Let's Have More Art Without Explanation Why do museums/orchestras/theatres feel like they have to try so hard to explain their art, asks Rupert Christiansen. "In an era when television, radio and recorded music function as a constant hum in the hinterland of our daily activities, we have become increasingly unable to concentrate on only one of our senses. This restlessness takes several forms. Popular culture relies on masturbatory stimulation of a combination of eye and ear: action movies are accompanied by deafening soundtracks, the rock song has been transcended by the rock video - and the more weirdly extreme the imagery, the more headbangingly hard the beat, the better. Higher culture, on the other hand, is always anxiously explaining itself, with the help of another medium." The Telegraph (UK) 11/19/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 6:23 pm
You Mean Beer And Aviation Don't Mix? Twenty U.S. legislators are asking the Smithsonian Museum to remove beer logos from a historic stunt plane being displayed there. The logos were added to the plane twenty years ago as part of a sponsorship deal, but the legislators say that they are an inappropriate advertisement and inducement to young people to drink. Not surprisingly, the company which paid to have its logo splashed all over the plane is objecting to the attempt to have it removed. Washington Post 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 6:45 am
Money vs. Art: Guess Who Wins? There may be two sides to every story, but Lisa Rochon sees the current dust-up over the new World Trade Center design as nothing more than art squaring off against pure American capitalist greed. "Pay attention to the American way. Appreciate it fully. A calamity like 9/11 cannot weaken the aspirations of Larry Silverstein, the private developer who wants to broadside Daniel Libeskind's winning scheme in order to build his own version of unfettered capitalism. At this rate, he will triumph. And when he does, any doubt as to why the WTC was targeted in the first place will be, like the twin towers, obliterated." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 6:14 am
- Previously: Fighting Over How Things Look (Traditionally Speaking) Disputes between architects Daniel Libeskind and David Childs over the tower above the World Trade Center site are the latest chapter in a long history of architectural disputes. "The absence of knife play over the Freedom Tower does not guarantee that the intended partnership will run smoothly. A meeting between the architects last Monday was described as positive by both sides. History, however, suggests that the turmoil will continue. There is a long tradition, in New York, of architectural bargaining and bickering that has produced gems like Rockefeller Center, duds (let's be honest now) like the World Trade Center and compromises like Lincoln Center and the United Nations. Not only is the record a rancorous one, but Mr. Libeskind and Mr. Childs are navigating challenges unlike any faced by their predecessors." The New York Times 11/16/03
Lost Van Gogh Apparently Found "A Dutch museum says it has found a painting by Vincent Van Gogh which had been unrecognised for years after being given away by his mother. The Breda Museum said the painting was found during research on an exhibition about the artist. The piece, dubbed Houses In The Hague, was found in a collection owned by a 'trustworthy collector', it added. The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam said it was yet to confirm whether or not the painting was genuine." BBC 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 5:23 am
Met Museum Neighbors Sue To Stop Expansion The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which attracted 5 million visitors a year, has expansion plans. But those plans have run afoul of the museum's neighbors on Fifth Avenue. "A coalition that represents residents of 15 buildings, mostly along Fifth Avenue, sued the Metropolitan and the City of New York on Thursday in an attempt to block the museum's longstanding plan to expand." The New York Times 11/16/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 5:53 pm
Video In The Concert Hall? Only If It's Really Good Video. There has been a recent slew of concerts in New York in which the musicians brought along a video component to complement their performance. But is the move to add multimedia to the staid old classical concert form really a positive step? Allan Kozinn isn't sure. "If there's no compelling reason to do it beyond simply doing something new — and if it isn't so thoroughly thought through that it becomes an organic part of the show... it can do more harm than good." The New York Times 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 6:30 am
Begging For Crumbs Opera San Jose is just one of the thousands of California arts groups hit hard by recent budget cuts, which slashed the state's per capita funding rate for the arts to the lowest of any state in the U.S. But the Silicon Valley-based opera company is scheduled to move into a new theater next year, and says it simply won't be able to make ends meet without more money from the city. The group's director "hopes the city will exempt the company from the new formula and instead give the opera a financial shot in the arm." The city has promised to consider the request. San Jose Mercury News 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 5:41 am
