Exclusive video: String quartet is disrupted in the Concertgebouw
NewsFrom our man in Amsterdam:
I’m in the small hall of the Concertgebouw (interval right now) for the first of five concerts by the Jerusalem Quartet of the 15 Shostakovich quartets. (Chief exec) Simon Reinink is here. Usually no security but some brought in for tonight.
A couple of protesters got to the stage early in the first quartet. Staff did a good job to remove them quickly.
Watch video.
The second half proceeded without further incident.
“It’s gettin’ to be ri-g*ddamn-diculous.” -John Wayne
“Approximately 75% of the Dutch Jewish population was murdered during the Holocaust, a percentage that was unusually high compared to other Western European countries. In contrast, the victimisation rates in nearby countries like Belgium and France were much lower, at roughly 40% and 25% respectively.”
The Dutch claim to be direct but struggle accepting hard facts about their parents and grandparents.
“Dutch “Jew hunters,” such as those belonging to the notorious Henneicke Column, were paid a bounty for each person they captured. The amount varied over time, starting at 5 guilders and rising to as much as 40 guilders per person towards the end of World War II.”
Typical of the older Dutch generation: self-entitled and ignorant.
Ever tried taking a seat in the foyers before a concert or during the interval? There’s a good chance someone sitting nearby will tell you ‘you can’t sit there, it’s occupied’ because they want it left empty for their friend who is arriving in 20 minutes. Zero respect for others.
Not to mention the pushing at the cloakroom or when ‘queuing’ for a drink…
Not polite, decorous and courteous like us, eh?
When that happens, just sit down and tell them the chairs are there for everyone, not for them to block for themselves. They will learn eventually.
There’s hardly a concert hall or opera house in the word that I have frequented over the past 40+ years that doesn’t have it’s fair share of elderly seat-hoggers and queue pushers. That’s what happens with a coffin-dodging clientele. They push to the front and fall asleep in the middle of the second work on the programme. Get used to it.
As for myself, yes we all feel for the many historic and present-day plights of mankind, but if I go to a concert it is because I want to hear the advertised performers play the advertised programme. I can listen attentively and return to my conscience afterwards. Others should learn to do likewise. These protests achieve nothing and destroy the experience of concert-going for everyone.
Protesters, relax. These people are musicians — they can barely cope with the stress to perform for you, let alone free your Palestine. They survive on applause and perfectly played notes. Even the Israeli government doesn’t notice them, let alone support or protect them (which is a shame really). Honestly, if politicians went to more classical concerts, they might have evolved better behaviour by now.
Conclusion: classical music for everyone. Mandatory. From birth.
Classical music is beautiful, meaningful and civilized.
Sadly, there’s no evidence that it improves the moral behavior of individuals or societies.
In response I’d say it’s also worth remembering that Dutch were the first to protest about what the Nazis were doing to the Jewish community.
‘The February strike (Dutch: Februaristaking) of 1941 was a general strike in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II. It was organized by the outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands in defence of persecuted Dutch Jews and against the anti-Jewish measures and the activities of Nazism in general.
The direct causes were a series of arrests and pogroms held by the Germans in the Jewish neighbourhood of Amsterdam, the Jodenbuurt. It started on 25 February 1941 and lasted for two days. By 26 February, 300,000 people had joined the strike. The Germans harshly suppressed the strike, which mostly dissipated by 27 February. The February strike is considered to be the first public protest against the Nazis in occupied Europe.’
Well, I remember once a Jew cut in line in front of me at the checkout.
What in he’ll does the Shoah have to do with the Jlm Quartet at the Concertgebouw? Tchaynik.
I genuinely believe that every protest like this at concerts in Europe leads to an increase in votes for far-right parties.
People who vote for the far-right are probably not going to string quartet concerts for the most part.
That said, if the Jerusalem Quartet wants to do some good on this issue, they ought to commission pieces by both Palestinian and Jewish composers, or collaborate with an Arabic musician. There are ways of using their art to show empathy and peace.
I see: Conservatives don’t listen to music for strings. And I suppose we don’t play bowed string instruments either. Well, I regret to inform you…
I believe these protests are pointless. Do they really think this is an effective way of moving the needle of public opinion….to disrupt a concert? That’s a difficult thing to do, but being obnoxious and inconsiderate is about the worst way to attempt it.
Despicable ignorant fools. Their achievement : embarrassment to the Dutch nation.
Ivan Volkov courageously spoke out about the genocide being committed by the armed forces of the country he was born in.
He states, after being heckled ( but largely applauded) that music and politics are connected.
I am a Jewish and I support such a protest because the West is disgustingly turning a blind eye to some of the worst atrocities to have been committed by a state in recent times.
Over 20,000 children killed by the IDF in 24 months.
Shostakovitch would possibly have sympathised with the protesters. Leading Jewish Israeli scholars of the Holocaust such as Raz Segal, Omer Bar Tov and Amos Goldberg define it as genocide.
We cannot turn a blind are (but sadly we do).
====Shostakovitch would possibly have sympathised with the protesters.
Good point !
Shostakovich was a Philo-Semite. Indeed, his 4th quartet is based largely on Jewish themes.
Thank you. Your comment is a welcome antidote to the knee-jerk reactions of people around here who either are ignorant or wholeheartedly support the decades old oppression of the Palestinians.
