“Not long ago, the typical maestro would ride into town, bark Central European-accented commands at the orchestra, conduct some concerts attend a banquet, and move on. These days, music directors have an expanded job description: they must not only convey the repertory to an extant audience of music lovers but also try to explain it to the great silent majority who rarely go to concerts. A singular thing about David Robertson, who was born in Santa Monica, California, and has led th Ensemble Intercontemporain, in Paris, and the National Orchestra o Lyon, is that he actively enjoys his evangelical duties.”
Tag: 11.28.05
Big Publishing’s Googlephobia
“Somehow the fact that the book business has chosen to take on Google doesn’t reek of same-old same-old. It’s startling, even mildly shocking, and more than a little revealing. For no matter how the publishers’ lawsuit ultimately unfolds, it has already provided the most vivid evidence to date of a seismic shift in the business Zeitgeist: from unalloyed Googlemania to gathering Googlephobia.”
Tracey Emin On Art In London, Art In New York
“In London the artists rule, but in New York the galleries do. Gallerists here seem to be almost patriarchal figures, and the art scene is really male-dominated here. In London it’s a lot more open to women. People here don’t seem to expect me to have a sense of humor.”
Study: Illegal Downloads Rule
A new study “suggests European consumers who download music from illegal file-sharing websites outnumber those using legal services. It says illegal networks are used three times as much as legal ones. It also warns that file-sharers, particularly young people, have little concept of music as a paid commodity.”
Boffo Movie Weekend Box Office
“As of Sunday, this year’s cumulative box-office take continued to lag behind last year’s by about 6%, or about $475 million. Of the 47 weekends so far in 2005, only 14 have done more business than the comparable weekends in 2004.” But it looks as if Thanksgiving weekend might hit the books as the second-biggest box office ever…
Putting Yale’s $100 Million Music School Gift In Perspective
“Those raising ethical questions about the gift to the Yale School of Music should first put the dollar amount in perspective. Private and corporate donors in America have to compensate for the government’s negligible support of the fine arts. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts gave out grants totaling just over $100 million. In France, in recent years, the state subsidy for the Paris Opera alone has averaged roughly the same amount. That the Yale School of Music must contend at all with the charge of elitism is doubly discouraging, since it has long been committed to fostering music as part of an education in the humanities.”
LA County Museum To Destroy Garage Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is “about to destroy art. On Dec. 1, the museum will tear down its parking garage. The plan is to erect in its place a $60-million building for the display of contemporary art. The problem isn’t that LACMA is demolishing a garage so that it can add gallery space, the problem is that LACMA isn’t saving the art it commissioned for the garage.”