The classical music recording industry is dying, right? Not so fast, writes Anthony Tommasini. “Despite the financial struggles in the industry, it feels as if we are in the midst of a golden age of classical recording. So what’s going on? Several things, no doubt. Being forced to cut back production drastically has made label executives come up with projects that matter, recordings that truly contribute to the discography. “Smaller is better” may be a cliché, but that approach has paid off for the classical recording industry.”
Blog
Drawn To New MoMA
Peter Schjeldahl has been checking out the new MoMA. “I was amused, at the evening opening that I attended, by a negative consensus that emerged in the crowd, evincing the hysteria of sophisticates who find themselves momentarily at a loss for anything to disdain—apart from the grab-bag miscellany of works in the contemporary galleries, which incurred easy, contradictory complaints. (Some yawned at the predictable names, from Serra to Matthew Barney; others deplored oddities.”
Battling Boredom (The Enemy Of Good Criticism)
What’s the worst crime against music criticism, asks Jen Graves? Boring writing. “True criticism is activism on behalf of a vision. It is crucial to be well-informed, but beyond that, it is better to be wrong than boring. Like orchestras, classical critics allow themselves to be suffocated by false burdens of ‘greatness’ and posterity.”
Minnesota Orchestra Signs New Contract With Musicians
Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra have ratified a new three-year contract that begins with a wage freeze. “Extraordinary circumstances in recent years require extraordinary gestures on our part. This will be an unprecedented second consecutive contract with a wage freeze in the first year and containing an overall salary increase significantly below the cost of living.”
Peter Brook, Directing Legend
“Widely recognised as the greatest theatre director to have emerged since the Second World War, Peter Brook will be 80 next March. He’s a man who – in mid-life and at the pinnacle of success with his historic white-box-and-trapezes A Midsummer Night’s Dream – kicked away the careerist ladder, turned his back on England and moved to France in search of working conditions conducive to profound, long-term theatrical research. The veteran director is currently celebrating his 30th year at the Bouffes du Nord, the wonderful disused music hall with the mysterious proportions of a mosque that he discovered and reopened in all its battered beauty in 1974.”
Barenboim Sets Up Palestinian Music Kindergarten
Daniel Barenboim’s latest peace initiative in the Middle East is setting up a music kindergarten for Palestinian refugee children. “Classical music is not something one associates with Arabs. But if we can enrich their young lives, and give them pleasure from creativity … then we can build a bridge between Europe and the Middle East.”
Book Aid To Fight AIDS
A group of 21 prominent authors have contributed stories to a book project to raise money to fight AIDS in Southern Africa. “Telling Tales, a collection of short stories by Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Gabriel García Márquez, Susan Sontag, Woody Allen, John Updike and 15 others, will be launched at the United Nations headquarters in New York by Kofi Annan tomorrow, before World Aids Day.”
New Evidence About How Dylan Thomas Died
Lore has it that Dylan Thomas died of heavy drinking. But a new biography disputes the popular notion. “The book discloses that Thomas was found to be suffering from pneumonia by doctors who examined him when he was admitted in a coma to the New York hospital where he died in November 1953 shortly after his 40th birthday.”
A Record Aussie Auction Year
Australian auction houses look likely to have a record sales year, surpassing $100 million in sales this year. “The evermore frequent sales and reports of record prices have attracted an increasing number of new collectors. With the property boom slowing and the sharemarket at an all-time high, cashed-up investors have turned to art as a tradeable commodity.”
The Archaeological Site And The Superstore
The construction and opening of a Wal-Mart-owned superstore in Mexico near an important archaeological site has upset experts. “The presence of the supermarket near the archaeological site, which lies just north of Mexico City, has outraged environmentalists and conservationists but is proving more popular with residents of the small town of San Juan Teotihuacan, many of whom queued up for early bargains when the store opened on 4 November.”