A British citizen has returned an ancient statue to the government of Greece. “Following the fate of so many antiquities during the Nazi occupation, the kouros is believed to have been looted when the Germans bombarded the island in November 1943. After winding up in the possession of a private collector in Switzerland, James Ede’s antiquities firm acquired it earlier this year.”
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Scottish Arts Warn Government Against Control
The Scottish Arts Council warns that Scotland’s culture will be harmed if the Scottish executive extends control over the arts. “In a strongly-worded letter to the commission, the SAC insists the arts will only continue to flourish if control remains separate from government. The letter – signed by more than 30 arts organisations across Scotland – makes it clear that any move to extend the Executive’s power within the arts will harm cultural expression.”
In SF: An Alternative Art Space At Middle Age
“Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco’s oldest alternative art space, is turning 40 this year. Its name is now synonymous with the Mission District, and as hipsters flow out onto the street after an evening of experimental theater, art, or jazz, it’s hard to imagine the organization existing anywhere other than on that scruffy block of Valencia between 15th and 16th streets.”
David Diamond, 89
American composer David Diamond was “prolific in many forms, including ballets and film scores, but his greatest contributions were his 10 string quartets, a large output of songs and, chiefly, 11 symphonies. He was part of what some considered a forgotten generation of great American symphonists, including Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, William Schuman, Walter Piston and Peter Mennin.”
Remembering Carlo Maria Giulini
Mark Swed: “OK, maybe he took himself a little too seriously, but he was a poet — and pope — of the podium. He was also of another era and culture. He represented the sophisticated Italy of impeccable tailoring, impeccable manners, impeccable musicianship. Every note he conducted had to have meaning. Music was a calling, a religion. But as time passed, Giulini has come to seem distant, remote, no longer relevant, maybe even a little quaint. These days, Pierre Boulez’s unsentimental, musically revelatory — and if truth be told, far more impeccably played — Mahler Ninth with Chicago is the recording to have.”
Is The Cassette Tape Going Bye-bye?
In 1989, 83 million cassettes were sold in the UK. Last year only 900,000 were sold. But in some other countries cassettes are the preferred format. “In some markets, performers record directly onto cassette. Turkey still sells 88 million cassettes a year, India 80 million, and that cassettes account for 50% of sales in these countries. In Saudi Arabia, it is 70%.
New Mexico Symphony’s Stalled Contract Talks
The New Mexico Symphony Orchestra has been negotiating with its musicians on a new contract for a year, but the 2004-05 season has now ended with little progress. Could there be a strike? “Since 1995, the salary for the NMSO executive director has gone up by more than 65 percent, and expenses for administration and production personnel have increased by more than 100 percent. Yet most of the orchestra’s 35 core players earn an annual salary that’s less than what they were paid in 1992.”
ABT’s Talent Master
American Ballet Theatre is rich in talent. But does director Kevin McKenzie use the talent effectively? “Is he too evenhanded? In an effort to appease honored veterans and flatter new additions and encourage promising youngsters, does he spread the casting of major roles too thin, in a way that shortchanges the public? Wouldn’t coherent, recurrent casts, as has become the practice among singers recently at the Metropolitan Opera, mean more integrated, better rehearsed performances? And wouldn’t fewer principals in leading roles help build star images and thereby augment the box office?”
Groking The Movie Biz (Not Really)
How does the movie business work? We don’t really knoww. According to a recent academic paper, the effectiveness of “star power” is one of many “puzzles” that haunt the movie business, an industry where executives “rely heavily on tradition, conventional wisdom, and simple rules of thumb.” Despite extensive market research dating back to the ’20s, Hollywood is the King Lear of the entertainment world: It has always but slenderly known itself.
What Good Is A Film Festival?
“A film festival sounds vaguely intellectual, an oasis of cinematic contemplation in the midst of the crass commercial marketplace. But a film festival is an aberration; people don’t need further encouragement to go to the movies. When the most misguided Hollywood remake of a half-remembered TV show can make $10 million in its opening weekend, it could even be argued that people go to the movies too much. There are few good reasons for film festivals to exist, and yet they proliferate like cancer clusters across the country.”