Remembering Robert Altman

“Blindfolded, you could tell in the first few minutes that you were in a Robert Altman film, not because you couldn’t hear anything but because you could hear everything. It was called, glibly, ‘overlapping dialogue,’ based on Altman’s insight that only in the movies — and not in real life — do people wait politely while others speak, then respond in wittily shaped perfect sentences.”

Is Salonen Story A Wake-up Call To US Orchestras?

The LA Philharmonic music director has taken a post with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. “The cost of touring a U.S. orchestra, combined with union restrictions and post-9/11 fears, keep these ensembles mostly at home, to the mounting frustration of European maestros. Five top American orchestras — Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit — lack a music director. While it might be premature to say conductors are deserting the U.S. in droves, one has only to look at the burgeoning London landscape to compare crisis with progressive renewal.”

Inside The Art Thief’s Mind

“Stealing great works of art is not entirely rational. One suspects that even career crooks steal great art because they read crime fiction and know it is the kind of thing that criminals do. At least when the culprits are professional criminals, a deal is generally done with the insurers and eventually the masterpiece returns. But sometimes the thieves are amateurs, their motives bizarre and the prognosis unpredictable.”

Salonen Says He’ll Stay In LA

Esa-Peka Salonen’s new appointment to lead London’s Philharmonia Orchestra won’t affect his main job as music director of the Los ANgeles Philharmonic. “It doesn’t affect my work in Los Angeles at all in any way. What this means is that I will consolidate my European conducting into one place. Some guest conducting activities in Europe with other orchestras are going to end.”