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Is Japan The Spiritual Home Of Classical Music?

“Where is the nerve centre of classical music in the early 21st century? Answering that question depends on your criteria. If it’s to do with possessing a venerable tradition, you might choose Vienna. If it’s the location of the best orchestras and opera houses, you might choose Berlin. If it’s finding exuberantly creative ways to reinvent the tradition, London or New York seem strong contenders. But if the true measure is a passionate devotion amounting almost to idolatry, Tokyo would win the palm.”

That’s Gonna Make For A Slim Profit Margin

“Compared with the epic works that have made his name – the shark in formaldehyde, the bisected cow – Damien Hirst’s work in progress is a small, delicate object: a life-size human skull. Not just any skull, mind, but one cast in platinum and encased entirely in diamonds – some 8,500 in all. It will be the most expensive work of art ever created, costing between £8m and £10m.”

Immigration Debate Roils Cultural Waters

“Whatever the economic and regulatory reasons to revise immigration laws, you know there has to be a fair amount of xenophobia lurking about. At the very least, parts of the establishment are threatened by ethnic minorities’ being not so minor these days… Theoretically, great art would be created no matter what. But would our ears have the proper conditioning to perceive it were we not surrounded by immigrants, legal and otherwise, in our everyday lives?”

Barenboim’s Mixed Legacy

Daniel Barenboim’s departure from the Chicago Symphony is finally at hand. So what has the enigmatic conductor’s 15 years at the helm in Chicago meant to the orchestra? “Some players, critics and concertgoers complained that he was inconsistent, rarely conducting the same piece of music the same way twice, often wildly distorting the musical fabric in the process. Why, Barenboim wondered in turn, would anyone want to give the same performance night after night?”

CSO Set Up Nicely For A Barenboim-Less Future

The Chicago Symphony may not have anyone waiting in the wings to replace Daniel Barenboim, but the ensemble is still sitting pretty both artistically and financially as one of America’s top orchestras. The CSO will be a glittering prize for whatever conductor eventually seduces it, and with Bernard Haitink in place as a stopgap solution, the CSO can take its time with the wooing.

Not The Way You Want A Tour To Go

The Perth-based West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which just completed a major tour of China, ought to be flying high right now. Instead, the orchestra has declined to renew the contract of its music director (and informed him the week before the WASO headed to China,) and the tour was plagued by logistical problems and half-filled halls. For the WASO, it’s clear that there are a lot of things not working the way they should, and many management problems that will have to be addressed once the ensemble returns home.

The Juilliard Effect: Impressive, But It Won’t Get You A Job

This week, New York’s Juilliard School will send another several hundred young musicians, dancers, and actors out into the real world, armed with talent, a diploma, and some of the best training available anywhere on Earth. But pedigree doesn’t count for much in the hyper-competitive world of performing arts these days, and the reality is that, even for the cream of the crop, the road from Juilliard to a job can be a long, difficult one.

Columbine: The Game

The notoriously violent world of video games doesn’t have many taboos anymore, or much of a sense of decorum about who and/or what gets blown away by the “hero.” But even so, an online game based directly on the Columbine High School shootings has been sparking outrage across the country. “Armed with a Tec-9 semiautomatic, the player can move from the cafeteria, down the hallways, up the stairs, then to the library. The player decides whether to kill. In the end, players learn there’s really no way to win.”

Parcel Post Just Isn’t Going To Cut It

Say you’re a high roller in the world of art auctions, and you’ve just landed a Picasso or a Monet for the tidy sum of several million, plus commission. Now, how exactly are you planning to get the thing home? “You don’t hear a lot about the fine-art moving business, because it generally shuns publicity and rarely advertises… Clients in this realm tend to treasure discretion as much as art, which, for anyone with a Rembrandt in the den, makes a lot of sense.”