Tchaikovsky Banned

[The Cardiff Philharmonic has cancelled an all-Tchaikovsky programme as ‘inappropriate at this time’. – SlippedDisk, 9 March 2022]

Tchaikovsky has been banned from concert halls

Because the Russian president appalls

The world with his invasion of Ukraine.

Pray tell, what will this prejudice attain?

Perhaps if Pyotr’s music isn’t played

The president will end his escapade?

But is Tchaikovsky quite enough to ditch?

Why not Mussorgsky? Why not Shostakovich?

Why stop with music (once begun),

With Russian letters, paint, and film to shun? —

Perhaps if all of Russian art is banned,

The maniac will give up what he’s planned.