-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Pianist Strikes a Political Chord By Philip Kennicott Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday , February 10, 2000 ; C01 The Austrian Embassy in Northwest Washington is essentially a concert hall with offices wrapped around it, a fitting architectural metaphor for a country whose primary exports in the past century have been intellectual and artistic. Pianist Andras Schiff, whom the embassy had been courting for years, was supposed to have played Bach in that hall last night. But then a man named Joerg Haider intervened. And in a handwritten note to the embassy, faxed last Thursday, Schiff canceled his concert, citing the rise of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party, led by Haider, to a position within the newly formed Conservative government that was sworn in the next day. Haider, the governor of Austria's Carinthia province, has made well-publicized remarks about the Holocaust that are widely perceived to be antisemitic, and his party's 20-point "Contract With Austria" includes strong anti-immigration language that many consider demagogic and xenophobic. "The rise of Joerg Haider in a country whose role in the Holocaust still awaits clarification is more than unsettling, it's shameful and unforgivable," Schiff wrote. When Schiff canceled last week, reaction to Haider's election had come mostly from the diplomatic front. But since the cancellation became public over the weekend, a wider cultural response has developed. The most powerful symbolic gesture came from Gerard Mortier, the Belgian director of Austria's Salzburg Festival. The Salzburg Festival has no equivalent within the United States; it is not only the world's most prestigious musical festival, but its cultural and symbolic importance almost puts it on a par with a branch of the Austrian government. On Monday, Mortier decided to leave the festival after this summer's performances, a year before his contract runs out. He, too, cited the rise of the Freedom Party as his reason for leaving, though some have suggested that he is about to receive another major European festival appointment and finds it convenient to leave early. Zubin Mehta, the music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, was drawn into the fray as well after the Israeli government recalled its ambassador to Vienna. Mehta has expressed concern about the role Haider will play in the new government and has said he will avoid Austria if he sees signs of prejudice or hostility. Mehta's wait-and-see approach is more prevalent than Schiff's immediate reaction. Thomas Mandl, a Jewish violinist who was imprisoned at the Nazi "show camp" of Theresienstadt (and subsequently sent to Auschwitz and Dachau), says gestures such as Schiff's may harden Austria's inclination to isolationism. "So far the party program does not contain anything that we might call devastating," said Mandl from his home in Florida. "By canceling their concerts and other cultural things, there may be a hardening of the whole posture of the Austrians. They feel the whole world is trying to dictate what they should do." While Schiff has not yet canceled upcoming engagements in Austria, including a June concert in Vienna, he felt obliged to make a strong statement, and quickly. "I feel more strict about it," said Schiff from New York. "It was not a sudden decision. I saw this situation maturing, and it did not take me by surprise. It is not that significant a thing [for a single artist] to cancel a concert, but I felt it was my personal duty." The Hungarian-born Schiff is especially admired for his performances of composers from the Austrian tradition, Mozart and Schubert in particular. Schiff's relationship to Austria and Austrian culture is complicated. Both of his parents, who married shortly after World War II, were victims of the Nazis and both lost their first spouses during the Holocaust. After the war, they returned to Hungary, where Schiff was born. In the communist Hungary of Schiff's youth, antisemitism went underground but was still strong enough that he felt obliged to be quiet about his Jewish roots. After leaving Hungary in his mid-twenties, Schiff found himself without a passport--vital to the career of a traveling artist. The United States refused to give him one and so, in 1987, he was offered, and accepted, Austrian citizenship. Although he was grateful for the gesture, his feelings about Austria soured during his residence in Salzburg. "I heard enough there, statements from taxi drivers, doormen, waiters," said Schiff, who describes his personal appearance as "more Aryan than Hitler. These people, who are now in their twenties and thirties, they start talking about how it is all the Jews' fault. They want to sweep the Holocaust under the rug." Schiff left Austria five years ago, when Haider's power was beginning to grow. He now considers Haider far more worrisome than former Austrian president Kurt Waldheim (1986-1992), who covered up his wartime role as an officer in a German army unit that commited atrocities in the former Yugoslavia. "Haider is far more dangerous than Waldheim," says Schiff. "Waldheim was a small-time liar. Haider is an evil person--I feel this instinctively--and he is very smart. Unfortunately, he speaks the minds of a great many Austrians who think that same way but don't have the courage to say so." Schiff's cancellation took the Austrian Embassy by surprise. Austrian cultural attache Teresa Indjein said in response: "I deeply regret, though well understand, Andras Schiff's decision to cancel the Bach recital at the Austrian Embassy, based on his recognition of the tragic realities of Austria's past and his concern for the present." On Monday afternoon, Roswitha Novak was working the phones in the embassy's cultural department, but had reached only "H" on the list of 500 people who had planned to attend the event. The reaction of most people mirrored that of the embassy itself: a mixture of understanding and disappointment. There were also a few questions about the propriety of Schiff's gesture. Beatrice Fink, a retired professor of French literary history at the University of Maryland, had planned to attend Schiff's recital. She said she understood his decision, but wondered if the embassy had been treated fairly. "The embassy has played a strong role in highlighting the plight of the Jews in Austria," she said, adding that she considers the cultural staff very "educated and liberal." The embassy has sponsored numerous projects that deal with the Holocaust, including the presentation, with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, of Viktor Ullmann's opera "Der Kaiser von Atlantis." Like Mandl, Ullmann was sent to Theresienstadt; unlike Mandl, he didn't survive. Fink, who was born to an Austrian Jewish family that fled the Nazis in 1938, finds herself trying to balance the competing claims of Austria's brilliant intellectual (and often very liberal) tradition and its history of parochialism and antisemitism. Haider is not just an Austrian politician with David Duke's good looks and Pat Buchanan's populist appeal; he represents an angry bloc of blue-collar workers who, despite Austria's strong economy, fear losing jobs to the country's very large immigrant population. For as long as it can, the Austrian Embassy wants to stay above the fray. "Despite the current turmoil and disruption in Austria and beyond, I will not allow, from my point of view and within our scope, the cultural department of the Austrian Embassy . . . to succumb to division and polarization, because by doing so nothing positive, valuable and tangible can be accomplished," Indjein wrote in a statement released on Sunday. Schiff now finds himself in an awkward position. He feels uncomfortable with both his Austrian citizenship and his Hungarian roots. And his identity as a secular Jew is something that is still evolving. "I still have a lot to discover about it," he says. A slip of the tongue is revealing. "I still hope this Haydn--no I mean Haider because I love Haydn--will disappear," he says, a little bemused at himself for accidentally mentioning Franz Joseph Haydn, the Austrian composer who, along with Mozart, defined the classical tradition of piano music. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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