Rotterdam joins a growing number of orchestras and concert halls in Europe and the US where Gergjev is no longer welcome. The Münchner Philharmoniker, for example, immediately fired him as chief conductor on Tuesday. Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter had called on him in a letter to “clearly and unequivocally” distance himself from the “brutal war of aggression that Putin is waging against Ukraine” by Monday, but there was no response.
Edinburgh Festival
Gergiev has also been fired as honorary chairman of the Edinburgh Festival, one of the largest art festivals in the world. The organization breaks with him in solidarity with the people of Kiev. The Paris Philharmonic and the Scala in Milan have canceled his concerts and he is no longer welcome at the Lucerne and Verbier festivals. In New York, Gergiev was not welcome for three performances at Carnegie Hall last weekend. His international management has broken with him.
In recent years, Gergiev has consistently professed his loyalty to the Russian president. In 2016, for example, he conducted a concert between the Roman ruins of Palmyra in Syria, the country that Putin had bombed. The president and the conductor met in Saint Petersburg, the city where Putin’s political career began in 1991. The conductor runs the Mariinsky Theater there, which has received hundreds of millions in support from Putin.
Last week, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra already suspended its collaboration with Gergjev. The orchestra’s hope then was to be able to enter into conversation with him.