A documentary showing the notoriously fractured Philadelphia Orchestra from the inside ought to be one of the most exciting and controversial entries in the city’s film festival. But the documentary you want to get made isn’t always the one that gets made, and Music From The Inside Out, which purports to be such an insider’s look at one of the country’s great orchestras, is in fact nothing more than a big wet sloppy public relations kiss. “This is the Philadelphia Orchestra’s polished but not slick valentine to itself. Not that what’s on screen is false – it’s just a very narrow view of the personalities concerned. And for close observers of the orchestra, that specificity is painful to watch, because you want reality to be entirely this way.”
Month: April 2005
Conlon On Detroit’s Radar Screen
American conductor James Conlon, who made his reputation in Europe and has recently become a big name in the U.S. as well, may be near the top of the Detroit Symphony’s music director wish list to succeed the outgoing Neeme Jarvi. Unfortunately, Conlon is so busy that he won’t have time to conduct in Detroit until June 2006, and he is also about to start two new jobs in America (as director of the Los Angeles Opera and of the Chicago Symphony’s summer festival at Ravinia.) Still, the DSO has invited Conlon to conduct its 2005-06 season finale.
Muti Not On Chicago’s Shortlist
The Chicago Symphony says that it has not offered Riccardo Muti the position of music director, despite cryptic statements from the conductor published in the Italian press this week. Muti said he was “considering an offer” from the CSO, but would not elaborate. The orchestra says that it has invited Muti to guest conduct for the first time in a quarter-century, but that is all.
Or Is He?
“Deborah Card, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, confirmed that she and others from the CSO met with Muti last weekend in New York while he was conducting the New York Philharmonic… Card declined to say whether she had extended a firm offer to Muti to become CSO music director when Barenboim steps down at the end of the 2005-06 season.”
Brook: Stripping Back To Simplicity
Director Peter Brook has stripped away a lot for his new production. But it took him a long time to do it. “I tell young people: ‘At the age of 80, I have discarded many, many things to find that my taste is for simplicity. Don’t take that as a formula when you’re at an age when you should be plunging into every sort of experience, as I was doing.’ “
A Cannes Full Of Favorites
“There are no obvious hot-button films in this year’s lineup, which stacks up as a classic Cannes selection packed with critical favorites and sprinkled with both potential comeback kids like Atom Egoyan, and hot directors, including, notably, Mexico’s Carlos Reygadas and Italy’s Marco Tullio Giordana.
A New Time Demands A New Kind Of Plays
Last week critic Michael Billington compained that the new generation of 90-minute plays was creatively challenged. Ian Rickson begs to disagree: “New cultural and political eras demand new forms. There is a scepticism towards big ideas among the young – but that does not mean they are not engaged with or disturbed by contemporary society. We live in a time when there is a disappointment with unifying ideology and a greater consciousness of contradiction. The old forms in which the writer diagnoses and hypothesises no longer speak to today’s playwrights. In dramatising a more complex, atomised culture, playwrights may seek vivid, suggestive fragments as a better form.”
Congress Protects Those Who Alter Movies
The US Congress has passed a bill that would allow companies to strip out scenes from movies they find objectionable. “The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act would assure manufacturers of DVD players and other devices using such technology they would not be violating copyrights of the Hollywood producers of movies. The House passed it Tuesday on a voice vote. The Senate passed it in February.”
TV Turnoff Week
It’s time to turn off the TV. “That’s the idea behind TV-Turnoff Week, which for the 11th year is inviting everyone to “Turn off TV, turn on life.” From Monday (April 25) through May 1, you can join as many as eight million other viewers in pulling the plug on TV, the Internet and video games.”
The Great Wall From Space (After All)
“China’s schoolchildren have long been taught that the ancient fortification is one of the only man-made structures that can be picked out from orbit. However, last year, China’s first man in space disappointed the nation when he said he had failed to spot it.” Now a new photograph from space confirms the Wall is visible.