what he did - he must have been getting paid a small fortune to tour in the U.S. and I'm sure all those offers are less now with the economy in the toilet, just like everything else, it was no small action on his part to speak out.
good for him.
and thanks for the post OP |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Kimbop wrote: |
| S'far as I'm concerned he ain't welcome in the US anymore. |
While the choice to spend time which people paid money for in order to hear him play to instead speak about political matters is in questionable taste, nothing he did was against the spirit of the United States. To say he should not be welcome on our soil because of this is unbecoming. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:17 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| Kimbop wrote: |
| S'far as I'm concerned he ain't welcome in the US anymore. |
While the choice to spend time which people paid money for in order to hear him play to instead speak about political matters is in questionable taste, nothing he did was against the spirit of the United States. To say he should not be welcome on our soil because of this is unbecoming. |
Indeed. let all the whiny girls come in, it demonstrates American tolerance.
I'm sure Americans are used to being raged at by non-entities with victimhood complexes.
A grown up would have chosen an apt time and place for such an adolescent outburst. Wasn't he invited to any chat shows or nothing? |
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RJjr
Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Location: Turning on a Lamp
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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| We destroyed his piano because we thought the piano was a security threat? And we think Iran is going to attack...Poland? What a schizophrenic nation we've become. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:55 pm Post subject: |
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| RJjr wrote: |
| We destroyed his piano because we thought the piano was a security threat? And we think Iran is going to attack...Poland? What a schizophrenic nation we've become. |
Eastern Europe is where Iranian missiles would have to pass over on their way to NATO countries. |
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RJjr
Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Location: Turning on a Lamp
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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Why would Iran fire missiles at Scandanavia?
And what threat does Iran pose to Poland? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:25 pm Post subject: |
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| RJjr wrote: |
Why would Iran fire missiles at Scandanavia?
And what threat does Iran pose to Poland? |
Perhaps a visual aid might clear things up. |
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