He occasionally uses a toothpick for a baton, often performs in a Nehru-style black suit and hardly ever appears in public clean-shaven. But whenever the name of Valery Gergiev is mentioned a whiff of controversy lingers in the air. This is not surprising, considering Gergiev is an outspoken champion of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in the Ukraine, has applauded the suppression of activist band Pussy Riot and continues to support the Russian government’s attitude towards gays.
Has his political stands affected his musical career? Not so long ago he conducted three orchestras in three different countries in the space of 24 hours. But these days his affiliation of the Putin regime has put him at odds with all the western European countries. He has been banned from most of them. Aged 70, he is now content to be the general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and, at the latest reckoning, the artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.
At the end of 2015 Gergiev succeeded Lorin Maazel as principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic but, following some comments in the media, there appeared to be some disquiet in Germany about his appointment. German sources reacted negatively to reports of audiences in London returning their tickets to concerts in which Gergiev and his pianist of choice, Denis Matsuev, were performing. The latter, together with Gergiev and other Russian cultural icons, proclaimed in a statement that they gave: “adamant support for the position of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine and Crimea.” However, in September 2015 Gergiev said that he did not really sign the letter to Putin, but only had a phone conversation about it with Vladimir Medinsky. The New York Times reported that Russian artists may have been pushed by the Russian government to endorse the annexation of Crimea. The article specifically mentioned Gergiev, who faced protests in New York City while performing. After the Ukrainian public outcry, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture blacklisted Gergiev from performing in Ukraine. Despite that he was then appointed to head the Munich Philharmonic. He was eventually fired in 2022.
Despite all this, Gergiev’s past musical credentials remain impressive. Raised in North Ossetia he studied the piano at the Leningrad Conservatory between 1972 and 1977. His teacher, Ilya Musin, said of him at the time: “he is a very good pianist but inside him there is a conductor.” The prediction proved correct when Gergiev was appointed assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera (now the Mariinsky Opera) the following year. It was there he made his conducting debut with Prokofiev’s War and Peace and following his appointment as chief conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic, performed with them in the United Kingdom in 1985 at the Lichfield Festival. His first performance with a European orchestra had to wait till 1991 when he conducted the Bavarian State Opera in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov followed almost immediately by his American debut in San Francisco.
It is his energetic expansion of Mariinsky ‘culturalism’ that continues to the musical eye. In 1996 he was appointed by the Russian government its overall director and since then has worked tirelessly in renovating the theatre. That, naturally, brought him in contact with Vladimir Putin and Gergiev has never made any secret of his admiration for the Russian President. He is quoted as saying that Putin is one of the few politicians in the world who cares and shows great support for culture. Among the many innovations Gergiev has achieved with the Mariinsky is the 2003 performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle. It was the first performance staged in Russia for 90 years and was followed by the production, lock stock and barrel, performing in Cardiff, California and Seattle in 2006 and the Lincoln Centre in New York in 2007 where it played to sold-out houses.
He became, in 2011, the chairperson of the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition and, in a fit of reformist zeal, immediately replaced the judges who had been recruited from academia by notable performers. He also announced that the competition would be streamed live on the internet and that judges would be encouraged to speak their minds. It prompted well-known journalist and critic Norman Lebrecht to observe that Gergiev had changed the music world for the better and that no “self-respecting contest (would) take place again behind closed doors.”
Gergiev’s discography is vast, albeit dominated by his love of Russian music. He completed live recordings with the LSO of all the Mahler symphonies plus the Adagio from his unfinished 10th. Gergiev’s recording of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with the LSO was the winner of the orchestral category and voted the Disc of the Year in 2011 by the BBC Music Magazine.
Finally, the over-riding question in your mind is why conduct with a toothpick? Who knows? Perhaps he has an over-riding urge for dental hygiene while conducting!
Article by Randolph Magri-Overend
