The Case of Cortot
It's Chopin's birthday, or was 200 years ago, so I thought I would do the the old fellow a favor and drag out the one CD I have of his stuff. I'm not a huge fan, but years ago I saw a documentary about pianists and I liked the interpretations of Chopin's work by this one French guy, Alfred Cortot, so I bought the CDs, thinking the piano player was a good piano player and that was that, right?
Well, later on I heard that this Cortot was an enthusiastic collaborator with the Nazis. Eeew! But, being a calm fellow, I didn't take the discs out and burn them, although that's what the Nazis would have done with me if they could have gotten their way. I'm really pretty compartmentalized about these things, for the most part. Maybe he was pretty compartmentalized himself—Cortot's wife was "of Jewish origin," as Wikipedia rather vaguely puts it, and he was related to and friends with Leon Blum, the first Jewish prime minister of France.
Wikipedia basically throws up its hands and says maybe he admired the Teutons because of the music and all. We're all human, are we not? Subject to little biases here and there? And France was a bit muddled and directionless in the Thirties, so maybe he thought that anything—a takeover by the Nazis, even—was a step in the right direction.
After the war Cortot got some heat, but not much, for his supporting the Nazis. But I'm listening to his music at this very moment, and the music is very nice. I guess my feeling is that people have strengths and weaknesses. Alfred Cortot was good at playing the piano and bad at deciding who ought to run the world. Lots of people are bad at the second thing and can't play piano to save their lives, so I feel like I can let Alfred Cortot slide on this. It helps a lot that the Nazis lost the war, but still. I mean, look that the man—are those the eyes of a person whose political opinions are soundly reasoned? I don't think so either. The Nazis would have done what they did whether Alfred Cortot supported them or not. But he played the piano well. I'm willing to leave it at that.
Well, later on I heard that this Cortot was an enthusiastic collaborator with the Nazis. Eeew! But, being a calm fellow, I didn't take the discs out and burn them, although that's what the Nazis would have done with me if they could have gotten their way. I'm really pretty compartmentalized about these things, for the most part. Maybe he was pretty compartmentalized himself—Cortot's wife was "of Jewish origin," as Wikipedia rather vaguely puts it, and he was related to and friends with Leon Blum, the first Jewish prime minister of France.
Wikipedia basically throws up its hands and says maybe he admired the Teutons because of the music and all. We're all human, are we not? Subject to little biases here and there? And France was a bit muddled and directionless in the Thirties, so maybe he thought that anything—a takeover by the Nazis, even—was a step in the right direction.
After the war Cortot got some heat, but not much, for his supporting the Nazis. But I'm listening to his music at this very moment, and the music is very nice. I guess my feeling is that people have strengths and weaknesses. Alfred Cortot was good at playing the piano and bad at deciding who ought to run the world. Lots of people are bad at the second thing and can't play piano to save their lives, so I feel like I can let Alfred Cortot slide on this. It helps a lot that the Nazis lost the war, but still. I mean, look that the man—are those the eyes of a person whose political opinions are soundly reasoned? I don't think so either. The Nazis would have done what they did whether Alfred Cortot supported them or not. But he played the piano well. I'm willing to leave it at that.
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