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Barenboim: UK Government Is Failing The Arts

Daniel Barenboim speaks out against the level of the UK government’s support of the arts. “Music has become a specialised commodity for both performers and audiences. Young people do come to concerts – that is not the problem. The problem is that we have lost the intellectuals. And when that happens its role in society diminishes.” He ascribed this decline to the reduction of music education. “Music is a strange animal, in that you cannot explain a Beethoven symphony in words. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have content, but if you reduce music education you not only get fewer musicians and audiences but also you take away the sense of content.”

Light As A Featherstone

It’s an amazing thing, Vicky Featherstone being named to head the new Scottish National Theatre. “The names being touted for the job were all Scotsmen. For an Englishwoman placed at the helm of a body which it is hoped can inspire a Scottish theatre revival, Featherstone has faced remarkably little grumbling from the old guard, not much beyond the odd letter to a newspaper.”

Said: The Artist As An Old Man

Before he died last year, Edward Said mused on the powers of the artist late in life: “What of the last or late period of life, the decay of the body, the onset of ill health (which, in a younger person, brings on the possibility of an untimely end)? These issues, which interest me for obvious personal reasons, have led me to look at the way in which the work of some artists acquires a new idiom towards the end of their lives – what I’ve come to think of as a late style.”

Nigeria Gets A Movie Theatre

Nigerians love the movies. “The country is famous for its thriving and expanding home-video industry.” But until now, Lagos, the largest city, hasn’t had a songle movie theatre. “Now, however, that has all changed, thanks to the Silverbird Cinemas – an upmarket five-screen Cineplex in the heart of Victoria Island.”

Of Critics And New Discoveries

What role do critics play in the musical infrastructure? Justin Davidson: “Few critics discover new talents. We do not, by and large, conduct the equivalent of artists’ studio visits. Mostly we rely on presenters and performers to sift through the mountains of novelty and put their own reputations at the service of an unknown composer’s. Often those people do a very good job. By the time a composer’s work is being performed at Carnegie Hall or at Disney Hall, that person has likely put in some time in lofts and basements.”

The Tenor And I

Tim Page writes that a new autobiography, due out shortly, will be “one of the most talked-about musical books of the fall season; it will certainly be one of the nastiest. Herbert Breslin, who has served as publicity agent or manager to a cast of clients that includes all four of the aforementioned artists, as well as Marilyn Horne, Itzhak Perlman, Leonard Slatkin and the late Georg Solti, has written his autobiography, in collaboration with New York Times music critic Anne Midgette.”

Architectural Target?

Is there anything in common about the architecture of the announced list of potential al Qaeda building targets? “As the list of targets revealed Sunday by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge demonstrates — again — when it comes to the grisly business of blowing up buildings, these media-savvy terrorists clearly prefer a certain kind of target: Big. Global. American.”

Defending Diana’s Fountain

The London memorial fountain for Diana has collected huge criticism. “The design was denounced as unworkable. Experts were found to say that algae would make the fountain green and slippery, that bacteria would make it unsafe. It was described as a storm drain, a cattle trough that thinks it’s a toddler’s waterchute, a hole in search of a meaning.” Gustafson defends her work: “The fountain is a victim of its own success. We need to make some minor modifications to cope with that success, with the sheer number of people.”