Comment on Melbourne Symphony Orchestra says it made 'error' in cancelling pianist's performance after Gaza comments

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Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

the MSO’s event is not a platform from which to espouse political views

What absolute nonsense. He was playing a piece of music literally dedicated to journalists murdered by Israel. The piece was on the programme at that concert, it’s not like he surprised them with it in an encore. (I know the public isn’t usually made aware of what piece might be played for an encore. I dunno if the host orchestra normally would be. Not that that’s relevant here anyway.)

If you don’t want politics, don’t get involved in the arts. Expecting no comment to be made about Israel’s war crimes is like expecting a Shostakovich concert to never mention the Nazis & WWII or Stalin and his artistic crackdowns. Or to perform Beethoven’s Eroica and make no mention of Napoleon.

All art is political. Some more explicitly so than others. And they scheduled a piece that was extremely political, and then got outraged at the politics of the piece being mentioned. It’s absurd.

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