Corporations cloak environmentally dubious practices with “sustainability” programs that greenwash their image. We, as consumers, repeatedly choose low price over choosing goods tied to fair trade and labour practices.
And how many of us have made small, incremental moral compromises in our daily personal and professional lives for the sake of protecting our pride or livelihood?
Such small things make the scale of what happens in totalitarian states completely unimaginable, to me, at least. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pause to reflect on it from time to time.
Classical guitarist Simon Wynberg, artistic director of the ARC Ensemble and teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Music has written a remarkable essay for the Orel Foundation that neatly summarizes the messiest of issues: the intersection of the artistic imperative and personal expediency in Nazi-era Germany.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
Wynberg, who has gently guided the ARC Ensemble’s successful foray into rehabilitating composers extinguished or sidelined by Nazi anti-Semitism, raises all of the salient issues, all of which remain topics of fierce debate, in a concise way, provoking any reader to think deeply about how easy it is to blur the seemingly sharp distinction between right and wrong:
An examination of artistic integrity and accountability cannot be confined to historical contexts. The questions asked of those who saw the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler are not dissimilar to the ones that should be asked today. Conclusions are hard-won, but the discussion remains essential. Ultimately the journey is far more important than an arrival.
Here are two videos.
The first is an audio recording of Busch performing his second Violin Sonata (in A Major) with Rudolf Serkin in Washington, in 1946. The second is a Bravo! short film featuring members of the ARC Ensemble on how German violinist Adolf Busch (1891-1952) took a personal stand against National Socialism, and the price he paid for it. The soundtrack is Busch’s String Sextet:
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
