Even the refined world of classical music isn’t above politics when it comes to Gaza, as pianist Jayson Gillham and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra have discovered:
At a previous concert at Iwaki Auditorium in Southbank on Sunday, Gillham had performed a number of songs, including the world premiere of Witness by Connor D’Netto – which the MSO said was a late addition to the program.
The five-minute piece is dedicated to the journalists of Gaza and was written for Gillham, according to D’Netto’s website. Gillham was removed from Thursday’s concert after remarks he made while introducing the piece, the MSO said at the time.
“Over the last 10 months, Israel has killed more than one hundred Palestinian journalists,” Gillham told the crowd on Sunday, according to his management.
“A number of these have been targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets. The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.
“In addition to the role of journalists who bear witness, the word witness in Arabic is shaheed, which also means martyr.”
MSO management then announced that Gillham had been stood down from a performance that was supposed to be happening tonight because they were shocked, shocked I tell you at him going “beyond the remit of his contract” as they put it with these words that shouldn’t really be that controversial—I mean, whatever else you make of the Gaza situation and who’s right and who’s wrong, it is transparently obvious that Israel is quite happy to target civilians and media—and that was that. The show would go on, but not with this politically minded pianist.
Having thereby earned the justifiable wrath of many commentators, the MSO have now come out and said “whoops, we fucked up” and cancelled the performance entirely because of “safety concerns” (and not a ton of people demanding refunds). Which makes everything… better somehow? I don’t know. Apparently they do want to reschedule the thing with Gillham and he’s apparently open to doing so, but still, the occasion’s going to be a bit tainted… and it’s hard to escape the feeling that this part of the statement was meant as a warning to him, however nicely put:
The MSO said it maintains that “a concert platform is not an appropriate stage for political comment”, but acknowledges “Jayson’s concerns for those in the Middle East and elsewhere”.
Well, if the MSO’s performances are going to remain apolitical from now on, I presume they’ll never be playing Beethoven’s third symphony ever again… also, for what it’s worth:
“Regardless of our differences”… apart from some, evidently.
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