What led to Krystian Zimerman's surprising comments, walkouts

Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, who is widely admired for his virtuosic performances and who famously tours with his own custom-altered Steinway, created a furor at Disney Hall on Sunday night when he stopped his recital to announce that this would be his last American appearance -- in protest of the nation's military policies overseas.

In a low voice that could not be heard throughout the auditorium, Zimerman, universally considered among the world's finest pianists, made reference to Guantanamo Bay and U.S. military policies toward Poland.

"Get your hands off my country," he said.

Then he turned to the piano and played Szymanowski's "Variations on a Polish Folk Theme" with such passion and intensity that the stunned audience gave him multiple ovations.

Earlier, about 30 or 40 people in the audience had walked out after Zimerman's declaration, some shouting obscenities.

"Yes," the pianist, known in Poland as "King Krystian the Glorious," answered, "some people, when they hear the word military, start marching."

Zimerman then said that America has far finer exports than its military -- and he thanked those who supported democracy. He left the stage without further comment and was unavailable Monday.

His manager, Mary Pat Buerkle, told the Associated Press on Monday that Zimerman has talked for the last couple of years about not coming back to the United States "for a while. . . . I don't think it's appropriate to say it's all political."

Zimerman has had problems in the United States in recent years, but many in the classical music world thought they were logistical.

Just a week ago, before an appearance in Seattle, Zimerman expressed frustration about the hassle and expense of touring the U.S. with his piano.

Shortly after Sept. 11, his instrument was confiscated at JFK Airport when he landed in New York to give a recital at Carnegie Hall. Thinking the glue smelled funny, the Transportation Security Administration decided to take no chances and destroyed the piano. Since then he has shipped his pianos in parts, which he reassembles by hand after he lands. To get from city to city within the U.S., he hires a driver to take the shell of the piano, and he drives another car that holds the precious custom-designed keys and hammers.

Lately, he'd seemed pleased with the direction the United States has taken. During a performance Friday at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, he delighted his Bay Area audience by making sly reference to his approval of Barack Obama in the White House.

But by the time he drove his piano to Los Angeles, Zimerman's mood appeared to have darkened. His remarks, which some in the audience characterized as angry, were the talk of Los Angeles' classical music world and its small Polish community Monday.

Deborah Borda, president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said that while some patrons were taken aback by Zimerman's comments,she did not believe it would affect attendance or fundraising.

"It was very clear he was speaking for himself," she said. "We obviously can't censor. We believe in freedom of expression. We don't use a hook to drag people off the stage."

In a spirited range of comments on Culture Monster, many praised Zimerman and others said the stage was no place for divisive political speech. "Go Zimerman, and take the Dixie Chicks with you," said one post, referring to the country music group that in 2003 created a ruckus when a member said they were ashamed President Bush was from Texas.

Others noted that though classical music culture in the United States is among the least overtly political of enclaves, Poland has a long tradition of mixing the political and the musical. Composer and pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski was Poland's third prime minister and is revered in Poland the way the Founding Fathers are here.

"There is a tradition of Polish pianists being in the middle of political events," said Marek Zebrowski, director of the Polish Music Center at USC.

Though Poland gets comparatively little attention in the U.S., American policy recently has been a hot-button issue in Poland. Poles were upset about allegations that the CIA held suspected Al Qaeda militants in secret prisons in Poland. A Polish newspaper mockingly referred to the country as "the 51st state." Also controversial was a Bush administration proposal to put missile defense facilities there.

Sumi Hahn, a Seattle journalist who interviewed Zimerman earlier this month, said she was not surprised to hear of his outburst. She said he told her that he had "very mixed feelings now about America."

In the past five years," she quoted him as saying, "something happened here that changed the world: a war based on lies. . . . So much damage was done worldwide ... and Americans are so unaware."

On the other hand, Robert Cole, director of Cal Performances in Berkeley, said he was surprised to hear of Zimerman's L.A. comments -- especially because of the lightness that characterized his performance in Berkeley.

Just before playing a Bach partita, Zimerman told his audience it was important to consider the political purpose of a piece of music. Bach, he told his audience, "had made a decision to put his piece in a minor key rather than a major one." Perhaps, he said, according to audience members who were there, he did that because there was a leader Bach didn't like.

Zimerman made an approving reference to Obama and then played the piece, but ended it in a joyful C major instead of amelancholy C minor.