Good News/Bad News For Canadian Orchestras Canadian orchestras are slowly recovering from a dismal few years in which several orchestras folded or filed for bankruptcy, and nearly every orchestra ran at least one serious operating deficit. A new report says that, nationwide, orchestras posted a $1 million surplus this year, but also points out that massive structural deficits remain, and are not being paid down at a fast enough rate. Ticket sales are down, as well, with 39% fewer tickets to classical events sold last year than in the 1996-97 season. Unlike their American counterparts, however, Canadian orchestras have managed to increase both public and private subsidies over the last several years. Vancouver Sun 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 5:33 am
The Best Writing About Music? It's Online Writing about music in the mainstream press is in a bad way. So, Rob Young writes, the best music writers are now to be found webside - in blogs. "What they add up to is a fertile breeding ground for a new style of music writing - just when the trade needs it most. The ludic quality of music criticism merges with a serious approach to the subject rarely found in a mainstream that treats music as entertainment rather than art. Add encyclopaedic knowledge, genre-crossing frames of reference and a disregard for celebrity, and you have the key traits of the music blog." The Guardian (UK) 11/19/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 8:29 pm
Dobrin: Rattle And Berlin Still Finding Themselves Though there wee other high-appeal concerts in Philadelphia Sunday, Peter Dobrin naturally went to hear Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. "What's more interesting at this point in the green relationship between orchestra and conductor - Rattle took his position a year ago - is that it's still not clear whether their respective strengths will add up to anything resembling synergy. Berlin is a perfection machine; Rattle is a supremely inspiring musician with a somewhat less than perfect baton technique. Someday this might be a great match. So far it's not, at least not consistently." Philadelphia Inquirer 11/18/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 6:29 pm
Recording Co. Mergers = Less Choice With recent merger announcements, it looks like the five major recording companies could become three. "If American and European regulators approve both the Sony-BMG and EMI-Warner mergers, about 75 percent of global music sales would be controlled by three companies. For a typical music shopper, that could well mean fewer new acts (since artist development is so expensive), fewer independent stores (since business with large chains is more cost-efficient), and more major-label product on the racks of remaining stores (since they'd be able to strong-arm retailers the way the big snack and soda companies do with delis)." Village Voice 11/18/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 5:37 pm
Can't Tell The Music Without A Program... So you've decided to take the plunge and buy and download some classical music from one of the hot new legal paysites. First you've got to find it, writes Greg Sandow: "As I rooted around, I came across all the Beethoven sonatas in the old and greatly respected Artur Schnabel performances. All of them! Ninety-nine cents per track. There's only one problem. What you get, when you look these up - and it's the same on all three services I've mentioned - is a track listing. As follows (transcribed verbatim): 1 The Complete Piano Sonatas, I. Allegro/ 2 The Complete Piano Sonatas, II. Adagio..." Sandow (AJBlogs) 11/17/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 4:11 pm
Catering To The Over-15 Crowd Science museums are generally kid-oriented institutions, featuring the type of whiz-bang exhibits a 10-year-old is guaranteed to prefer to sitting in math class. But a new science museum in London is aiming its marketing strategy squarely at the city's adult population, with exhibits and panel discussions on some of the most controversial scientific issues of the era. "Be it the implications of genetically modified foods, face transplants, sex over 60, male pregnancy, death or AIDS, the Dana Centre plans to tackle topical, and sometimes taboo, subjects." Wired 11/18/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 5:25 am
Michael Kamen, 55 "Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated composer Michael Kamen has died at his London home at the age of 55. He collapsed after an apparent heart attack, according to his Los Angeles-based agent Jeff Sanderson." Kamen was classically trained, but known chiefly for his crossover work, including a much-ballyhooed joint concert of the San Francisco Symphony and the rock band Metallica. He also collaborated on Pink Floyd's classic 1979 album, The Wall. Ananova 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 5:48 am
Hall Of Fame Jim Hall, writes Terry Teachout, is our greatest living jazz guitarist. But he's not exactly a household name. "To be sure, Mr. Hall, who turns 73 next month, is nobody's idea of a natural celebrity. Bald, bespectacled and soft-spoken to a fault, he looks less hip than shyly professorial. His intensely intimate music gets under your skin rather than grabbing you by the lapels. Given sufficient time, though, such artists have a way of evening the odds. Today, the National Endowment for the Arts names Mr. Hall an NEA Jazz Master, an honor accompanied by a check for $25,000." OpinionJournal 11/19/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 4:43 pm
