“From old instruments, performers on modern pianos can get important insights into the sound image that Mozart, Schubert, et al., were aiming for. But music from the 18th and 19th centuries doesn’t just sound different now than on the original instruments; some of it can’t even be played as written on modern pianos.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Banksy-Robbo Battle Highlights Art-World Rift
“On one side are old-school graffiti writers who ‘tag’ or ‘bomb’ their names in as many places as possible and seldom, if ever, seek compensation for their work. On the other are street artists, who aim for a political or cultural resonance and also create portable pieces they can exhibit and sell.”
Esa-Pekka Salonen Composition Honors Late Trombonist
The work for solo piano, “composed in honor of Steven Witser, the principal trombonist of the L.A. Philharmonic who died of a heart attack last April,” will premiere in Los Angeles this month.
UK Halves National Heritage Memorial Fund Budget
“The cut will happen immediately: the government grant for 2010/11 will fall from £10m to £5m,” hobbling a fund “which helped to save an eclectic list, including … the medieval Mappa Mundi, Canova’s sculpture of the Three Graces, the archive of the second world war poet Siegfried Sassoon and an island, Skokholm in Pembrokeshire.”
What Oscar-Winning War Movies Tell Us About Ourselves
Unlike “The Hurt Locker,” Oscar winners “Patton,” “The Deer Hunter” and “Platoon” were box-office hits. “[N]ot only were audiences eager to see a complex portrayal of a World War II warrior at the height of the Vietnam War, but they were just as willing to embrace two very dark, disturbing portraits of the Vietnam quagmire in the years following the end of that war.”
Off-B’way Musicals’ Mood Darkens To Match The Age
“Certainly sober subjects have found their way into musicals before — from Broadway shows like ‘Carousel’ (domestic violence, class prejudice) in 1945 to ‘Next to Normal’ (bipolar disorder) last year — but the Off Broadway offerings this winter and spring stretch the possibilities of the form and seem particularly fitting for our troubled times….”
How One Theatre Was Revived: A Thousand Tiny Cuts
The Regency-era Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmunds, England, “was running a deficit of 180,000 pounds ($269,100) on annual turnover of 1 million pounds” when Artistic Director Colin Blumenau took over in 1996. By “2009 the theater’s turnover doubled to 2 million pounds, and it’s still breaking even.” His secret? “I treated it like a business,” he says.
Bank Backs London Fest To Boost Latin American Business
“Concerts by Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethania and a talk by soccer-player-turned-activist Socrates are highlights of the Festival Brazil” this summer at London’s Southbank Centre. “HSBC, which wouldn’t disclose the cost of the sponsorship, is looking to boost business in Asia and Latin America.”
English-Language Book Sales Fall In US, UK
Elsewhere, however, English-language sales were up in 2009. “Despite the worldwide recession, booksellers in Australia, Ireland, and South Africa all saw the number of books sold grow.”
Report: ‘Skills Time Bomb’ Threatens UK Performing Arts
“The Performing Arts Blueprint warns that skills shortages and gaps are likely to result from under-investment in training,” leaving the sector less able “to fulfil its economic promise.”