"The audience loved it," said Christina Kellogg, director of public relations at Cal Performances. "His playing was brilliant and they broke into huge applause, and he was clearly pleased that the audience was completely with him."

Cole said he had breakfast with the pianist last week at a music-themed cafe across the street from the campus. Zimerman spoke mainly of how exhausting it was to travel with a Steinway.

"I'm sorry he's not coming back," Cole said. "He reminds me of Don Quixote. He's on a quest for perfection."

Cole added that, from a public relations perspective, it's too bad Zimerman hadn't offered his comments about Bach to Los Angeles and saved his fiery political rhetoric for Berkeley.

"I think he maybe picked the wrong place," he said. "It would have been less of an uproar here."

--Jessica Garrison and Diane Haithman with Mark Swed contributing.

Earlier by Mark Swed: Review: Krystian Zimerman's controversial appearance at Disney Hall

Photo: Krystian Zimerman in 2005. Credit: Kasslara.

Comments

[Sang Won Han]

Check this out

[veneda]

Krystian Zimerman is one of if not the greatest pianist ever. Listening to him playing is an extraordinary experience. He is maybe the last living true artist, that is, that has gift from heaven, but also perfect craft of piano playing. Of course it all matters for people of distinction, who are able to appreciate high art. How many of that kind of people we have in America? Let’s faces it, this country is dominated by vulgarians who would do everything possible not to recognizes such a subtle talent as Krystian Zimerman. Consciously or not, they will destroy his piano, just in case, for the biggest fear vulgarians have is culture. No wonder that Krystian Zimerman goes nuts on the tours in this country; no wonder that he does not want to perform here anymore. For the artists of his class, it is better to perform in Europe, China, Latin America and Russia – regardless of politics people in those countries still know how to appreciate the great artist.

[Daniel Lewandowski]

mike, don't forget that Poland was a communist state thanks to your "great" leader, president Roosevelt, who sold us to Stalin. This experience makes me think that USA would do nothing to save Poland in the future as well. Next time learn some history before you start writing nonsense. So far USA acts like it does not give a s... about Poland, so why should be care?

[Marco]

for our and your freedom!

[Donald Frazell]

I always love Polish revisionist history. They still think their borders should be nearly a milienium old, or of the old Polish-Lithuanian empire, when the incorporated other peoples. And then ignoring thier own hatred of and near genocide of Jews. And now blaming Roosevlet for something that had nothing to do with him. So we were to go to war with Stalin after jointly defeating Hitler? Your nuts, that was your problem, not ours.

Take it up with papa joe, go dig him up if you want to. That they failed to defend or retake their land was not Americas issue. You dont hear Koreans whining, do you? Or Slovaks, or Czechs, or Bulgarians? Rumanians were Axis and so lost, really not our issue. Hungarians(Magyars) did have a legit complaint.

Why are Poles so sensitive and vindictive, inferiority complex perhaps?

[BART]

I don't think Americans can understand what really happened in Eastern Europe really. American sold Poland to Russia and they didn't care in the past, so I don't think they would care now if something happen from Russia side. I think Americans should learn history first. Don't be megalomaniacs. Anyway Mr Krystian is an artist and they usually say what they want.

[Donald Frazell]

We did not sell Poland to the Soviets, thats Polish propaganda, they always want to blame things on others, when its your fault for not revolting, like the Czechs and Hungarians did. Not til the shipyard workers simply looked for basics union rights, a socialist rather than commuinst approach did the already cracked facade of Communism show its weakness.

The Soviets won the war against the Nazis with blood, we with industrial might. The Soviets took Poland, and were in Berlin far before we could ever have even kept a unified Germany, let alone Poland. And the boundaries then changed, Poland shifted to the West taking parts of what were Germany, Selicia and Prussia. Losing its eastern part which was Belarus and Ukrainian anyway, though Poles love to argue no matter what the proportion of population, it should be there anyway.

Being split over a hundred years between Prussia, AustroHungary and Russia has given the Poles a deep anger and confused history of truth. They are far from being the best to complain about others, attempting, to finish the job of the Nazis in killing all the Jews of the land. Stop complaining. Your history is tristed to your own desire, few groups have lied as much as what I have heard from the mouths of Poles. I AM a history major. John Paul II was one of the few who did recognize truth, unlike the Roman churces current nazi leader.

