“Art should serve as a bridge rather than a weapon,” said Maximilian Maier, a radio broadcaster at BR Klassik in Bavaria, after announcing the sacking from the Munich Philharmonic of star conductor and high-profile Putin supporter Valery Gergiev. The termination of Gergiev’s many other prestigious European posts swiftly followed, and led the way for a concerted wave of cultural sanctions against Russian musicians, performers and artists.
Across the western world, there’s remarkable unanimity among the arts community in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As Soviet-born conductor Semyon Bychkov puts it to me: “Not since the Berlin Wall fell have I seen this kind of unity in the way we perceive what is going on.”
Powerless in other ways, the arts world is doing all it can to express its outrage by focusing on the Russians in their midst. Scores of leading figures have resigned or been dismissed from their posts, and have seen their performances, exhibitions or film showings cancelled. Long-planned visits such as that of the Bolshoi to London’s Royal Opera House have been scotched, and prominent figures of all nationalities have spoken out.