“I didn’t want to make my Facebook page too politicized, but today the situation is really catastrophic.” It is a pianist who gives the alert. Evgeny Kissin, of Russian origin but naturalized British and Israeli, published on Tuesday July 25 on social networks a long message relayed by France Musique, in which he is alarmed at the destruction of the city of Odessa since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The port city in southern Ukraine was once again the target of Russian strikes overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
“In June 2021, I played in Odessa, and it was one of the visits that marked me the most in my life. The Russian armed forces go so far as to bombard the historic center, which is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (…) The inhabitants need our help. It is a question of saving lives, of preserving a peaceful European city from destruction,” writes the pianist. Before mentioning the many names of famous musicians born in Odessa: Benno Moiseiwitsch, Emil Gilels and Shura Cherkassky for the pianists, Nathan Milstein and David Oistrakh for the violinists.
By way of illustration, the musician shared the photo of a Boisselot piano degraded by the bombardments on which Frantz Liszt gave a recital in 1847. The music school of Odessa, of which the pianist relayed photographs, has also been affected.
According to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia would “deliberately” target “civil infrastructures and the sites of a city classified as a World Heritage Site”. The Transfiguration Cathedral, built in Odessa more than 200 years ago, was also affected. In addition to the monuments, the latest Russian missiles on the city left behind at least two dead and twenty-two wounded.