7/26/2016

Responding to catastrophe with music

Russian director Vladimir Jurowski leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra 





















POLITICS intruding on culture can be unnerving. Stalin restricted Shostakovich’s work in the name of state order. The Third Reich’s appropriation of Wagner prompted Israel to adopt an unofficial ban on his music. But music often leaves a greater legacy than diktats and propaganda. Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture”, composed after Stalin’s death, is remembered today as a towering symbol of freedom from musical dictatorship, and Israel’s unofficial ban on Wagner was cast aside by Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle orchestra in 2001. Two years earlier Mr Barenboim had set up the West-Eastern Divan orchestra—comprised principally of Israelis and Palestinians—in order to show that differences may be settled through understanding and co-operation, ideas best expressed through the collected study and performance of great music.
Music has an unusual ability to promote rapport and pleasure in the wake of catastrophe. After the lorry attack in Nice, Sakari Oramo, the conductor at the first night of the BBC Proms, a series of classical concerts, preceded his scheduled programme with a rendition of “La Marseillaise”. The scene was a moving one: the entire Albert Hall rose to its feet and met the piece’s conclusion with rapturous applause. There was something life-affirming about an orchestra comprised of multiple nationalities playing French music under a Finnish conductor in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.
This was not the first time the Proms had altered the programme in the wake of catastrophe. Along with “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Adagio for Strings”, the BBC added the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony—“Ode to Joy”—to their final-night celebrations after the attacks on September 11th 2001. This showed Western unity and defiance through Western high culture, a perfect piece for such a task. Nicholas Kenyon, then the director of the Proms, said that the finale was “a true mirror of the ability of music to uplift and unify”. Beethoven’s final symphony demonstrates togetherness and power through its sheer scale, combining choral with symphonic and requiring a large number of musicians. The piece is aimed at all who will hear it, as opposed to one nationality alone. The music therefore rallies together people of an identity (Western) instead of a country.
On Sunday 24th July the acclaimed Russian director Vladimir Jurowski led the London Philharmonic orchestra and choir in a Proms performance (pictured) of Beethoven’s masterpiece. Finding space for the “Ode to Joy” again at this year’s final night was an example of culture embracing politics.
Life-affirming music has no nationality. Yet it defines an identity of values undeterred by terror, bringing comfort to those who hear it. If it reaches out to the threatened in politics, it may give the comfort they need. Just as Shostakovich lived to celebrate the demise of Stalin, through Beethoven we may persevere until the demise of terror. 





edited from The Economist