Will Carnegie Gain The Phil But Lose Its Soul?

With the New York Philharmonic set to take up residence in Carnegie Hall, the nation’s premier presenter of touring orchestras is set to gain the services of one of the world’s most well-known orchestras, and lose a lot of its scheduling flexibility. Some observers are worried that Carnegie’s famed schedule of touring orchestras, featuring perhaps the finest annual array of ensembles anywhere in the world, will have to be drastically scaled back to accomodate the Phil. Carnegie Hall execs insist that they can be both a home to the Phil and the top presenter of out-of-town ensembles, but many have their doubts.

Barenboim Still Beethoven-Crazy After All These Years

“Like a comet that returns every 15 years or so, Daniel Barenboim is playing all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas again.” These days, the omnipresent Barenboim is better known as conductor than pianist, and most of his recent successes have been in the realm of Wagner opera, a far cry from the delicate complexity of Beethoven. David Patrick Stearns is intrigued by Barenboim’s continuing obsession with the sonatas, and also by the performer’s seemingly endless ability to rethink works he has played hundreds of times before.

Little Shop’s Broadway Jump Scuttled

A Miami-based revival of Little Shop of Horrors that had been expected to leap to Broadway this summer has instead been stopped cold by its producers, who say that the production simply isn’t ready for the big-time just yet. The show originated as a surprise off-Broadway hit in the 1980s, and has never run on Broadway. The cancellation marks the second time in as many years that a much-anticipated South Florida-based production has sputtered on its way to Broadway success: last year’s Urban Cowboy made it to New York, but closed almost immediately in the face of withering reviews and public disinterest.

Plagiarism or The Sincerest Form Of Flattery?

When it was pointed out to Stephen Howarth that portions of his much-lauded 1988 biography of Admiral Horatio Nelson appeared to have made their way, slightly paraphrased, into a Booker-winning novel published in 1999 by Barry Unsworth, Howarth was understandably upset. But is the use of historical fact in a work of fiction really plagiarism, even if the wording is similar to an excerpt of a previously published work? Unsworth and his publisher think not, and while Unsworth has expressed regret over the incident, he has also suggested to Howarth that “to have exerted an influence on another writer must after all be a source of gratification.” Howarth is not in the least gratified.

Battle For A Smut-Free World

“Three small companies that manufacture technologies that filter out the sex, gore and violence from DVD movies are hoping to avoid a protracted legal fight with Hollywood. ClearPlay, Family Shield Technologies and Trilogy Studios filed a motion Friday in the United States District Court in Denver to dismiss claims that their products infringe on the copyrights of motion pictures. The companies sell hardware and software applications that allow consumers to automatically skip or mute obscene or sexually explicit content in movies. They claim that the technology does not alter the movie itself, but customizes the way the film is viewed.”

Going After Europe’s VAT Tax

A collection of celebrity musicians is calling for drastic cuts to the European Union’s “Value Added Tax” (VAT) on CDs and other recorded media, to bring the tax rate in line with what consumers pay for newspapers, books, and concert tickets. The VAT is similar to U.S. sales tax, and just as a state may set its own sales tax, an EU nation may determine its own VAT rate on a variety of products. VAT tax on CDs runs between 15% and 25%, while the rate on books is closer to 5%.

FCC Decision Angers TV Writers, Pleases Execs

“Many producers and writers have maintained that a concentration of media ownership has led to a decrease in diverse and experimental television and that the new rules would make the situation worse because fewer outlets would be available and open to creative program ideas. The executives who supported the looser regulations said those arguments were ridiculous at a time when the average household receives about 100 channels of television. They also said good ideas would always be welcomed in a business desperate for hits. In a sense, the F.C.C.’s decision reignited a battle that goes back at least a decade.”

FCC Throws Radio Listeners A Bone With No Marrow

The new FCC rules governing media ownership actually tighten regulations on how many radio stations a single entity may own, even as it relaxes the same rules for TV and print media. It is a move the commission’s chairman says is in response to public concern that a few mega-companies now control the lion’s share of U.S. radio programming. But the wording of the new rules will actually tighten the death grip on the industry of the biggest radio giant, Clear Channel, since its current station ownership, now over the new limit in many markets, has been grandfathered into the new regulations. In other words, Clear Channel can’t get any bigger, but no one else can even attempt to catch up.

Mislaid Picasso Print Finds Its Way Home

Last week a man left a case with a rare Picasso in it in a subway station. “The man who found it is a mystery. But he, in turn, left it leaning against a wall on the Upper West Side, under a poster advertising bagels. The next man to find it, a sidewalk book vendor, took it home to Queens. He liked the portfolio. No idea there was a Picasso in there, and he would not have picked it out if he had looked. Just another drawing of two guys on a bench. But soon, it was all over the papers, and his wife figured it out first. He called the man who lost the portfolio and inquired about the reward. Next thing he knew, the police were waiting for him at his corner today when he showed up for work.”