A New Old Take On Beethoven

Twenty years ago Early Music specialists bringing their aesthetic to Beethoven were a threat to modern orchestras. But modern orchestras continue to perform Beethoven, many of them incorporating the Early Music ideals fo conductors such as Roger Norrington. “To the extent that other conductors have reconsidered issues like balance, articulation, tempos and the use of string and wind vibrato, he has a point. He is taking the view that these interpretive issues are far more crucial than the use of old or new instruments, and he is proving it by spending much of his time with modern orchestras, including the Camerata Salzburg, which he brought to Lincoln Center for these concerts.”

Lightening Up On Video

Richard Dorment is enchanted by a new show of video art. In the 60s, he writes, video art opened up new possibilities for artists. “Art lightened up. Short video pieces could be funny, impromptu, sexy or apparently inconsequential – and yet be serious works of art. And whether artists worked behind the closed door of their studios or in a public gallery, the range of subject matter they could explore expanded dramatically. Nudity, eroticism, humour, physical endurance, and relationships between people – video enabled artists to treat all these themes with a new immediacy, informality and spontaneity.”