Chopin was the greatest Polish pianist and artist, half French though he was. This guy is jsut another technician with an attitude, not a creative artist, but an interpretive and perfromance one. like an actor, not a playwrite. Thye are a dime a dozen, jsut ifind another. forget him, why listen to lies? There are plenty of truths out there we do not recognize, this is not one of tehm. No one wants your country. Even the Russians dumped you,. Get over it.

[Pietka]

1. Americans think, that that they are global police force - they are not
2. Donald Frazeli - don't call us nuts - look at your own history - honestly and then judge
3. Roosevelt sold us to Stalin - that's a fact he didn't do enythig to defend us against him, look at Churchill he tryed, he knew what will happend after II WW, and he wanted strike at Balkans, he knew that Estern Europe will be Russian satelite - Roosevelt didn't accepted it
4. Don't judge Poland You simply don't understand us

[Daniel Lewandowski]

Mr. Frazell, I can't believe you are a history major, because you wouldn't write all this nonsense if you really were. Churchill was very embarrassed when he wanted to talk about the future of Europe after WWII and Stalin said to him, that there is nothing to talk about because everything had been already agreed with Roosevelt. Also, I know it's quite popular to blame Poland for Holocaust. There are forces in the USA working hard on this, namely World Jewish Congress, who is interested in getting as much of the money left by Jews (Polish citizens by the way) in Poland and in Swiss bank accounts. Of course, they have no moral right for that, but it's a good business. Jews were the largest minority in Poland (a couple of millions of people). We had good times and bad times together, but for a anti-semitic country as you think Poland was (is), there were quite many of them there, don't you think?

There was no other country during the WWII that developed an underground institutions and military forces to the extent Polish people managed to do, so stop bullshiting about not being able to defend our country. We had 20 years to build a country from the ground up, when two largest armies (Germans and Soviets) of the times invaded Poland, you idiot. We fought for 5 weeks, French with the Maginot line managed to keep up for a week.

Really, don't ever tell people you are a history major, because you simply wasted money on your education.

[Iwok]

Which truth are you talking about, Donald?
The fact is that many people here in Poland, for no partucular reason, imo, truly believed in the USA - even during war in Iraq Poland was one of few states truly supporting your country.
The fact is also that American government (no matter Bush or Obama`s) uses Poland in its foreign policy - the same as it uses many other countries for America`s own purposes.
Zimerman only said a few words of truth, surprisingly rather unpopular in his own country.

[gg]

while i agree with his notion that the US is imperialist, he should work on his own country first. Poles are one of the most racist, anti-semitic people i have ever encountered.

[Stefan]

To GG
You wrote - "Poles are one of the most rascist, antisemitic people I have ever encountered".
A bit broad a statement , don't you think. How many Polish people have you met? What percent of the World Polish population is that? Such stereotyping is reprehensible! You certainly are not one to judge others.

Donald Frazell- Your claims of Polish participation in the anti[jewish genocide perpetrated by the German nazis shows a fundamental disregard for the truth and complete insensitivity for Poles who were murdered as well. You are so full of misguided hatred towards Poles that it is scary since It was such misguided hate that motivated the Germans to kill Jews ... and Poles.

[Michal Jastrzebski]

Roosevelt did not sell Poland, whenever I hear this idiocy I almost puke. I am not a Roosevelt lover I don't actually think too highly of him but if someone think that anybody could have kept Stalin out of Poland in 1945 should have his brain examined.
And Zimerman is a disgrace - he may be a great pianist but he has left-liberal sauerkraut in his brain - how many US military are in Poland these days, 5, 10, 20? This is how they want to "control" Poland? Of course Mr.Zimerman forgot how many Soviet troops stationed in Poland before 1990 and how Poland was "controlled" at that time but perhaps he did not mind or was too young to care.
Yes, I am a Pole and I am ashamed of Mr.Zimerman stupid outbursts.

[Joseph Ferreira]

Mr. Zimerman was scheduled to perform in recital in Boston shortly before his Berkley & LA appearances, but he abruptly cancelled his concert on the day itself, claiming illness. At the time, those of us who are subscribers to the performing arts series in which he was to appear were curious to see that no reschedule date was given, only refund information. Now, of course, the reason is crystal, if disappointingly, clear.

While I empathize with Mr. Zimerman's general concerns with US military involement overseas (though I exempt tracking down Al Qaeda & the Taliban from those concerns), I find it disconcerting that throughout the eight years of the Bush administration, Mr. Zimerman chose to continue performing with limited or no political denunciations and only expresses his concience now that the Obama administration has committed to a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq. Could it be that Mr. Zimerman's political conscience is more in tune with his anger and frustration at US Customs blatant stupidity in destroying his piano than it is with alleged US global improprieties?

