Lebrecht: Why Is There Still A BBC Orchestra?

The BBC Symphony Orchestra has a new music director (and a good choice it is, too). But, asks Norman Lebrecht, did anyone think to ask whether there there is still a need for a radio orchestra? “Broadcast orchestras belong, it could be argued, in the Natural History Museum alongside the dinosaur and the whittled stick. They came into being in the early 1920s as the cheapest means of filling airtime in an era when the best orchestras operated a broadcast ban and symphonic records were full of scratches and had to be changed every three minutes. But what, you many wonder, is the point of maintaining two orchestras in London and one in Manchester at a time when the BBC is making 15 percent cuts in all other areas as it battles for charter renewal?”

Movies Beneath The Excess

“In the eyes of many movie idealists, Sundance is a paranoid fantasy come true, an art mecca devoured by a commercial mecca. Once the preserve of purists who decried Tinseltown philistines and revered long, slow movies about long, cold pioneer winters, now it’s a place where $16 million deals are struck hot and fast while Paris Hilton dirty-dances with Pamela Anderson prior to picking up free underwear at Sundance’s innumerable star-fucking freebie emporiums. It’s the best way to expose brand names to the widest possible audience, whether the product is a gritty indie flick or a pricey brassiere.”

Critics Just Wanna Be Liked?

“I often get letters from readers of the Sunday Telegraph literary pages complaining about misleading book reviews. Usually they say that a book they’ve bought on the strength of a favourable review was nothing like as good as our critic had made out. I have some sympathy for this, as reviewers on the whole want to be loved, like everyone else, and are rarely as harsh in print as they could be.”

Neighbors Protest Whitney Expansion Plan

Neighbors of the Whitney turn up at a public meeting to protest a recently announced expansion plan. But “a well-organized contingent of artists, architects and museum directors who support the expansion, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, countered their arguments. Among them were the painter Chuck Close, the sculptor Mark di Suvero, architects like Maya Lin, and museum directors including Philippe de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Glenn D. Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art.”