Interview by Farah Nayeri
The global meltdown is threatening U.S. orchestras, which rely on corporate and individual giving to survive, said Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.
Gergiev -- artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre (the former Kirov) in St. Petersburg -- is also principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He is on a two-week, coast-to-coast LSO tour of the U.S. (sponsored, except for the New York leg, by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Japan's biggest drugmaker).
"The American system, at least in the last 100 years, was the most perfect: They didn't depend on state support like Russia or France," said Gergiev before the tour, his beard a patch of salt-and-pepper stubble as he settled on a dressing- room sofa at London's Barbican Centre. "The institutions depended on support given to them by corporations and especially individuals."
"Let's hope that this system will come out of the crisis in two or three years maybe slightly changed, maybe slightly shaken, but still strong, and that we will not see orchestras close," he said.
Until last year, Gergiev, 55, was principal guest conductor of New York's Metropolitan Opera. The Met has recently seen its $300 million endowment shrink by a third, and has used two Chagall murals as collateral for a loan. General Manager Peter Gelb, who took over in 2006, has been broadcasting opera live in movie theaters worldwide, a popular but expensive endeavor.
Optimism for Met
Gergiev said he remains optimistic about the Met's prospects.
"Public opinion will never allow these institutions to rapidly go down and become totally irrelevant," Gergiev said. "So many eyes, so many thoughts are directed towards these institutions, and people want them to be the symbols of cultural power of the countries they represent."
Born in Moscow, the conductor grew up in North Ossetia, part of Russia. He is a product of the Soviet musical system, which he ranks even now as the world's best.
Gergiev recalled the skepticism he faced as a musician before the Soviet Union's demise.
"I always had to prove, yet another time, that I represent something serious, high quality," he said.
While his obsessive touring can undermine those hopes, his stamina is a marvel. By starting with a matinee performance in Amsterdam, he once managed to conduct an evening concert in New York on the same day. The U.S. tour with the LSO ends later this month at New York's Lincoln Center, with a marathon of Prokofiev's seven symphonies. He also leads the World Orchestra for Peace, a global ensemble.
Praise for Putin
In the interview, he praised Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, for backing the Mariinsky and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg; other officials, he said, did not care as much.
"Putin understood that without the Mariinsky or the Hermitage, Russia is not Russia," he said. "He doesn't come and work beside me on the podium, but he understands that supporting the best traditions or the best institutions is his obligation."
Gergiev defended Putin politically, too, for having kept Russia from falling to pieces. "Putin was there at the end of 1999, and he realized that, if I may speak a little theatrically, in five or, maximum, 10 minutes, the show will be over," he said. "After the Soviet Union collapsed, the next in line was Russia."
Bombed Capital
One of Gergiev's recent positions has drawn global coverage and controversy. In August, as hostilities raged between Georgia and South Ossetian separatists, he took the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra to play in the bombed South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Gergiev insisted this was no different from other performances he gave for victims of natural disasters, while saying that coverage of the conflict was slanted against Russia.
"It's not politics: When you are talking about people who suffered because of the earthquake, we are all totally sympathetic to them," he explained. "The West didn't understand what was going on."
"There was a lot of untruth, a lot of covering up," he said. "The only really totally destroyed part of this conflict was the town of Tskhinvali. The people who really suffered were the South Ossetians."