Lest anyone think I am one of those "vulgarians" referred to in a previous post, my partner is himself a classical pianist & music professor who has performed on Paderewski's piano in Newport, RI, we are subscribers to four separate classical music concert series in the Boston area including the Boston Symphony and my partner runs a southern New England pre-collegiate piano festival annually at the University of Rhode Island.

With those bona fides now established, my hope is that my next comments won't simply be dismissed. Mr. Zimerman's actions are disturbingly similar to those of another great, but notably eccentric pianist, Glenn Gould, who may not have expressed political viewpoints, but did engage in actions that drew attention to himself rather than to his brilliant musical performance. Regardless of whether Mr. Zimerman ever performs in the US or not, I hope that this form of grandstanding is not the beginning of a pattern of erratic behaviours that overshadow his technical and artistic brilliance all in an effort of drawing attention to himself rather than his music. That would be more disturbing than his foresaking his patrons and admirers by refusing to perform here ever again.

[Fabian]

To Donald Frazell

1.Poland was invaded in 1939 - don't you remember? Why should Poland - a victim of German aggression - lose its legal frontiers confirmed by world powers in 1919 and 1923 as a result of war in which Poland's troops were fighting at winners side? Can you explain this illogical point of view? Why it is good when USA posses ex-Mexican lands with Spanish language inhabitants, and it is not good when Poland posses so-called Belarussian and Ukrainian lands (so-called because in fact they are not Belarussian and Ukrainian) with 40% of Polish people?

2.Before Soviet took Berlin there were at least two big and important meetings of The Great Three (i.e. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill) in Teheran and Yalta where Western leaders agreed to sell whole Eastern Europe to Stalin. Of course, Red Army was a great invincible power in these days, but USA had atom bomb. And why Western powers started crying about Iron Curtain, Empire of Evil etc. in 1948? Then, Stalin had already have nuclear weapon too. Wasn't it cynical way to use sold nations of Eastern Europe againts Stalin?

3. You're naming us "Poles" when talking about tragedy of Jews etc. Why don't you call Germans "Germans" and instead you use the word Nazis? Don't you know that Hitler, Himmler, Rosenberg and ALL the others III Reich officials were Germans? It's fact that some people from other nations were their helpers in killing Jews. Most of them were Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Dutch and French and NOT Poles.

[Donald Frazell]

Even though i have looked up and read several articles excusing Poles of post war anti semtic atrocities, i have met many jews here in LA who cannot stand Poles, because of what happened after the war, not during it. All those articles were started or cowritten by Poles, and information is very sketchy and limited as to data. Half the jews remaining after the Nazis nearly exterminated them left after WWII. But to be fair, there are more Poles honored by Isareal for being friends of the Jews for saving lives than any other nationality. but as by far most of the jews killed were in Poland, if this wasnt so, it would be an indictment of an entire people. There arre always the good, the bad, and the ugly middle who do whatever is in their own interest, and the largest group.

And I am not jewish or a friend of Israel, which simply does what all nations do, what is in its self interest, and has commited the smae sorts of sins all nations do. But attempted to cover their demeaning of Arab life as self defense. There are many truths here.

i have known three Poles well, two I worked with, one photographed my wedding, all were near virulently anti Jewish. Arabs are semites too by the way, their battles are a family war, and so, brutal.

Poles whine far more than any other Eastern block nationality. Only the Magyars(Hungarians) have a legit gripe against us. The Poles did not revolt as they and the Czechs did. but neither they nor the Bulgars or East Germans or Yugoslaves complain nearly what the Poles always have, an inferiority complex they love to blame others about, perhaps? The North Koreans were "given away" as we did not yet know the Atomic bombs would shorten the war, we were bringing in the Soviets to atack Imperial Japan, and needed them to take the Korean peninsula, And so gave them legal post war jurisdiction, for the short term, which of course they abused for their own purposes. Life isnt perfect, you do what needs to be done. Especially in war.

