The original article is available for free at the link below:
https://www.diapasonmag.fr/a-la-une/alexandre-tharaud-seleve-contre-lextreme-droite-48896.html
The following translation by Josiah Stocker is also presented for free, please enjoy:
-Alexandre Tharaud raises his voice against the extreme right
As he has confided in an interview conducted by France Musique, the pianist came up against a wall when he proposed to a number of classical musicians to write a statement against the extremist threat.
After the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly, many representative institutions of the musical world (Profedim, The Musical Forces, SNAM-CGT…) pronounced themselves expressly against the extreme right and the threat to culture which would be raised by its rise to power. But among musicians, those who speak out on an individual basis are rare. Alexandre Tharaud is one of these. He has affirmed his position on social media, before going into detail in an interview conducted by our colleagues from France Musique.
-Artists are no longer audible?
Specifically, the pianist confided that on the day following the dissolution, he contacted three classical music figures to propose the signing of a collective statement. But “all three figures wrote back to me, ‘No’”, he lamented. Why did some refuse? “The general tone today, and for a while past, is that artists are no longer audible”, concluded Alexandre Tharaud. “I went on to speak with other musicians. I think that there was an evident timidity, that they would not be willing to expose themselves. I also think that a part- I hope a small one- of the world of classical music is sliding toward the extreme right”, he continues.
To this are added more material considerations: “Certain artists also rely on a subsidized institution, for example an orchestra, a foundation, a festival. They could fear a loss of subsidies, if ever a deputy of the RN were elected in their constituency.” But these questions of money are not essential in the eyes of Tharaud. For him, the principal danger is something else: “The extreme right- which has not changed in its DNA or its history- has always trampled artists. And, in the first place, those who have a dissenting view”, he affirms.
For all that, Alexandre Tharaud has just as few illusions regarding the other political forces of the present: “Not LFI (La France insoumise), not RN”, he wrote in his account on X (formerly Twitter) before clarifying his thoughts: “I look with disgust to my left, I am ashamed of the left. The circus which has lasted two years in the National Assembly has had only one effect: to cause the rise of the extreme right. Disgusted by the left, but nevertheless I continue to prefer it. I only hope for one thing: to see it pull itself together”, he concludes.
(End of translated article)
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