Category: today’s top story

He first drew notice for his clangorous scores The Whale and Celtic Requiem (recorded on the Beatles’ Apple label); earned broad popularity with works, such as the cello concerto The Protecting Veil and the voices-and-strings miniature The Bridegroom, infused with Eastern Orthdox Christian mysticism; went universalist with his seven-hour The Veil of the Temple. He gained worldwide fame when his simple Song for Athene was sung at Princess Diana’s funeral.

“After an avalanche of criticism at home and abroad, the German government announced late Monday it will establish a task force to investigate, ‘as quickly and as transparently as possible,’ the provenance of a cache of more than 1,400 artworks that are suspected of being traded or looted during the Nazis’ reign and that are now in the hands of authorities in Bavaria.”

“Anger was Gore’s default mode. He wanted to go out like Ebenezer Scrooge, with a huge finger to everyone around him.”

“You are putting your competition inside your store and selling their books for them. That ultimately will not lead to a successful business model.”

“The video chain that a decade ago made moguls tremble with its stranglehold on video rentals will be gone in January: Dish Network, which paid $234M to take Blockbuster out of bankruptcy in early 2011, said today that it will close the 300 remaining U.S. retail stores as well as its distribution centers.”

“More and more products on the shelves have been purely designed via an IT screen, and you can tell – they possess no inherent material qualities. They might look well-finished but they are often unsympathetic to the materials used.”

“New York and Paris were seen as the leading centres of the art form. I believe that is no longer the case and my ambition is to make London the greatest centre for dance.”

“If confirmed, the discovery would be one of the biggest finds of vanished art in years. But word of it left almost equally big questions unanswered: Why did the German authorities let more than two years pass before such a sizable find was disclosed? What will become of the recovered works of art? Did Mr. Gurlitt continue to make sales even after the raid? And where is he today?”

“The artworks, which could be worth as much as €1bn (£860m), are said to include pieces by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde.”

“Of all the areas where Mr. Levine has shifted some artistic authority to Mr. Gelb, this one is the most worrisome. I want Mr. Levine, one of the major musicians of our time, to make the crucial musical choices for the Met, especially commissions, and promote them to the public.”