“Rorem’s works have been criticized, even dismissed, for not being more memorable. More to the point, as much as he seems to occupy the creative moment 100 percent, Rorem doesn’t haunt. The music is there and gone, leaving few if any footprints on your brain. As listeners, we’re not used to that.”
Blog
Conceptualism Comes of Age, Finally
The notion that art is about more than objects, and that artists and their ideas are as significant as the works they create for public display, developed in the 1960s and ’70s, and a new exhibit in Baltimore aims to deconstruct the movement which would eventually become known as ‘conceptual art.’ “Forty years ago, a small group of artists challenged the idea that works of art were about showing off the genius of a maker’s hand — a notion that had lasted right from Raphael and Rembrandt through to Jackson Pollock. The works they used to make that challenge still feel powerful and exciting, sometimes even radical and unsettling, all this while later. Sometimes they look gorgeous, too.”
Just When You Think You’re Burned Out On Book Fairs
It’s easy to get burned out on book festivals after awhile. The self-promotion! The over-indulgence of bad books! But: “Generally speaking, you also need to read well in order to navigate and to function efficiently inside the world of electronic media. TV doesn’t tell you how to understand TV. No medium has yet arisen that can challenge print as a medium of cultivating intelligence. And novels have a role to play in this regard, as well, because the language of a good novel is prose used to its maximum effect.”
Is Classical Music Racist?
The audience for traditional classical music is overwhelmingly caucasian, whether in Europe or North America, and despite paying frequent lip service to the vague concept of “diversity,” few practitioners of the art have made any serious attempts to widen the appeal of the genre. So why does classical music receive such a huge percentage of available public arts funding? “This has always been the case, but now that cultural diversity has moved to the top of the funding agenda, it’s become a serious political embarrassment. There’s something disquieting, in 2003, about the sight of an all-white orchestra playing to an all-white audience.”
Crime Does Pay, Apparently
“It’s not every day that you meet the winner of Britain’s biggest literary prize and end up conducting the kind of forensic interview you might with a yob on an antisocial behaviour order. But in the past week, astonishing things have been said about the enigmatic, 42-year-old Mexican-Australian who penned his debut novel, Vernon God Little, under the pseudonym, DBC Pierre.” In fact, the author’s shady past goes far beyond even the rumors which have dogged him recently, and Peter Finlay (Pierre’s real name) isn’t apologizing for any of it.
The NEA’s Misguided Populism
The National Endowment for the Arts is taking an ambitious but misguided step with its plan to bring Shakespeare to the hinterlands, says Michael Phillips. “Class is a commodity like any other, and with the Shakespeare touring projects the NEA is spending more than $2 million on a classy image makeover. These days the NEA does not concern itself much with tossing seed money to artists or companies who may be controversial or risky or untested. In [NEA chairman Dana]Gioia’s words, the agency intends to focus on bringing ‘art of indisputable excellence to all Americans.’ It sounds right. It sounds inclusive, and unassailably democratic. Yet somehow a Shakespeare initiative sounds like an investment in yesterday’s culture, not tomorrow’s.”
Goya’s Secret Self-Portrait
Siri Hustvedt was as surprised as anyone when she realized that he had discovered an apparently unknown self-portrait of Goya hidden in the corner of on of the artist’s best-known works. The painting, titled “The Third of May,” depicts a bloody peasant massacre conducted by Napoleon’s soldiers, but a shadowy portion in the lower left of the canvas hides an unmistakable image of the artist. “It’s a simple rendering – large eyes, flat nose and open mouth, but it includes the artist’s signature leonine hair flowing out from around his jawline. I turned away, thinking I had really gone crazy. After a moment, I looked back. He was still there.”
Bactrian Hoard Uncovered In Kabul
“It lay hidden for 2,000 years in Afghanistan, eluded the Taliban and escaped dozens of adventurers and bounty hunters. Now the Bactrian hoard, one of the world’s greatest archaeological collections, has been found. President Hamid Karzai discovered the 20,000 gold coins and artefacts, worth tens of millions of pounds, in a sealed vault under the main palace in the capital, Kabul, after ordering it to be opened earlier this year.”
Sydney’s Icon Turns 30
The Sydney Opera House celebrated its 30th anniversary this weekend. Initially plagued by construction delays and cost overruns, the sleek, swooping building has become an icon for the entire continent, and the first image many foreigners imagine when they think of Australia.
Has Montreal Chosen Dutoit’s Successor?
Rumors are swirling that the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which was left headless following the abrupt resignation of Charles Dutoit in 2002, has already chosen a new music director, and is simply waiting for the right time to announce. “Security is high. No one with authority has let a name slip… Still, there are some suspects worth re-examining.” Any serious conductor who is fluent in French could be a candidate, but the names Eliahu Inbal, Emmanuel Villaume, and Yan Pascal Tortelier are among those who are frequently spoken of as serious contenders.