A day after being suspended from concerts at Carnegie Hall, star Russian maestro Valery Gergiev faced mounting anger on Friday over his track record for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, with several leading European institutions — including the Munich Philharmonic. , of which Mr Gergiev is chief conductor and threatens to cut ties with him unless he denounces Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The fallout, which includes Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, was a rare rebuke from a titan of the classical music industry, and it reflected growing global outrage over Putin’s ongoing military offensive in Ukraine.
Mr Gergiev, 68, one of Russia’s most prominent cultural ambassadors, is now shunned for his ties to Mr Putin, his longtime friend and benefactor. He seems to be losing several key positions, including the stage in Munich and his position as honorary conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Munich mayor Dieter Reiter issued an ultimatum on Friday, saying that Gergiev must denounce Putin’s “ruthless war of aggression against Ukraine” before Monday, or else he must be fired from the orchestra three years before his contract expires. .
The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra issued a similar warning and threatened to cancel the “Gergiev Festival” scheduled for September. The Teatro alla Scala in Milan said that Mr. Gergiev would be banned from upcoming performances of Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” and other performances if he didn’t immediately ask for peace.
Mr. Gergiev did not respond to requests for comment from DailyExpertNews.
The uproar was a major blow to Mr Gergiev, who has built a busy international career while maintaining deep ties to the Russian state, including in his role as General and Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
Mr Putin has been instrumental to Mr Gergiev’s success, funding his theater and showering him with awards. Mr Gergiev has emerged as a prominent supporter of Mr Putin, endorsing his reelection and appearing at concerts in Russia and abroad to promote his policies. The two have known each other since the early 1990s, when Mr. Putin was a civil servant in St. Petersburg and Mr. Gergiev began his tenure as leader of the Mariinsky, then called the Kirov.
Western cultural institutions have largely looked beyond Gergiev’s ties to Putin, even as the conductor became the target of repeated protests over the past decade, at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera and elsewhere.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine this week put new pressure on art leaders to rethink their ties to Gergiev. After a hastily arranged meeting on Thursday morning, Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Philharmonic announced that Mr. Gergiev would no longer lead the orchestra in three high-profile concerts beginning Friday night. Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, who was scheduled to perform with Gergiev and the Philharmonic on Friday and who has expressed his support for Putin’s policies in the past, was also removed from the program.
Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie, who has said in the past that Mr. Gergiev should not be punished for political views, said in an interview Friday that he and the Philharmonic had come to the conclusion that for Mr. Gergiev and Mr. Matsuev will perform because of their ties to Mr. Putin.
Understand the Russian attack on Ukraine
What is the basis of this invasion? Russia considers Ukraine to be within its natural sphere of influence, and it has become nervous about Ukraine’s proximity to the West and the prospect of the country becoming a member of NATO or the European Union. Although Ukraine is part of neither, it receives financial and military aid from the United States and Europe.
“We all felt that this situation is only changing the world, unfortunately,” he said, referring to the invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Gillinson said there were no changes yet to Mr Gergiev’s scheduled May appearances at Carnegie with the Mariinsky Orchestra. Mr. Gergiev and Mr. Matsuev were also dropped from concerts next week in Naples, Florida, with the Vienna Philharmonic, whose chairman said on Sunday that Mr. Gergiev was a gifted performer and would take the stage for the Carnegie dates.
“He’s going as an artist, not a politician,” Daniel Froschauer, the orchestra’s president, said in an interview with DailyExpertNews.