Harmful concerts, dangerous performances, inappropriate movies… Who is canceling our culture?

Anton Batagov, composer, pianist

I just spoke to a young and already very successful colleague/compatriot. Success in this case is well deserved: a really talented musician. (I won’t name, don’t ask, it doesn’t matter). He tells me that last year an interesting concert program was devised, consisting exclusively of new compositions by Russian composers. There were plans to play her in the BZK. But, he says, difficulties arose, because now more than half of these composers are immigrants.

And I remembered that when I entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1983, the newly opened Rachmaninov Hall was officially called the Big Hall of the Conservatory. Because Rachmaninoff is an emigrant. The Soviet ideological machine still did not forbid playing his music. It is unlikely because the music of our Sergei Vasilyich is one of the foundations of the repertoire of pianists all over the world. Most likely, they found an "justification" for him: during the Second World War, he made donations to the Red Army fund. His well-known phrase, said shortly after his departure, was also appreciated: "Having left Russia, I lost the desire to compose." And the hall officially became Rachmaninov only in 1986, already under Gorbachev. But in general, before "perestroika" they did not stand on ceremony with the "emigrants". For example, on the records of the orchestra conducted by Rudolf Barshai, the conductor's name was not at all. And on the records of Beethoven's triple concerto (Richter / Oistrakh / Rostropovich) there was no name of Rostropovich. There is no place for traitors in our culture - from Bunin to Brodsky, from Stravinsky to Rostropovich and Baryshnikov. Not to mention the fact that almost the entire world culture of the 20th century was banned in the USSR - it was "formalism and other types of bourgeois art alien to Soviet people" - after all, one still had to monitor the manifestations of these trends in Soviet art (if anyone sometimes here and there) and eradicate them in time.

Well, here we are again.

Performances by Krymov and Vyrypaev have been cancelled.

Films featuring "traitors" have been cancelled.

Concerts by musicians with an anti-war stance have been cancelled.

The music of "emigrants" cannot be played in the BZK.

In the program of Serebrennikov's performance it is written: the director is the DIRECTOR.

Etc.

Imagine that, for example, in Germany they cancel the "traitor" Handel, who "escaped" to England, took citizenship there and worked at the royal court. And in Hungary they cancel Bartok, who "fled" to America. And in Holland - Mondrian, who first fled to France, and then fled to the same America. And this list of "traitors" in world culture is endless. Imagine that they are all "cancelled" in their homeland. Represented?

The most touching thing about all this is that in this propaganda there is a point about "the abolition of Russian culture" in the "West". And the consumers of propaganda believe this, just as they believe everything else. And the only country where Russian culture is actually canceled is the Russian Federation.

And you know what else is very sad? That, as it turned out, there is not a hint of what is called "guild" (professional) solidarity. That is, in theory, if it were, then after the cancellation of concerts / performances / exhibitions or any other professional activities of any artist, colleagues would refuse to do anything at these venues. Yes, of course, there would still be those who would fill the vacant seat. But still, the picture would be completely different. Would it lead to change? Don't know. I still think yes. I do not in any way condemn anyone in this situation (except for those who openly sided with the obvious evil). Everyone else, I definitely understand. Of course, every person has at least the need to earn a living. But it's just sad that it's like this.

But posters and programs are increasingly reminiscent of a product of conceptual art:

COMPOSER. Composition.

COMPOSER. - - - - - - - - - in C major.

COMPOSER. * * * * * * * * * *

- - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * *

- - - - - - - - * * * * *

Can you imagine how difficult it is in our difficult time for everyone whose job it is to track down and "cancel" not only all the "runaways", but also traitors operating within the country, and those who are engaged in "LGBT propaganda" and others " unconventional phenomena? For example, a documentary film about the famine in the 1920s was stripped of its distribution certificate (wording: "the film is inappropriate for showing"). That is, you have to process and systematize a huge amount of information and "release" (I love this word in this context) the appropriate orders to the unfortunate leaders of theaters, halls, exhibition spaces, bookstores, who are already knocked down... I think that we need to open faculties, where experienced mentors will teach just such specialists. Their work requires deep knowledge and comprehensive training. And when all alien books, scores, films, websites and so on are burned, our society will finally be cleansed of enemies who are following the instructions of the collective West to destroy Russia, and this is where the bright future will come.