Pianist continues to play Schubert ‘Impromptu’, as Russian police break up concert of Ukrainian music

Russian pianist, Alexei Lubimov, defied Moscow authorities by continuing to play. Picture: Telegram / Getty

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, ClassicFM

@sophiassocials

 

Police broke up a concert in Moscow which featured music by the Ukrainian composer, Valentin Silvestrov. 

A concert in Moscow by Russian pianist, Alexei Lubimov, and Russian soprano, Yana Ivanilova, was broken up by police last night.

The performance, titled ‘Songs against the times’, featured works by Franz Schubert, and Ukrainian composer, Valentin Silvestrov.

Police arrived at the Moscow cultural centre, DK Rassvet, to break up the concert. Almost every member of the audience had their phones out to record the unfolding situation as police entered the room. The policemen walked onstage to stand next to Luminov as he played the piano, and told him to stop.

However, Lubimov, who was playing the final bars of Schubert’s Impromptu No.2 Op.90, defied the authorities’ wishes and continued playing.

As he played the final chords, the 77-year-old pianist was met with loud cheers and a standing ovation from the crowd, who had stayed seated as the police tried to usher them out prior to the end of the musician’s performance.

Authorities were allegedly called to the concert venue following an anonymous tip-off of a bomb threat. However, unofficial reports suggest that the programming of the concert may be the real reason authorities arrived to break up the recital.

Lubimov is a good friend of Ukrainian composer, Silvestrov, who recently became a refugee, fleeing to Berlin after the invasion of Ukraine.

Silvestrov’s music has echoed around the world since the war broke out, in particular his composition, ‘Prayer for Ukraine’ which has become a symbol of solidarity performed by multiple internationally renowned orchestras and choirs. This work was one of the centrepieces of the Metropolitan Opera’s benefit concert for Ukraine last month.

During the course of his musical career, Silvestrov’s music was periodically banned by the former Soviet Union for “being too modern”. The composer also stood up to the former communist state by walking out of a composers meeting to protest the Soviet Union invasion of Czechoslovakia, during the late 1960s.

According to various posts on social media, a member of the audience may have actually alerted the police to come and shut down the concert after a composition by Silvestrov was performed.

While this may be the case, what happened at the concert after the audience turned their cameras off is still currently unknown. What we do know, is the bravery it took for Lubimov to not only programme Silvestrov, but to finish performing his music in defiance of the Russian authorities.

Harrison Birtwistle, ‘giant’ of contemporary classical music, dies aged 87

Harrison Birtwistle, ‘giant’ of contemporary classical music, dies aged 87. Picture: Alamy

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

 

Harrison Birtwistle was one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary classical composers.

The groundbreaking British composer Harrison Birtwistle, who won international acclaim for his 1972 composition The Triumph of Time and 2008 opera The Minotaur, has died aged 87.

Birtwistle’s publisher Boosey & Hawkes confirmed that the composer died at his home in Mere, southwest England on Monday 18 April. No cause of death was given.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra described Birtwistle as a “true musical colossus” whose “music shook the Earth”.

Birtwistle wrote in a plethora of musical forms, including chamber pieces, operas and one film score, The Offence (1973) starring Sean Connery, and had works staged by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House and English National Opera.

His opera The Minotaur, which premiered at the Royal Opera House, was hailed by The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st century.

The Queen receives Sir Harrison Birtwistle to invest him with the Insignia of a Companion of Honour at Buckingham Palace. Picture: Alamy

Born in Accrington, Lancashire in 1934, Birtwistle went on to study clarinet and composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now Royal Northern College of Music) alongside his contemporary, Peter Maxwell Davies. In 1965, Birtwistle sold his clarinets and turned his attentions solely to composition.

The great modernist became musical director of the Royal National Theatre in London from 1975 to 1983, was knighted in 1988 and made a Companion of Honour in 2001, after seven years spent as Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King’s College London.

Birtwistle, whose musical influences included Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen and Erik Satie, was uncompromising and utterly unique in his compositional style. His best-known works, which include the 1998 Exody premiered by Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim, employ complex rhythms and unconventional harmony, which both delighted and divided listeners.

Staunchly non-conforming in both his music and his manner, Birtwistle once told a room of pop musicians at the Ivor Novello awards: “Why is your music so f****** loud?”, while accepting his 2006 award. “You must all be brain dead. Maybe you are. I didn’t know so many cliches existed until the last half-hour. Have fun. Goodbye.”

Pierre Boulez, one of the modernist’s greatest admirers, said: “Birtwistle’s music has a great power to convince.”

In tribute to the late musical great, British composer Thomas Adès cited the composer, saying: “Harrison Birtwistle once said of Messiaen ‘when he dies the whole house of cards will fall down’. I feel a bit like it has fallen today.”

The English National Opera, which staged Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus in 1986, said: “Everyone at the ENO is heartbroken to learn of the death of Sir Harrison Birtwistle. His musical influence was unparalleled and we were proud to recently collaborate with him on The Mask of Orpheus.”

In 2014, Birtwistle was awarded his fifth Royal Philharmonic Society music award, making him the most RPS-honoured musician in history. “There was force and potency in every note he wrote,” the RPS wrote. “We will listen in awe to his works for decades to come.”

Birtwistle’s wife Sheila Duff died in 2012, and he is survived by his three sons and six grandchildren.