Valery Gergiev

How big does a mess outside the concert hall need to get before it affects what happens inside?

Russian classical musicians have supported Putin’s Crimean invasion, but risk audience backlash

Turns out the great Russian conductor Valery Gergiev is Ossetian and, having made his career in St. Petersburg, a friend of Putin’s. He took his Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre to Tskhinvali last night and conducted the Shostakovich 7th Symphony in an outdoor concert to commemorate “victims of Georgian aggression.”