Andrei Gavrilov
Pianist Andrei Gavrilov has canceled his planned Russian tour in December due to political reasons. On his Facebook page the pianist wrote: « Having letters from Russian listeners: ‘You have to fight any situation through your music in the concert halls, we understand that you want to have some rest canceling Russian tour’ – they do not get my message, I understand that. It is too late to ‘fight in concert halls’ in Russia (what I was doing till the August of this year). Now evil forces has to be fought and defeated by alliance of healthy political powers. As in the good old times… »
In 1984, Andrei Gavrilov (*1955) successfully petitioned Mikhail Gorbachev for his freedom, and became the first Soviet artist to be granted permission to stay in the West without having to file for political asylum. In 2001 he made his triumphant comeback to Russia. In 2012 he refused to play the Rachmaninov D minor Concerto in Moscow. The audience was told that he was not feeling well. Gavrilov posted something else on his Facebook page: « They didn’t play the Rachmaninov. They played the notes that did not even remind me of Rachmaninov. It was playing at the level of sick chickens, incubator imitating nightingales. »
