Great loss

It's a shock that Robert Harth died -- a shock and a great sadness. He was, first of all, a wonderful person, really strong and optimistic. And tough. There's a wonderful bit in Anthony Tommasini's piece about him in The New York Times, linked from ArtsJournal today. Tony would run into Robert, after writing something critical; Robert would greet him cheerfully, but with a glint of steel underneath. The same thing happened to me.

Tony's piece is exactly right, in all of its praise. I'd add that, under Robert, Carnegie Hall was the best-run major music institution in New York, and certainly the one with the most vision. Some of that wasn't Robert's doing; he inherited some of the terrific Zankel Hall programming, and he would have been the first to credit Ara Guzelemian, Carnegie Hall's Artistic Advisor, for putting that together. But Robert's own musical outlook was completely in tune with what Ara did, and I'm sure Robert would have continued Ara's work, even if Ara left. I saw them together; they looked like very easy partners.

In many ways, Robert may have been the first top classical music executive who completely embodied the new era we're entering, an era where classical music needs to coexist with artistic music in other genres (which is exactly what it does at Zankel). Robert embodied that understanding in his own love of many kinds of music, as well as in his administrative leadership. I didn't know him well enough to have much idea in detail of where he was going, but I trusted him. Wherever he went would be a good place to be.

He'll be very badly missed.

February 2, 2004 1:38 PM |

Categories:

Resources

Age of the Audience 
Conventional wisdom: the classical music audience has always been the age it is now. Reality: It used to be younger -- dramatically younger, in fact. Here's some evidence -- actual texts of old studies, links to NEA studies -- plus my blog posts on this subject. more

earlier resources

Things I like

Frank O'Hara... 
...or rather these lines from one of his poems, quoted today in the New York Times Book Review: more

The Ten-Cent Plague
 
To paraphrase the old quote about the Nazis: "They came for the comic books, but I didn't read comic books..." more

Improvisation Games
 
An inspired book... more

Elektra 1957
 
Seismic recording.  more

Carmen Sings Monk
 
It's piano music, but she'll sing it anyway...
more
more things

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