Children's Theater On The Rocks In Pittsburgh The Pittsburgh International Children's Theater is seriously strapped for cash, and the situation is so dire that the company will be asking its audience to help out at this week's performances. The company has a $60,000 deficit, which is roughly the same amount that the city of Pittsburgh used to give the group in goods and services each year. That donation was scrapped this year, leaving PICT scrambling for alternatives. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 6:34 am
If You're Gonna Fail, Fail Big In what is being described as one of the most disastrous flops in a dismal Broadway season, actress Ellen Burstyn's new one-woman show, The Oldest Living Confederate Widow, has closed after only one official performance. The production cost $1.2 million to mount, but Monday's opening night box office take was only $2000. New York Post 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 6:23 am
- Negative Bounce "The producers of Bounce, Stephen Sondheim's first new musical in nine years, confirmed yesterday what many Sondheim fans had already suspected: the show, which received lukewarm reviews in two tryout runs, is not coming to Broadway anytime soon." The New York Times 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 6:22 am
The Art Of Cinematic Theatre Film has more and more of an impact on theatre. "But film is not just part of the visual texture of theatre. It has also had a huge influence on the structure of modern drama. Brecht, in defining epic theatre, uses the cinematic term 'montage.' And modern writers are far more likely to be influenced by the filmic juxtaposition of images and ideas than the old Aristotelian principles of unity." The Guardian (UK) 11/19/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 8:21 pm
Saving Eccentricity - Fixing Up The Young Vic London's Young Vic is "one of the London luvvie world's shaggiest buildings," a space beloved as "one of the most intimate and successful theatre spaces in the country." Now, after 33 years, it's time for a refurbishment. But how to do it without spoiling the feel of the place? Financial Times 11/18/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 6:09 pm
Broad And Popular (And That Ain't Bad) "The International Impac Dublin literary award, is the most eclectic and unpredictable of the literary world's annual gongs. The Impac is one of the world's richest prizes but it is arguably more remarkable for its breadth of coverage and truly global nature than the size of its coffers. Nominations for the prize are made by 162 different libraries in 47 different countries. As a result, the longlist is staggeringly long but also incredibly broad, featuring a range of genres and nationalities. This year the list is notable for the sprinkling of popular titles. The Guardian (UK) 11/18/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 6:19 pm
NYT Book Review - Discriminating Or Influential (Can't Have Both?) Who will replace Chip McGrath as editor of the New York Times Book Review? And what will happen to the section? "I understand why the Times wouldn't want to give up the section's gravity, but if you wanted to make your mark as the editor of the Times Book Review, the first thing you would do is to make it less influential. That would give you the license to make the reviews livelier and more discriminating." Village Voice (2nd item) 11/18/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 5:34 pm
New TIFF Director Coming Soon "A new co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival should be named by the first week of December and functioning in his or her new job a month later if the hiring process goes as planned, festival organizers said yesterday... Traditionally, the TIFF has promoted from within its own ranks. But this time it may go outside as the festival prepares to move, in 2006, into a dedicated, five-storey, multimillion-dollar facility in downtown Toronto and to position itself more firmly as the planet's most important film fete." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 6:15 am
No End In Sight For CD Slump A research group is predicting that the worldwide slump in music sales will continue for at least the next two years, with total sales falling by as much as $500 million in the next year. But the report also predicts that sales will begin to nose upwards in 2006, largely as a result of the anti-piracy efforts of the industry. BBC 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 5:19 am
- Indies Slumping, Too In Boston, two major music stores owned by national chains have closed, amid much gnashing of media teeth over the state of the industry. But independent record stores, which depend on a small cadre of loyal customers to survive, are dropping like flies in the city, and no one seems to notice or care. "To counter falling sales, managers are cutting their staffs, strengthening their services, pricing their CDs competitively, and expanding stock to include videos, DVDs, and clothing." Boston Globe 11/19/03
Posted: 11/19/2003 5:00 am
Frankfurter Disgrace As the Forsythe era ends in Frankfurt, disgrace deepens. "It's a daft situation: not only is Frankfurt perversely depriving itself of the one arts institution which makes it internationally famous, but the city's culture senator, Dr Nordhoff, refuses to negotiate social provision with the 50 per cent of the troupe's members who will lose their jobs. It's all about money, it's very grubby, and doubtless symptomatic of increasing cynicism in the subsidised sector towards challenging art." Financial Times 11/18/03
Posted: 11/18/2003 6:15 pm
