“The struggle of top-heavy major labels to adapt their business models to a new reality, it turns out, is opening more doors than ever to idealistic independents. A growing number of labels, are swiftly moving to promote artists that the majors have ignored. Their strategies, born from necessity and a love for music rather than a devotion to profit margins, may in fact turn out to be commercially savvy.”
Tag: 01.02.09
Soprano Tessa Bonner, 57
A mainstay of London’s early music scene for more than 25 years, Bonner performed and recorded with the Tallis Scholars (1,100 concerts), the Gabrieli Consort and Players, The Sixteen, the Taverner Consort, Collegium Vocale, the King’s Consort and many other groups.
How Movie Blurbs Got Devalued
Movie studios have “so thoroughly destroyed the credibility of blurb ads by using junket critics… and nonprofessionals that when it comes time to attract attention for more serious films, they can’t simply stick a few blurbs at the top of the page from real critics and expect potential moviegoers to notice the difference.”
Secrets Of The Auction Room
“The art market is often described as the last unregulated financial market in the world. It has remained stubbornly resistant to almost all efforts to bring transparency to its operations, which still mainly function on the basis of highly personal relations and often secretive transactions.”
William Hurt Has A Few Thousand Words To Say
“Granted 20 minutes to speak with Mr. Hurt… we somehow found ourselves talking to him – or listening to him talk – about the science of condensation (and how it informs his acting); the Baal Shem Tov, the mystical rabbi (and how Glenn Close reminds Mr. Hurt of him); and, occasionally, about his wide-ranging feelings about working on [the TV series] Damages.
Picasso, Matisse, Braque Pieces Stolen In Berlin
More than 30 works, worth about €180,000, were taken from the Fasanengalerie in central Berlin over the New Year’s holiday. “The etchings, prints and sculptures included Profil au fond noir, a 1947 work by Picasso; Nude in a rocking chair, a Matisse print from 1913; and Le Boupeut, a 1962 color print by Georges Braque.”
The Man Who Midwifed 20th-Century Dance
This May 18 is the centennial of Serge Diaghilev’s first evening of Russian ballet in Paris. “At this moment, audiences were shown a future for ballet far from the sterility of Europe’s opera houses and music halls. The next year came Diaghilev-inspired creations: Bakst’s parrot-cry colours in Scheherazade and the new theatre-music of Stravinsky’s Firebird.”
Carl Orff’s Dirty Secret (And How Much It Matters)
The composer of Carmina Burana is often written off as a crypto-Nazi who turned out cheesy crowd-pleasers. He did, in fact, have a dirty wartime secret, and he was generally a selfish piece of work. But, points out Martin Kettle, his preoccupation with “music for use” and his pioneering music education methods have touched many millions of lives.
Cambodia’s First Rock Opera Now Banned In Cambodia
Where Elephants Weep, a sort of post-Khmer Rouge Romeo and Juliet-crossed-with-Rent, was developed in Massachusetts in 2007 and played Phnom Penh last month. But Cambodia’s Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist Monks has persuaded the government to ban the show from television.
The Cell Phone – The Swiss Army Knife Of The 21st Century
“So your cellphone has a brushed-metal shell, can flip and slide four ways and has more buttons than an airplane cockpit. Big deal. The new status symbol is what your phone can do – count calories, teach Spanish, simulate a flute, or fling a monkey from a tree.”