l During the 2008 Georgian crisis the Russian conductor (who is from Vladikavkaz in Russian Ossetia) travelled to the South Ossetia capital Tskhinvali to conduct the Mariinsky orchestra in Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony - composed during the Nazi siege of Leningrad and broadly considered a Russian victory ode.
The concert was broadcast live on Russian TV and Gergiev made a speech praising "Great Russia" for saving his homeland from "murderous" Georgia.
l Commenting on the Pussy Riot case last year, Gergiev suggested that the band members were using the publicity of hunger strikes to make money.
l Protests were staged at Gergiev concerts last year after Russia passed new anti-gay legislation and the conductor made a statement to a Dutch newspaper equating homosexuals with paedophiles.
l Gergiev defends his position as an artist without borders. He conducts the World Orchestra for Peace, which performed at the BBC Proms on Sunday to a notable number of empty seats in the Royal Albert Hall.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article