Russian conductor performs for the dead in South Ossetia

Surrounded by flickering candles and flanked by armored personnel carriers, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev led a requiem concert Thursday for South Ossetia's war dead in the breakaway region's devastated capital.

As cameras on booms swept over the bullet-pocked facade of Tskhinvali's parliament, Gergiev, an Ossetian native, took to the stage and embraced a line of teary-eyed South Ossetian children.

The support of Gergiev, an internationally known cultural icon, seemed aimed at lending moral heft to Russia's case for war. In addition to being principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and director of the Kirov-Mariinsky Theater, he is principal guest conductor of New York's Metropolitan Opera and has performed around the world.

Ossetian and Russian flags waved in the summer night's breeze as the orchestra played Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony in a haunting reminder of the siege of Leningrad in World War II. It was followed by Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, which set a more defiant tone.

One man in the crowd had tears in his eyes. A little girl sat on her mother's lap, holding a candle in a clear glass. A Muslim cleric sat next to an Orthodox priest.

Speaking first in Russian and then in English, Gergiev talked of remembrance, hope and defiance. His main goal, he said, was to show the world the truth about what happened in Tskhinvali, which he called a city of heroes and a victim of Georgian aggression.

Gergiev defended Russia, which sent its troops deep into Georgia after the former Soviet republic sent its military to seize the South Ossetian capital. Moscow's response drew condemnation from the West for being lopsided.

"It was a huge act of aggression on the part of the Georgian army," Gergiev said, speaking from the improvised stage in front of the Stalinist-era parliament building, reduced to a scorched shell by the conflict.

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