Category: people

Pianist Piotr Anderszewski is carving out quite a niche in a music world that seems ill-equipped for to embrace his particular talents. “He may have a future in that Martha Argerich/Grigory Sokolov pantheon of pianists who command devoted audiences but give concert promoters high blood pressure.”

The name of Maurice Denis (and that of the Nabis, the 19th-century art movement in which he was a key player) may not quicken the pulse of many art lovers these days, but Sarah Milroy says that the largely overlooked Denis is more than deserving of a slice of the attention lavished on others of his era.

“Sol LeWitt, whose deceptively simple geometric sculptures and drawings and ecstatically colored and jazzy wall paintings established him as a lodestar of modern American art, died yesterday in New York… LeWitt helped establish Conceptualism and Minimalism as dominant movements of the postwar era. A patron and friend of colleagues young and old, he was the opposite of the artist as celebrity.”

“You may know his ‘wonky-legged’ Peckham Library or other striking constructions using strong colours and ‘blobby shapes’. But the name of the man who built them? Will Alsop is fast joining Foster and Rogers as one of the UK’s top architects.”

A couple of months back, New Republic staffer Alex Heard took on the comedic colossus that is David Sedaris, charging that the author, whose books are frequently listed as nonfiction, grossly exaggerates and even occasionally fabricates the events around which his wry essays are based. Ever since the article appeared, critics, readers, and authors alike have been debating not only whether the charges are true, but whether such lofty standards amount to nitpicking when applied to a humorist whose work is far removed from fact-based scholarship.

At 26, New York Philharmonic principal oboist Liang Jang is one of the youngest principal players in an American orchestra, and his meteoric rise through the country’s orchestral ranks serves as a useful analogy for the rise of Chinese-born musicians in Europe and America. But “despite his extraordinary ability and success, Mr. Wang, like many Asian-born musicians, has had to confront preconceptions about his ability to connect with Western classical music.”

When the Pittsburgh Symphony tapped Manfred Honeck to be its next music director, much of the music world responded, “Who?” To be sure, Honeck is a largely unproven commodity on the global stage. But “those who have known the Austrian musician along his journey say he has the musicality, creativity and integrity to succeed.”

Author Harry Bernstein is 96, and he just saw his first book published last month. The nonagenarian neophyte has been enjoying glowing reviews, and reveling in the novelty of his situation. “In a publishing world where first books by 20-something wunderkinds are often dissected as much for their authors’ photographs as for their prose, Mr. Bernstein is a refreshing antidote.”

Conservaionists are worried that birthday concerts by Elton John in Venice’s St. Mark’s Square could damage the square. “The concerts are part of Sir Elton¹s Red Piano tour and will coincide with the opening of the Venice Biennale. Although the City of Venice has not yet granted official permission for the concerts to take place, tickets for the events are already for sale online. Prices start at 200 euros with the top advertised price set at 1,000 euros. Around 5,000 tickets are available for each event.”

Damien Hirst’s neighbours are protesting the artist’s latest plan for one of his studios in the Cotswolds. “Hirst has other studios in the Cotswolds and is turning a gothic-style mansion, Toddington Manor, near Cheltenham, into a museum for his art. At Dudbridge he is converting an old car parts factory into a studio.”