Simon Rattle and the Philadelphia Orchestra dedicated Saturday night’s performance of Barber’s Adagio for Strings to Robert Harth, Carnegie Hall’s director who died Friday. The orchestra was in the middle of the performance when a man in the audience stood up, having a heart attack. After the man was taken out, the music started again, and another audience member came up sick…
Tag: 02.02.04
Robert Harth, 47
Carnegie Hall’s Robert Harth was the right director at the right time. He “fostered collegiality, demystified the director’s post and continued with the Carnegie Hall mission: to present the great artists and ensembles of the world, both fledglings and masters; to devise educational offerings; to bring music students to the institution for training workshops; and especially to commission and perform new works. His attitude toward contemporary music was refreshingly free of agenda. Living composers were not some special cause or somber obligation. Rather, it was only natural for anyone interested in the great heritage of classical music to be curious about what’s going on today.”
Lincoln Center’s NYP Rapprochement
Observers of the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center have been watching to see the repercussions of the Philharmonic’s aborted move to Carnegie Hall. “Lincoln Center had been widely expected to make the orchestra pay a price for its flirtation with Carnegie Hall. Instead the center appears to be the one trying to make amends, and the Philharmonic, rather than being weakened and chastened, continues to show a strong hand.”
Sydney Opera House Looking To Lower Floor
The Sydney Opera House may be an architectural icon, but its acoustics have needed upgrading. How to accomplish it? One plan would be to lower the floor. “It is understood the project would cost more than $300 million but would vastly improve the theatre. A lowered floor would mean more cubic metres of volume, which in turn would make a huge difference to the acoustics of the Opera Theatre.”
A Troubled Mind
Monologuist Spalding Gray, who disappeared January 12 from his New York home, had attempted suicide several times in the last year, and had been taking multiple combinations of antidepressant medication for more than two years, in order to deal with the spiralling emotional fallout which began when the author was involved in a near-fatal car accident in Ireland in 2001. Gray, who had battled hereditary depression and bipolar disorder throughout his career, was also escorted off the Staten Island Ferry a few days before his disappearance by security personnel who were afraid that he was preparing to throw himself off the boat.