And the Yugoslavs were by far the most successful and heroic fighters against the Nazis and Fascists, they nearly broke their occupiers, Marshall Tito leading te peoples agasint their enemies, only the Croats siding with the Axis powers. As did the Rumanians, and so have no complaint in their loss, as with the Germans. The French and others had undergrounds as succesful and brave as the Poles, stop with the eternal myopia. Poland was simply moved west, and now fits much better where the majorities lived, though as mans history is one of migration, there is never a clearly defined boarder. Only war does this, and did.

Chruchill was a wonderful war leader, but was voted out of office because of his extrme and arrogant post war dreams, ones of rebuilding the British Empire. He is far from being one to quote to back any sort of non war argument. And as even he said about Hitler, he would make a deal with the devil to defeat him. And WE did, the British Commonwealth, and the USA. We made agreements about who was to administer areas after the cessation of hostilities, not for postward domination. Though we pretty much did know better, there was no choice, the heroic Soviet armies already occupied these lands, and nothing short of another world war could have stopped it, next you will be quoting Patton. .Sorry your freedom was not worth millions of more lives. We won the cold war anyway.

Stop being so self absorbed, its a big world, and many factors are always in play, stop being so New Age and sensitive, it is NOT all about you. As with the current Art world. life does not revolved around you. Get over yourselves, and grow up. This pianist too, they are a dime a dozen, he is not creative, but an interpretive artist with chops. But obviously little knowledge of the world. as with Hollywood types, just shut up and do your job.

art collegia delenda est

[Kevin]

"He reminds me of Don Quixote. He's on a quest for perfection."

As I remember the book, Don Quixote was a hare-brained fool who killed some poor, innocent guy who in his delusion he decided was some kind of evil enemy. He went around doing great harm while thinking himself a great hero. Eventually, he realized what a fool he had been and died in regret. Oh, wait, maybe there really is some similarity.

The issue is not so much that he hates America but that he chooses to force his opinions on his audience. How would he feel if a Jewish pianist toured Poland and berated his audiences at every stop for their nation's historic anti-Semetism? (And please, let's be honest here. Poland has a long history of virulent anti-Semetism.) This sort of thing just leads to the bumper-stickerization of public discourse. We end up separated into a thousand little tribes, all yelling at each other. There is a time and a place for political debate. There is a time and a place for shared enjoyment of art.

As for his political diatribe, if Poland wants to go its own way, they can just say no to us. Don't blame the US for asking for cooperation. Is Zimerman saying that Poland is so gutless that it cannot say no to the big, bad United States? I suspect that his views are not the views of Poland's government. If Zimerman doesn't like it, he should convince a majority of his countrymen to vote them out of office. He's like a little dog barking at the postman because he doesn't like the packages that his master is having delivered. "Get your hands of my country." What adolescent nonsense. As every child prodigy teaches us, maturity is not a prerequisite for musical ability.

[Pavel Polak]

I applaud Mr. Zimmerman for taking a stance, for not being "just a pianist" or as
'diplomatic' and 'PC' as many others prefer to be, and for his insightfulness.
We don't realize many wrongdoings of our overgrown industrial-military complex; heck, most of us don't know about the latter's existence!
It would seem that the number of those taking the route he took keeps growing in recent years, and our America shows she still needs them: just look at some comments here!
The only issue is in his making a statement during the recital. Well, he must have chosen this avenue for making his statement even stronger. I cannot but salute him. Chapeau bas, Mr. Zimmerman!

[Donald Frazell]

How refreshingly advernterous and valiant of you, Mr PAVEL POLAK. You are really going against the crowd aren't you? Of course, maybe its because no one who isnt Polish can really tell what his incohesive rant was a really all about. It made no sense, to us lowly non Poles. Perhaps you can enlighten us?

Seems like typical artist arrogance to me, knowing nothing about something, yet having an extreme opinion about it. Enlighten me my good, or not so good, NATO "allies"?

[MIster Pister]

Bravo for Zimerman. Note how the flag-wavers and Bush-hogs and freepers and Faux News watching dummies - the morons of this great Republic, as H.L. Mencken might say - hollered obscenities in Walt Disney Hall (shame!) because someone had the temerity to express an opinion not perfectly in line with their own and with that of the model of political perfection, the Almighty and Wondrous US Govt (praise be its name, hallejewah!). Well, this IS the country of "free speech zones": little fenced-in areas for the cattle to receive retinal scans and helicopter surveillance if it disagrees with the government. Tune out classical music. Tune in Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage (Weiner). Let your mind go! It might ask questions, which would disturb your SUV commute to your sales flack job. Go Israel--I mean USA USA USA!