“Recently, there have been signs all over the place that the wall between classical and rock music is finally beginning to crumble. If much of this development is due to the rise of a better class of rockers who have warmed up to Olivier Messiaen, a lot of it is also owed to an eagerness by young classical musicians to get down and lighten up. Not surprisingly, the classical prime movers are two California maestros — [LA Philharmonic conductor Esa-Pekka] Salonen in Los Angeles and his counterpart with the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas—and the Golden State’s unofficial composer in residence, John Adams.”
Tag: 04.02.03
So Is This The War, Or A Very Special “Fear Factor”?
The ever-increasing blur between news and entertainment on television is either fascinating or horrifying, depending on how you look at it. With ‘reality’ shows competing with actual reality for viewer’s eyeballs, watching TV has become intensely disturbing and confusing. “On the one hand, CNN presents strategic maneuvers in Iraq as if it’s covering the Olympic Games; on the other hand, paratroopers – I mean contestants – take the leap for cash prizes on NBC’s ‘Fear Factor.’ It’s one big interwoven mesh of reality, unreality, and – when it comes to ‘Flipper’-like news segments on mine-sensing dolphins – surreality.”
Will The Real Bierstadt Please Stand Up?
“Missing for nearly 140 years, a painting of the Yosemite Valley by the widely admired landscapist Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) has been found and put on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington — along with two curious copies that at first glance seem indistinguishable from the original.” One of the copies is a chromolithographic print of the original, albeit a high-quality one. The other is an actual hand copy by an anonymous New York art student. The Corcoran doesn’t go out of its way to point out which painting is the genuine article, but doesn’t completely hide it either.
The Saatchi Decade – What Did It Mean?
The new Saatchi Gallery is provoking discussion of what all that art of the 90s meant. “In the past 10 years, as never before, art has been seeking attention, getting itself noticed, making it big. Once it was an elevated but hardly obtrusive feature of the landscape, dropping the occasional branch in the public road (those bricks, etc). But since the early 1990s art has arrived with a crash, become one of the fallen trees that block our streets, suddenly massive and unavoidable. Yes, it may have come down in the world a little. But heck, look at the visibility. We all know the names carved in the bark. Damien Hirst. Young British Artists. Sensation. The Turner prize. Tracey Emin. Tate Modern. Serota. Saatchi. What happened? What caused this spectacular arrival, that turned art into one of those things that are understood to be newsworthy with no further explanation, like pop, sport, soaps, supermodels?”
Iraq’s Treasures – Inevitable Destruction
Those hoping Iraq’s archaeological treasures won’t be destroyed By the American invasion will be disappointed. “There are so many archaeological sites in Iraq that it’s like a dart game – wherever you throw a dart, you’ll hit a site. Frankly, at this point, wherever the war’s soldiers move, they will be doing damage to archaeological terrain.”
A Record Of Destruction
From the Acropolis to the Bamiyan Buddhas – the list of cultural wonders destroyed by war is a long one…
Paris Opera Pulls Newspaper Ads Over Bad Reviews
The Paris Opera has been getting bad reviews from critics of the newspaper Le Monde. So the company has pulled its advertising from the paper. “Le Monde appreciates almost none of our productions, with its critics describing the Opera’s current productions as ‘old-fashioned’ and lacking all spirit of innovation. In these conditions it would be inhuman to impose paid advertisements on Le Monde inviting the public to see shows it condemns so forcefully.”
Classics: Where The Money Is
“Measured against a best seller in its first flush, sales of any classic book are piddling, of course (unless the classic has just been made into a blockbuster movie, in which case all bets are off). But the overall sales picture resembles the proverbial tortoise-and-hare scenario: As the race goes on, the classics win out. This may seem intuitive; but what’s surprising is that often the race doesn’t have to go on long at all.”
A Marketplace of Reputation
Of what are artistic fortunes made? Why do some artists’ reputations move up, while others fall? “Beethoven has definitely slumped as Mozart has soared. Is this because we prefer humane elegance to transcendental striving – or is the potent myth-making of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus to blame? When I was a student 25 years ago, E M Forster was considered among the most profound and influential of 20th-century novelists. Now that homosexuality is no longer much of a battleground, his liberal humanism holds little appeal, and we have become mesmerised by the more aggressive complexities of Kipling instead.”
New Funding For UK Dance Education
The British government has decided to inject new funding for dance education. “The £3 million package for music and dance announced by the education secretary, Charles Clarke, will make sure that hip-hop and street dance are promoted alongside jazz, tap and ballet. Although dancing is a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum it is rarely taught by specialists and lags far behind music in popularity.”