[Marxism] Iranians praise rare Western concert

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

("Everybody knows" that Iran is run by a bunch of ignorant theocratic
gangsters, hooligans and thugs who brook no opposition to their course 
of reviling and hatred for everything Western. Further proof of Iran's 
hostility toward the free world can be observed on on Iran's new net-
based international television channel which anyone can watch here:
http://www.presstv.ir/

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http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardcohen/everybodyknows.html 
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-et-iranmusic1sep01,1,6365161.story
>From the Los Angeles Times
MUSIC
Iranians praise rare Western concert
By Nasser Karimi
Associated Press

September 1, 2007

TEHRAN -- The female musicians wore head scarves, but that didn't
hinder them in playing Beethoven and Brahms in a rare performance by
a Western classical orchestra in the capital of the Islamic Republic.

The Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, a 60-member ensemble from Germany,
performed Wednesday and Thursday in front of hundreds of enthusiastic
Iranians who rarely get the chance to hear live Western music.

"It was wonderful," said Sharokh Pourmaymin, a young musician who
attended Thursday's performance. "I wish it could be repeated with
other kinds of music, such as jazz, blues and rock."

Sara Shekarabi, a 23-year-old music student, was equally pleased.

"It was a great opportunity for me and my classmates to see and learn
from a real concert by a real orchestra," she said of the program of
Beethoven's "Leonore" Overture No. 3, Elgar's cello concerto and
Brahms' Fourth Symphony.

Western musical performances in Iran have been rare since the 1979
Islamic revolution, when the country's clerics outlawed all
pre-revolutionary music.

Music gradually made a comeback in Iran in the 1990s under the
reformist President Mohammad Khatami. But when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
replaced him in 2005, the new hard-line president banned state radio
and television from playing Western music.

The ban has not been universally followed, but live Western concerts
have largely been absent under Ahmadinejad's rule, a reality bemoaned
by many audience members.

"I wish [the performance] could be continued more nights, over and
over," Zahra Pazouki said. "Only two nights of performance is too
little after years of deprivation."

The concerts were part of an exchange that saw the Tehran Symphony
Orchestra perform last year to a packed hall in Osnabrück. As
required in Iran, the female German musicians wore head scarves while
playing.

Nader Mashayekhi, conductor of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra, said
the concerts were such a success that he planned to host a similar
event in 2008.

"It was also a good opportunity for our young players," Mashayekhi
said. "They need a role model to learn how to play."

The concerts received little coverage in the Iranian press, partly
because of a three-day holiday in which newspapers were not
published.

Soroush Kharabi, a music lover who traveled nearly 200 miles to see
Thursday's performance in Tehran, criticized the media for not
focusing on the event.

"It seemed the concert has not been happened at all," Kharabi said.
"Nobody reported about it."


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