Pianist Maurizio Pollini has achieved elder statesman status. “Now in his mid-sixties, he is no less conspicuous for his championship of such tricky manifestations of the avant-garde as Pierre Boulez’s Sonata No 2 and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstück X. His stance has consistently been that contemporary music should form part of the normal repertoire, rather than being hived off into a specialist ghetto.”
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“Franco” Paintings Withdrawn From Auction
Three paintings that were said to be painted by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco have been “withdrawn from an auction after a lawyer for his family said they could not have been his work.”
ENO Staff Protested Leader’s Appointment
In December 458 staff of the English National Opera sent a letter to Arts Council England protesting the appointment of John Berry as the company’s artistic director. “The lack of intention to recruit a leading artistic director is, in our view, very shortsighted … and is not what is required to move the company forward. We invited you to explain … what you intend to do.” The reply from ACE’s chairman, Sir Christopher Frayling, accepted the staff’s criticism, but said: “It is not the Arts Council’s job to intervene in the running of ENO or any other arts organisation … To do so would be to act as a shadow director.
Controversial ENO Director Speaks
John Berry gives his first interview since being named to the top artistic job at the troubled English National Opera. “I think you can only do this job in a major house,” he says, “if the artists trust you and are willing to go on a journey with you, and they feel you are willing to go on a journey with them. I’ve worked with 70 or 80 of the world’s leading directors. My life has really been as a producer; that’s what I do. It’s all been about trying to get the best out of people and working in a collaborative way.”
Get Real – Fiction’s Battle
“The major struggle in American fiction today is over the question of realism. Anywhere fiction is discussed with partisan heat, a faultline emerges, with ‘realists’ and traditionalists on one side and postmodernists and experimentalists on the other. No comparable struggle exists in British fiction because experimental fiction has never been substantial enough to mount a decent campaign against the dominant discourse. But the 1960s avant-garde in America was full of talent and vigour.”
Found – A Lost Michelangelo?
Is a fresco on the wall of an Italian church a Michelangelo? “The inhabitants of the Chianti village have long claimed that the artwork was painted by Michelangelo in his youth. The claim was supported in the 1940 by the scholar Roberto Weiss, who attributed the Pietà to the Renaissance master. However, the first visible evidence for the legend was found only recently.”
Saatchi Art Firm In Court
The company set up to run Charles Saatchi’s art gallery in London has landed in court, unable to pay its bills. Meanwhile, Saatchi has already announced plans to set up a new gallery…
Da Vinci Code Plaintiffs Concede Major Claim
One of the historians charging Dan Brown with stealing key elements of their work for the Da Vinci Code, concedes a major point. “Your castigatory assertion… that Mr Brown reached all the same historical conjecture as you is untruthful,” said Brown’s lawyer. Mr Baigent replied: “I would concede that ‘all’ is far too strong. I would say ‘most’… We over-egged [exaggerated] that one.”
Peruvian Prez May Press Bush On Yale’s Machu Picchu Collection
The dispute between Yale University and the nation of Peru over antiquities from Machu Picchu is getting hot, and Peruvian authorities are quite serious about forcing Yale to return objects they claim were illegally looted. “This showdown over national patrimony, private property and academic inquiry comes as Alejandro Toledo, the first indigenous president of Peru, is scheduled Friday to meet with the Yale graduate who inhabits the White House.”
New Toronto Opera House Gets $5m Gift – Finally
A former president of the board of the Canadian Opera Company has stepped forward with a $5 million gift toward the construction of a new opera house in Toronto. “In the tradition of the melodramatic, [Hal] Jackman waited until the final act to make his move. Toronto’s long-awaited opera house at Queen and University is now within months of completion, with opening gala concerts set for June.” The project still needs to raise another $30 million before all is said and done.