The Wichita Symphony will cut its season after four years of declining attendance. “The orchestra will offer eight concerts in its classical season rather than the traditional 10. It would be the first time in about 50 years that the symphony would offer fewer than 10 classical concerts a season. The decision was made in the face of declining season ticket sales, flat revenue from its endowment and an uncertain local economy.”
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At Auction: A Mixed Night Of Impressionists
An overly ambitious auction of Impressionists at Sotheby’s Thursday night brought mixed results. “While nobody at the auction house would admit it, the evening probably cost the company a lot of money. But while many works may have fallen short of the auction house’s expectations, there were still several high, record-breaking prices.”
Record Price For Gauguin
Highlight of Thursday’s Sotheby auction was the sale of a Gauguin for $39 million, a record for the artist. “Sotheby’s also was offering Impressionist and modern works on Thursday, including the painting from Gauguin’s second Tahitian period. The painting, the property of a private collector, was estimated to sell for $40-million to $50-million.”
Why Doesn’t Poetry Make The List?
Why is it that so many who never miss the latest Pinter or David Hare or Alan Bennett in the theatre, who like to drown in Mozart or Mahler, cannot connect with poetry, particularly serious contemporary poetry?
The Great Book Rescue
In September, a catastrophic fire destroyed a historic library in Weimar. “Around 50,000 books, most of them from the 17th and 18th centuries, along with 35 paintings and the Duchess Anna Amalia’s sheet music collection were destroyed by the flames. Some 62,000 volumes that were damaged by fire and extinguishing water, each wrapped individually in cling film, were transported to Leipzig for “first aid“ – more than 40 metric tons of librarian-style emergency cases.”
Found: Italy’s Largest Ancient City?
An archaeologist believes he has found what would have once been Italy’s largest city. It’s the ancient Etruscan city of Clusium, which was at its peak in 500 BC, and for which generations of treasure hunters have been searching.
A Cello Sells For Record Price
“A rare 18th-Century cello, by Italian cello maker Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, has sold for a record price of £341,250 at Christie’s in London. Made in the northern Italian city of Parma in 1760, it is one of only five Guadagnini cellos which have come to auction in the last 20 years.”
Testing America’s Iran Ban
An Iranian human rights activist is suing the U.S. government for the right to work with an American literary agent in the publication of her memoirs. “[U.S.] Treasury Department regulations… impose penalties on anybody who transacts business with Iran,” but Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi says that she doesn’t want to have to submit her manuscript to Iran’s repressive mullahs for approval. U.S. law does permit “American publishers to reproduce, translate and edit ‘informational materials’ from countries subject to U.S. sanctions. But even advising an author how to structure a book ‘would be a problem.'”
Justice For All – The Passing Of A Poet
Several distinguished poets have died this year. But with American Donald Justice’s passing last summer, it is “hard not to feel that a curtain has begun to descend over an eminent generation of American poets. From this uncertain vantage point at the outset of the century, one is hard pressed to imagine who might succeed them.”
Taking Some Early Shots At SF’s New Museum
The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum currently under construction in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is inspiring some hostile talk before the museum even opens its doors. The Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron-designed building has been described as “hideous,” “totally out of place,” and “antiseptic and soulless” by denizens of the city, but John King points out the obvious: the building isn’t done yet, and given the intricate nature of the design, as well as the plan for it to be partially covered in greenery, the amateur critics are passing judgment far too early.