Tribute to late Russian pianist signed by world’s leading classical musicians

Twenty two of the world’s most celebrated classical musicians have signed a tribute to Russian pianist Pavel Kushnir, who died on hunger strike last month while in pretrial detention awaiting trial for his criticism of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The open letter, which was published in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday, was signed by musicians including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir András Schiff and Alexander Melnikov.

“The greatest tragedy of Pavel’s life is that only now are we beginning to realise what a wonderful artist, writer and thinker he was. We simply did not know him. This reminds us that the perverse ‘selection process’ of law enforcement leads to the most remarkable and fearless people being thrown into prison, often the best people in a sick nation,” the letter said.

“We bow to those heroes and visionaries who, in their desperate loneliness, sacrifice themselves for humanity and pay the ultimate price,” the letter continued. A video of Kushnir performing Rachmaninov, a composer Vladimir Putin is known to favour, was added to the text.

The authors of the letter also expressed their support for Russia’s other political prisoners, especially the lesser known ones who, they noted, had less chance of being released in a prisoner exchange.

Kushnir, an accomplished concert pianist who studied at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, was arrested in May and charged with ‘inciting terrorism’ after publishing anti-war videos on his YouTube channel, to which just five people were subscribed. He died in pretrial detention in Birobidzhan, the capital of the Jewish autonomous region in Russia’s Far East, on 28 July.