Having denounced star system, Gidon Kremer comes to Longy

Music Review

October 12, 2011|By Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff

Gidon Kremer was slotted in among student groups and local ensembles Monday… (Kasskara )

GIDON KREMER At: Longy School of Music, Monday

CAMBRIDGE - Gidon Kremer at Longy? The distinguished Latvian violinist made an usual recital appearance Monday night on the modestly proportioned stage of Pickman Concert Hall. The connection to the Cambridge music school was apparently brokered by pianist Andrius Zlabys, but it was also hard not to read the soloist’s choice of venue in light of more recent events on planet Kremer.

This iconoclastic soloist has always had a fierce independent streak in his music-making, his choice of repertoire, his stage presence, and the musical company he keeps. This summer, however, Kremer went one step further, launching a broadside against the entire celebrity star system that drives the classical music industry. He did so by publicly withdrawing from scheduled appearances at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and then releasing a series of letters (posted at the classical music blog Slipped Disc).

In one letter to Verbier’s director, Kremer conceded he was “rather exhausted’’ by the years of touring, but more to the point, said that he was responding to “the poisonous development of our music world, in which ‘stars’ count more than creativity, ratings more than genuine talent.’’ He also decried the “misguided fixation with glamour and sex appeal.’’

Kremer’s critique drew both sympathetic cheers and head scratching across the classical music blogosphere (why attack Verbier per se?) but there’s no denying he touched on serious and longstanding tensions between the field’s commercial and artistic values. On Monday night, it seemed somehow in keeping that his appearance was not at Symphony or Jordan Hall slotted in among big-name artists like Itzhak Perlman and Lang Lang, but on a small community stage, slotted in among student groups and local ensembles.

That said, lest one romantically imagine a new grass-roots touring circuit for Kremer, like pianist Sviatoslav Richter in his later years, it’s worth noting that the violinist will play this same recital program later this month at Lincoln Center, the heart of the country’s classical establishment, and he’ll be returning soon to perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, yes, at Symphony Hall. Kremer has always kept a foot in many worlds and it’s hard to picture that changing anytime soon.