Oppression of the Palestinians by whom? I assume you mean by Hamas, who store ammunition and weapons, launch attacks, and establish command posts, at schools hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, turning their own people into human shields, and preventing them from moving when the IDF routinely notifies its intentions.
You just woke up from Siberian permafrost?
As with the BBC, do you also get your figures from Hamas?
I am sick of people like you who assert that because you are of Jewish extraction you feel entitled to aligning your self with aspirational genocidal terrorists and the euro anti-semites who populate the commentor community on this site You are an ignoramus who presumes to know how Shostakovich would have viewed the current war.
They need to exist…. they just have no clue…. but a big power of nuisance.
This has become a despicable happening whenever Israeli musicians and other artists perform or exhibit in Amsterdam and elsewhere in Europe and North America. Fortunately presenters prepare in advance for it and most of them courageously refuse to bow to the threats. Thanks to them and congratulations to the musicians and others who refuse to be bowed by the bigoted disrupters.
This is a necessary reaction whenever Israeli musicians perform or exhibit in Amsterdam and elsewhere in Europe and North America. And the rest of the world as far as I’m concerned.
After decades of oppression, robbery, humiliation and murder, after seeing that not even their participation in a (near-?) genocide can move Israelis and their supporters, there is no other solution than loud protest whenever even the name Israel comes up, and maximum pressure on governments and companies to sever all ties with that murderous Apartheid state.
A “necessary reaction”? It’s nothing of the kind. These musicians are musicians, not agents of the Israeli state. These protesters remained quiet when a proscribed terrorist organisation took over in Gaza and proceeded to try to eliminate the Israeli state by violence. No protests there?
Clem, you wish to isolate Israel. What is your doal? Make it disappear? How will this happen? And what would happen in the process to the 10 milion people who live there?
The answer is clear, isn’t it. You do not object to the genocide of Jews.
Oh please. Keep your manipulative nonsense to yourself. Those 10 million people can continue to live there as long as they want. All that is being asked of them is that they allow the remainders of the Palestinian people to live there as well. Identifying, as the Israeli propaganda machine of which you are a part always does, protest against Israel’s crimes with antisemitism, and in your hilarious case even with advocating genocide, is morally filthy and only confirms how despicably low the Israel propagandists have sunk.
The Palestinians can live “there”. In case you did not know, 20 percent of the population of the state of Israel are non-Jewish Palestinians.
I thought they were Arabs. ‘Palestinians’ is an artificial label created only after the Arabs did not get their way after WW II.
The only morally filthy sentiments I have observed are those originating from you. So you sitting in the comfort of your home are asserting Israelis that would be free to live where they are; if they just let millions of “Palestinians” move to Tel Aviv all would be well. You are either an ignoramus are desiring another holocaust
Their security is incredibly slow. We had the same incident with Jerusalem SQ last year. Someone shouting ‘Free Palestine’ etc.. and took a good 5 min for someone to come out and take him/her down.
The security last night had them removed in about ten seconds total…they could hardly have done any better.
It was a great concert. The protesters were evicted very fast, so it surprises me to see a video. Wish I could stay for the entire season.
On Saturday and Sunday there were no interruptions for Quartets 10 to 15, played sublimely to a mostly filled Kleine Tonhalle. Ditto for the first nine in January, though with more empty seats. It’s an uneven cycle, isn’t it, but nobody could leave without a sense of DS’s humor or temerity with form?
The basic ignorance of the Free Palestine kids is breath-taking. Why have we allowed this?
Dutch antisemitism seems to have lost its traditionally pragmatic foundation.
Does pragmatism excuse antisemitism?
Obviously I failed to express my point clearly, which is entirely my fault.
Hooliganism. Like red paint spellers in museums No connection between cause and effect. Next: ban Jerusalem artichokes. Mindless.
I hope the hooligans were given a hefty fine?
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2019/08/23/the-yiddish-cabaret-jerusalem-quartets-tribute-to-their-grandparents/
I am a Muslim classical musician — and honestly, what do these four brilliant musicians have to do with anyone’s ideology? Their government doesn’t even know they exist; nobody has ever heard of special protection or support for them. Protesters are simply using concerts as a stage backdrop to get attention. Nothing will change politically, yet the only people paying the price are the musicians — performing under the real risk of being attacked, their instruments damaged, while their families sit at home worried sick.
And all this because, as teenagers, they chose a “wrong” quartet name when they were still kids and wonderfully naïve.
Please… even in the darkest chapters of European history, regimes were not storming concerts to attack musicians simply because of who they were — Jewish, Muslim, Christian, whatever. So why are we suddenly doing this now?
Stop this nonsense. If you want to protest, go stand in front of an embassy or a parliament, where it actually makes sense. Go and do some real charity. Leave musicians in peace. We perform, work, and live together in harmony regardless of faith and nationality— maybe try learning that too! And here, right on stage, is the real proof: four musicians — Russian, Belarusian, and two Ukrainians — living, working, and creating marvelous music together in perfect harmony. While some people shout outside, these artists show what real coexistence looks like!
I am an Israeli and I find nothing wrong when the audience tell musicians about their thoughts and feelings , classical music should be related to the world. It should not be caged in some outworldly septuagenarian and octagenerian department.
I wish some Germans would have protested too when Wilhelm conducted Beethoven’s 9th in front of Hitler.
One should not blame Israeli musicians for the psychopathic, murderous regime that rules their country.
Ushers need to be armed.