By Vestnik Kavkaza
Valery Gergiyev is called the most in demand conductor in the world, a citizen of the world, a sensitive man who hypnotizes you with the power of his talent. This talent and infinite energy enabled him to win the Herbert von Karajan conductor contest at 23, and then he became the art director of the Mariinsky Theater. For many years he was the chief conductor of Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the chief invited conductor of New York Metropolitan Opera. He conducts London Symphonic Orchestra, works with the World Orchestra for Peace, Vienna and Berlin philharmonic orchestras, the orchestra of Swedish radio…
Gergiev says that he is “all Ossetian.” He was born in Moscow, but was raised in Ordzhonikidze (currently Vladikavkaz). There he studied in musical school. “When I was a pupil, I was impressed by concerts of Richter and Rostropovich. These people really did miracles at their performances. When I saw, heard these musicians, I understood that would get into music. Not because my mother said it, but because I saw an infinite sphere of expressing life energy in music.”
This energy is transferred by Gergiev and his “magic stick” not only in concert halls, but also in the most restless places of our planet – the Middle East, the Caucasus. He explains such performances by the desire to contribute to harmonic life in the world. The fact that music can be played even in such a nervous atmosphere gives him a hope for positive future. When Gergiev performed with the Marrinsky Theater in Jordan, more than a thousand of Israeli citizens crossed the Israeli-Arab border for the first time. “This border is not the tensest in the world, but it is complicated. I think this peacemaking role which is played by us from time to time is not useless,” the conductor thinks.
“When Moscow marked its 850th anniversary, we gathered an international orchestra of thousand musicians on the Red Square,” Gergiev remembers. “The orchestra included musicians from South and North Korea, Egypt and Israel, the USA, Russia, Australia, Canada, Germany, Venezuela. We made a great work to convince young musicians from Israel and Egypt to play together. The result was very interesting. Unfortunately, due to its expensiveness, we couldn’t continue working with this orchestra. Today the whole world – Russia, Israel, America – tries to find a scenario of peaceful living in the Middle East. But not all people want it.”
In 1996 during the first Chechen campaign, Gergiev initiated the festival “Peace to the Caucasus” near the border of the restless republic. “When we got the support of Boris Yeltsin, we together with the head of North Ossetia Akhsrabek Galazov invited many famous people to the festival: Oleg Basilashvili performed with great success, as well as “Opera” ensemble. The Marrinsky Theater had to perform two-three times a day because a huge amount of people wanted to watch us,” Gergiev says. Representatives of Dagestan, Chechen, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia ethnic groups, guests from Moscow and St. Petersburg came to Vladikavkaz. Nobody could imagine that there would be difficulties between Russia and Georgia, between Ossetia and Georgia. In several years Gergiev had to perform on ruins of Tskhinvali.
Ossetia is a separate theme for Gergiev – before Tskhinvali there was Beslan. “The tragedy in Beslan touched on thousands and thousands of people because in Ossetia each person has at least 10 close relatives. There are big families and relatives are close to each other. People also care about their friends and neighbors, especially when somebody dies. What happened in this small town is difficult to imagine,” Gergiev said ahead of the concert in memoriam of the Beslan tragedy’s victims in London. “It is very difficult to prevent terrorism. A terrorist acts suddenly, secretly; his main goal is to spread fear. We should pay the world’s attention to such events.”
