Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Oh fudge, now Mikhail Pletnev in trouble too

That's why I often think it's sad how much attention stories like these get. I would encourage everyone here in the US to look at their local sex offender registry. Most communities make addresses and photographs of registered offenders available online, and in any city of 100k or more people, I can almost guarantee that there will be at least 1 or 2 in every zip code.

Sexual abuse is a real problem. I worry that stories like this fool people into thinking it's something that mostly happens to Russian homosexuals vacationing in Thailand. It's not - it happens in Heterosexual Christian Affluent White America every day.

I know this is hearsyay, but according to my teacher, Pletnev's behavior is an open secret at the Moscow conservatory. Said teacher also was willing to bet that Pletnev will get out of these charges because he is extremely well connected. Reportedly Gorbachev himself facilitated the establishment of the Russian Natioanl Orchestra under Pletnev's direction.. Take with some salt.
I know this is quite naive, but I still have difficulty with the association of deep artistry and moral bankrupcy.. I somehow think they should be mutually exclusive.

Yes, and Robert Gutman's bio of Wagner has some very difficult moments to come to terms with.

Pletnev is one of my favorite pianists so this is pretty upsetting news. If true I'm wondering how much of a difference it would make to people if it were a 14 year old girl? IMO too much importance is being placed on his supposed homosexuality. The crime here (if committed) is pedophilia.

That is hearsay, but hearsay often enough has its roots in reality - even though it's not admissable in court. Horowitz's sexuality (which is not otherwise connected to this, because he was never accused of consorting with minors) was rumored for decades before he was outed in print.

The heart of the issue is this: if it was known that Pletnev was engaging in sexual activity with minors while in Moscow, someone should have reported it. If someone knew and didn't report it, they are morally culpable. And I can't help feeling that if Pletnev was the conservatory janitor, rather than an eminent pianist, it would have been reported immediately.

As to the dichotomy between artistry and moral behavior (either political, sexual, or lacking in personal integrity) I can only respond:

*Alfred Cortot
*Wilhelm Furtwangler
*Walter Gieseking
*Joyce Hatto
*Elly Ney
*Josef Hofmann
*Richard Wagner

There is no correlation whatsoever, nor any reverse correlation, between personal morality and artistry. There are great and profound musicians who were, as human beings, rotten to the core. And there are mediocre musicians who were wonderful human beings. Few were both great musicians and sterling humans (William Kapell springs to mind here).

True. And there is a double standard, perhaps not as pronounced as in years past, but it still exists. What, also, if it were not Mikhail Pletnev who was accused of this, but Natasha Pletnev? (Although it must be pointed out that molestation committed by females is exceedingly rare.)

There were always rumors/stories about Benjamin Britten's interest in boys--was he ever formally charged or arrested for immoral activities?

What 'dichotomy' was there for her????
(None, I think.)

BTW......I have no idea what you meant about J. Hofmann but then again I don't know a whole lot about him personally at all.

Hatto knowingly participated in passing off others' work as her own. (Just read her interviews, there's no way she didn't know about it.)

Hofmann got involved with an underage (female) pupil while at Curtis. It was swept under the rug. (A lot of old timers claim she seduced him and ruined his life, which is a good demonstration of the mentality that prevailed at the time.)

Not so, judging by the number of female teachers going to jail for having sex with their students in the last few years.

Those are cases that get a lot of publicity because of their sensationalism and rarity, and do not reflect a statistical reality. Look at the sex offender registries of any municipality/county. They are filled with men.

I hate to say it, but isn't that sort of a corollary of a disproportionate number of pianists being gay and a disproportionate number of gays being paedophiles?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_pianists

Looking at the above list, I don't see a disproportionate number of gays or lesbians.

Well, true. I'd guess that in that case the explanation is that the total suppression of sexuality that comes with it is a very dangerous thing.

FunkyLlama: I've been waiting for someone to say this. Bravo. You hit the nail on the head.

Is Pletnev gay? Is Pletnev a pedophile? Or, is he someone who, under societal pressure, suppressed his sexuality to the extent that it manifested itself in a very destructive way?

Sexuality is a powerful thing. What some call greed (the desire for riches and posessions) is in reality driven by a deeper desire, to find an attractive mate. Why do some people drive fancy cars, live in expensive homes, wear designer clothes - to be more desireable for mating purposes (whether it's opposite-sex or same-sex is irrelevant).

I'm quite shocked that there wasn't as big a backlash against CWPiano as there should have been. He effectively stated that its morally wrong to 'turn a blind eye' to the fact that there are many pianists who are gay (as if that is something that we should be concerned about even if it is true), as well as grouping child molestation and a same-sex attraction into the same category of 'peculiar taste'. I find his comments distasteful, ignorant and offensive.

I have worked at or attended 5 different universities in five states over the years.

At these schools, there were a total of 22 piano faculty, not including myself.

Of those 22:

14 are male, 8 are female

18 are currently in heterosexual marriages

2 were openly homosexual, 1 of whom has been in a stable monogamous relationship for over 10 years

2 were heterosexual and single

Sounds about right. My piano school has about 70 in it I think, and I only know of 5 who are homosexual, including myself. This doesn't strike me as being significantly above average.
I don't know of any lesbians, even though there are far more female pianists here than there are male ones.

Interesting ... we in the 'New Age' music world rarely if ever hear
something like this going on. Instead, we get this:

Night in jail for New Age star Yanni on battery charges



MIAMI (AFP) - The police report says Yanni's girlfriend, Silvia Barthes, called police shortly before midnight Thursday, saying the musician had assaulted her and had locked her in the bathroom of his residence near Palm Beach, Florida... Full story (in case you want to read it) at http://www.sawfnews.com/entertainment/8653.aspx

No. But that was 'then', these days it would have landed him in plenty of hot water and trashed his career. (And BTW, they weren't 'rumors'. Britten's interest in boys -which was essentially platonic- was well corroborated.)