Yuri Temirkanov has announced that he will step down as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the end of the 2005-06 season. “He left his imprint on the BSO early during his tenure, replacing several principal players, including the pivotal position of concertmaster, with musicians who greatly enhanced the ensemble’s overall tone… Temirkanov has been on a year-to-year contract since his initial three-year contract with the BSO expired at the end of the 2002-2003 season.”
Blog
Scholarship By Committee?
When a Harvard scholar was recently accused of lifting several paragraphs of his new book from another author, he resorted to a now-familiar defense: it was his “research assistants” who had been sloppy and allowed the unattributed quotations. But that type of buck-passing infuriates some scholars, who are loudly questioning whether works written with the aid of multiple student researchers actually qualify as scholarship at all. “We’re not talking about razor blades or soap. We’re talking about creative endeavors. A book that bears a name is widely presumed to be written by that author.”
Australia’s First “Ring”
The first-ever full Australian production of Wagner’s Ring cycle is being mounted by Adelaide’s State Opera South Australia…
Defiant To The End
Chicago’s distinctive and aptly named Defiant Theatre closes its doors forever this week with a production of Anthony Burgess’s classic of violence and societal manipulation, A Clockwork Orange. “Anyone who’s been watching the distinctive theatrical work of Defiant — the original bad boys and girls of the off-Loop — over these last 10 years quickly gets [director Christopher] Johnson’s meta-point. Defiant is over… The original people have gone soft, gotten married, acquired proper jobs. You can’t keep churning out the old ultra-violence, as Alex would say, on a shoestring in those circumstances.”
Subtracting The Superstars
It’s opening week for many American orchestras, and a new trend is emerging in response to the years of deficits plaguing so many ensembles: less star power, more homegrown talent. Research shows that a vast majority of the modern orchestra audience decides whether to attend a concert based on what’s being played, not on who’s playing it, so it hardly makes fiscal sense to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a big-name soloist who will only marginally increase the gate. In Minnesota, both of the Twin Cities’ major orchestras have bought into the idea of showcasing the ensemble rather than some traveling star, and the upcoming season will be an acid test of the attendance theory.
Is TIFF Too Big And Unwieldy?
The Toronto International Film Festival is a massive event and a vitally important industry showcase, there’s no doubt about that. But Ron Weiskind was stunned by how disorganized the whole event has become, and wonders if it reflects a downturn in TIFF’s fortunes. “Last year, I did interviews for nine movies, most of them major releases. This year, none of the top studios (except MGM, which may be sold soon) is offering press roundtables.” Admittedly, one could argue that making life easy for the press is not the mission of a festival, but in an industry that lives and dies by its media coverage, it’s a bad sign when reporters can’t navigate the proceedings.
Eisner To Leave Disney
Coming off a brutal year in which he faced withering criticism for his business tactics and came dangerously close to not being reelected to the company board, Disney CEO Michael Eisner has announced that he will leave the company when his contract expires in 2006. Sources suggest that the board would not have renewed the contract anyway, and that the announcement was a way for both sides to save face in what had become an embarrassingly public and drawn-out separation.
A Problem Of Succession
Two years is a long, long goodbye by corporate standards. Not only that, but the race to succeed Michael Eisner at the helm of Disney is reportedly wide open, leading to fears that the two-year lame duck period could cause chaos or institutional paralysis. “That could be particularly problematic for Disney, which has just started to rebound after a prolonged stock slump and months of turmoil marked by a failed takeover bid from cable giant Comcast Corp. and a shareholder revolt to unseat Eisner.”
And God Said Unto Pinocchio…
“Two years ago, pop culture analyst Mark I. Pinsky unleashed The Gospel According To The Simpsons, a book analyzing the surprising spiritual topics knitted into Fox’s irreverent animated TV farce. Now it’s The Gospel According To Disney… So what’s the substance of Disney’s substitute gospel? Good is always rewarded. Evil is always punished. Overcome adversity. Work hard (even ‘Whistle While You Work’). All things work together for good in the long run. And have faith, faith in yourself but also in an undefined something beyond yourself.” And before you even ask, this gospel applies to Disney’s films, not to its corporate power structure.
Lucerne’s Glory
If the BBC Proms are the People’s Choice Awards of orchestra festivals, then the Lucerne Festival must surely be the Oscars. Presented in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world and featuring a lineup that most critics would agree amounts to the very best orchestras the world has to offer (Cleveland, Concertgebouw, Vienna, etc.), Lucerne has risen in recent years to become the festival for people who are serious about music. More than that, though, the festival has boosted the profile of the city, and now, the fest’s director has built a unique orchestra just for Lucerne, “drawing together outstanding orchestral musicians and soloists… from across the European continent.”