The End Of Music History?

“There are few great compositional figures who aren’t already vastly aged, from Steve Reich to Elliott Carter, from Philip Glass to Pierre Boulez, there’s no single path for younger generations of composers to follow, it’s all been done before in every context you can imagine, and there are no sounds to discover that haven’t already been heard.”

Melbourne Festival Just Doesn’t (And Maybe Can’t) Have ‘Wow Factor’

Robin Usher: “The festival event of the year for those lucky enough to see it was the pan-European production of Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre … [at the] Adelaide Festival last summer. Nothing in the current Melbourne International Arts Festival … has come close to matching it and, given his guiding philosophy, it is unlikely anything could.”

Can The Movies help In Hard Times?

“Historically, the movies have helped get the country in gear when the solution to a crisis depends at least in part on new resolve and a boost to the spirits. But the bewildering journey through a subprime lending crisis, a market collapse and federal bailouts, added to the lingering pain of chronic joblessness, appears to have left filmmakers at something of a loss.”