Category: music

A lot of piffle surrounds the cult of Britten, who was endlessly productive to a fault.

“It appears we had a local criminal who had an interest in art theft and was smart enough to develop a plan for a robbery. Beyond that, we don’t know what his motive was.”

“Skinny Puppy learned that its music was being played to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay during interrogations to “inflict damage”. Understandably, the band was “offended” when a fan, who happened to be a guard at Gitmo, told them this was happening.”

“It’s one thing to paint or write or compose something and pass it off as the work of an established, famous artist, like the fake Jackson Pollocks the Knoedler gallery sold to well-heeled buyers. That’s fraud. It’s another thing to create a work of art that is destined to enter the world under false premises, like the Mozart Requiem.”

Every year or so a stolen or lost Strad or Guarneri makes headlines. Former FBI special agent Robert K. Wittman gives a brief history of purloined fiddles and talks about how law enforcement goes about locating them. (audio)

“The real story of the lockout, and a lesson for other orchestras, is how the musicians in Minneapolis bonded and never broke, how they supported each other with cash and connections, with grocery cards, time shares, babysitting, and just time on the phone late at night, and all the while they kept playing, and became more united each week, even as babies were born and loved ones died, even as one member was diagnosed with breast cancer.”

Some 50 new opera houses have been completed or are near completion, and many more are planned. “Chinese people love foreign music, but in the past we couldn’t listen to it.”

“The 300-year-old Stradivarius violin that was taken in an armed robbery last month has been found, law enforcement sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.”

“That evening changed a lot of lives, as households tuned in across the country to see and hear one of the most celebrated of all pianists (remember that there were only three networks in 1968—and no video stores or Netflix) and Horowitz never again played to an unsold seat.”

“A deaf composer known as Japan’s Beethoven has confessed to hiring someone to write his most famous works, to the embarrassment of broadcasters and the chagrin of a figure skater due to dance to his music at the Winter Olympics.”