Hundreds of performances of Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 (“Death and the Maiden”) have come my way over the decades, but none seized me from the very first notes like the new recording by the vision string quartet, titled Memento, recently issued on Erato. – David Patrick Stearns
Blog
Future Jazz past: Hal Willner, circa 1992
The death of this funny, smart, idiosyncratic, unique music producer at age 64 saddens me. We were East Village neighbors in the go-go ’90s, flush with ideas to try in the future. Here’s my entry about him from Future Jazz. – Howard Mandel
Another COVID Casualty: Superheroes
Superheroes can fight secret quasi-Nazi conspiracies, invading aliens and android armies. But they are ill-equipped to fight the coronavirus. Superheroes on screen have saved the world repeatedly. But, in this real-life crisis, the Marvel Comic Universe’s vision of empowerment via teaming up to blast things to smithereens seems woefully inadequate. – The Guardian
Arts Philanthropist Anne Bass Dead At 79
The first wife of Fort Worth oil billionaire Sid Bass, she ultimately “became one of New York’s most respected philanthropists, supporting, in large but unflashy ways, the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of Modern Art and … the New York Public Library and its Jerome Robbins Dance Division.” She was best known for her long support of New York City Ballet and its school, though she left its board in 2005 after giving warnings, then unheeded, about the behavior of the company’s and school’s leader at the time, Peter Martins. – The New York Times
TicketMaster Does It Again: Infuriates Fans With Its Refund Policy
Online, fans are fuming about being unable to get refunds for concerts that have been postponed, often with no rescheduled dates in sight. As they see it, ticketing outlets are being greedy at a time of crisis, holding billions of dollars in consumers’ cash that people now need for essentials. Their anger is being stoked by the sense that some vendors switched their refund policies mid-crisis to avoid repaying consumers. – The New York Times
‘Quarantine Soirées’ And ‘Confinement Concertos’ — How Classical Music Performance Is Developing In The Days Of Social Distancing
“So far, nothing has approached the embarrassment factor of the quarantine meditations from Madonna’s bathtub. But is this classical music’s brave new world? A temporary novelty? A dead end? And will there be some viable mechanism for getting the artists paid?” David Patrick Stearns looks at how some of the new content turning up online for homebound fans is (or isn’t) panning out. – WQXR (New York City)
Reclaiming The Private Art Experience
If we are cut off from experiencing art with others, we are perfectly placed to consider an old and out of fashion idea: the power of private contemplation and solitary engagement. The silence in the room as you read a poem or look at a print, or prepare to listen to a piece of music, isn’t absence. It is the presence of your undivided attention. – Washington Post
France Orders Google To Pay News Outlets For The Snippets It Displays In Search Results
“The French antitrust agency gave the Alphabet Inc. unit three months to thrash out deals with press publishers and agencies demanding talks on how to remunerate them for displaying their content. The search engine giant may have abused its dominant market power, causing ‘serious and immediate harm’ to the media, the Autorité de la concurrence warned in its statement on Thursday.” – Bloomberg
Original Drawings Of The Statue Of Liberty Have Been Discovered
Several drawings appear to depict a bulkier shoulder and more vertical arm—a more structurally sound arrangement. But one of these sketches (below) was marked up by an unidentified hand with red ink that tilts the arm outward. – Smithsonian Magazine
Budapest Festival Orchestra Saved By The Government Its Conductor Keeps Criticizing
Iván Fischer, who founded the ensemble and led it to become one of the most admired in the world today, has been a vocal critic of the increasingly autocratic rule of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Nevertheless, Orbán’s government and the city of Budapest have announced an arrangement to increase the subsidies that the long-strapped BFO needs to survive. – OperaWire