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Krystian Zimmerman, YouTube, audience phones and the end of concertgoing as we know it

By John Terauds on June 5, 2013

(APA photo)
(APA photo)

Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman has sent ripples through the classical music world. At a solo recital in Germany on n Monday night, he scolded an audience member at his solo recital for capturing his performance on video, then walked out and skipped the post-concert reception.

I’ll let the Guardian tell the full story, below. From my perspective, this episode is like seeing someone wading into a river, declaring that it needs to stop flowing so he can get across without getting wet.

Here is the Guardian‘s Kate Connolly, from Berlin, with a different perspective from classical purists:

One of the world’s leading concert pianists angrily exited a performance on Monday evening saying YouTube was “destroying music” after he caught a member of the audience filming him on a mobile phone.

Krystian Zimerman, from Poland, was distracted by the concertgoer while in the middle of playing Karol Szymanowksi’s Variations on a Polish Theme in B Minor at the Ruhr piano festival in Essen.

Still playing, he raised his gaze towards the audience member, who was sitting in a balcony seat above him, and said: “Would you please stop that?”

But while Zimerman, 56, resumed playing the work he had clearly lost his concentration, and left the stage shortly afterwards, evidently agitated.

On returning, he told the audience that he had lost many recording projects and contracts because music managers had told him: “We’re sorry, that has already been on YouTube.” “The destruction of music because of YouTube is enormous,” he added.

He continued to perform, but declined to return at the end of the concert for an encore, despite a rapturous response. He also cancelled a reception after the concert.

Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, the festival’s director, said he felt a great deal of sympathy towards Zimerman, one of the star performers. “What happened is theft, pure and simple,” he told German media. “It cuts particularly deeply when the artist is of a sensitive nature.”

Representatives of the classical music world said Zimerman’s eruption was understandable and welcomed the fact he had highlighted a growing problem. “People filming concerts on their smartphones is a problem, and the person who did it deserves to be hounded out of the concert hall,” said German pianist Sebastian Knauer, artistic director of the Mozart@augsburg festival, who is due to perform at the festival next week. “You see stuff on YouTube, and you think it’s not possible that people take such liberties.”

You can find the full article here.

John Terauds

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