By Joseph Chonto, Davenport
Re this letter advocating a boycott of The Jerusalem Quartet’s performance at Hancher: It struck me as reactionary, broad-brush guilt-by-association hysteria, reminding of contemporary rightwing propaganda: a few cherry-picked, contextless facts spun into a conspiracy theory. Labeling the quartet “ambassadors of an apartheid government, used to art-wash the genocide” and the implication they are a paramilitary string quartet is simply a fantasy of misdirected rage.
Yes, it is abundantly clear Netanyahu, his inner circle, and many of the IDF are guilty of genocide and war crimes, and should be held accountable. The Jerusalem Quartet, however, had nothing to do with these crimes against humanity.
The letter quotes “The Israeli Press Service.” However, an online search brings up no such entity. The quote falsely mentions “three of the quartet came from Russia.” (How is that even relevant?) One was born in Belarus, two were born in Ukraine (immigrating to Israel in 1991), one was born in California to Israeli parents. They served in the IDF — long ago. And so what? It’s mandatory there. Just like going to Vietnam if one was drafted here. I think of the great musicians (e.g. Tim Hardin, Henry Threadgill, Billy Bang, Hamiet Bluiett, Frank Lowe, Lawrence “Butch” Morris) who were soldiers there. To have boycotted them because of their service would only have served them a double dose of gross injustice.
Less than 20 years after Hiroshima the Japanese gave the grandest welcome to Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and continued to do so to many other American musical artists, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Santana. I recall the rapturous receptions given to Glenn Gould in Leningrad and Moscow during the height of cold war tensions — also the very warm receptions Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, a.o. received when first allowed by the USSR to concertize in the U.S. To want to punish artists for the crimes of their nation serves no purpose — other than exposing one’s bigotry.
The Quartet’s choice to present all the Shostakovich quartets on this U.S. tour makes a statement Nevins seemed ignorant of. The Third Quartet (to be performed the first concert) was composed just after WWII and meant as a statement on the horrors and insanity of war. The Eighth Quartet (second concert), often considered the greatest of all Shostakovich’s quartets, is a requiem for all the innocent victims of fascism and an appeal to the consciences of the living. (But perhaps this concert should be boycotted also for the reason that Shostakovich was, after all, Russian?)
The Jerusalem Quartet is highly regarded internationally, playing some of the most complex and intensely moving music ever composed. Every music lover should go.
