Category: people

“The tormented but irrepressible career of Sir Malcolm Arnold, the most recorded British composer of all time and the first to win an Oscar, ended last night with his death at the age of 84.”

Composer Steve Reich turns 70 next month, and he has never been more in demand as a musical figurehead. “Reich may be an acclaimed cultural figure now, but at the beginning he was a revolutionary… He happily reclaimed the harmonies that the Western world had found sufficient for centuries; indeed, he looked back further to medieval music, as well as to Hebrew chant, and Balinese and African percussion traditions… And this was so controversial that, during the first 10 years of his ensemble, most of the performances of Reich’s music were in art galleries and museums, not concert halls.”

“Born in St. Petersburg a century ago tomorrow, Shostakovich remains a subject of fascination and respect 31 years after his death in Moscow. He continues to speak to us, sometimes in the clearest and most direct of voices, sometimes through a veil that leaves us wondering exactly what might be behind the notes… Although Shostakovich could write pieces full of light and wit and charm, the overriding quality in his creative output is a deep seriousness. This is a composer of conviction. And truth.”

“[Ronald] Harwood, 71, has reached an age when even the most successful screenwriters are usually relegated to living off royalties and rehashing their past triumphs over long lunches at the Grill… Producers and executives are well aware of his age yet have included him in a small but highly valued group of senior players — like the 79-year-old Spider-Man writer Alvin Sargent, or the prolific 81-year-old writer-director Robert Altman — who have defied the film industry’s frank preference for youth.”

There are plenty of superstar conductors in the classical music world, but you won’t see orchestra musicians bowing at the altar of too many of them. That makes the success of Valery Gergiev all the more remarkable. “Many say he is a tough, even merciless, taskmaster.” But somehow, at the end of the day, the musicians Gergiev leads look past his terse style and praise his artistry.

James Schwabacher was a true patron of the arts in San Francisco. “And for those who knew him — which would include just about anyone who has participated in San Francisco’s musical life over the past half-century — Schwabacher was someone who spread delight and warmth wherever he went. He was a seraphic presence at musical events of all kinds, beaming from his seat and quietly conducting with his hand.”

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been named a “messenger of peace” by the United Nations. “The Chinese-American musician joins other peace messengers including Michael Douglas and Luciano Pavarotti.”

The Oscar-winning filmmaker Sven Nykvist, who was Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer of choice, died in Sweden on Wednesday… Mr. Nykvist won Oscars for cinematography for Bergman’s Cries and Whispers in 1973 and Fanny and Alexander in 1983.”

A Turkish court has thrown out charges of “insulting Turkey” brought by a nationalist attorney against novelist Elif Shafak, citing a lack of evidence. Shafak became the latest in a string of writers charged with the dubious crime earlier in the week, with the prosecution claiming that a chapter of her latest book which deals with the Armenian genocide of 1915 was an illegal defamation of her home country.

“For the past quarter century, no other person has meant more to the vitality of the arts in San Francisco, to the amplitude and richness of culture itself here, than this longtime and fondly cherished director of the city’s Grants for the Arts program. In a feat of sustained and museum-quality finesse, Schulman has turned City Hall bureaucracy into her own kind of art form.”