Page Six recently reported that a noted New York classical composer is wanted in Russia over a titanium deal gone wrong — and the battle is becoming increasingly operatic.
Igor Raykhelson — whose works have been performed in both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center — also trades in metals and sold titanium to Russian metal giant AVISMA.
But the company claims he was working with an inside man to overcharge the company by millions of dollars.
Now the Russian-born composer of the “Adagio for Viola and Strings” tells us: “They want me to kneel down and pay them millions. I told them to go to hell.”
“Their lawsuit basically says that a deal we struck to sell them titanium 10 years ago was priced too high even though they didn’t complain at the time,” he told us, “They are also ignoring a legal agreement we all signed back then not to sue each other. It makes no sense at all. It’s a shakedown.”
Meanwhile, he made clear that — while AVISMA supplies titanium to the Russian military — the metal he sold them was never used for the armed forced.
“We supplied only [so-called] Western-grade scrap which could only be used to produce titanium products destined to the West.”
“I’m not going to kneel down to anyone,” Raykhelson added. “I’ll fight them to the end.”
Raykhelson’s work has been a favorite of famed Russian conductor Yuri Bashmet, who has conducted Raykhelson’s Jazz Suite, Adagio for Viola and Strings, and the Viola Concerto to considerable acclaim.
Bashmet and the Moscow Soloist Orchestra performed the Adagio at Carnegie Hall in 2003, and performed Rakyhelson’s work at Lincoln Center in 2006.
A rep for AVISMA didn’t immediately comment.
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