England’s Hesperus Press is filling an interesting niche in the publishing world, churning out short pieces of literature which have, for one reason or another, escaped notice in the ever-expanding book universe. Some of Hesperus’s releases are minor works by major authors, and some are just stuff you’ve never heard of, which the editors thought you might find interesting. “Maybe we should think of Hesperus titles as the Allen Iversons of literary history, little folks bursting with talent and suddenly able to dominate when allowed to play.”
Tag: 01.23.04
Politics Amidst The Pirouettes
An important hurdle has been cleared in the city of Frankfurt’s efforts to bring a new, private ballet company to the city. The public company directed by William Forsythe, which has performed in Frankfurt for years, “will be shut down by the end of the 2003/2004 season because of budgetary constraints. To continue to bring Forsythe premieres to Frankfurt, the renowned choreographer wants to found a private ballet company which would perform its productions in both Frankfurt and Dresden.” City politics have proved quite an obstacle to the plan, but last week, Frankfurt’s mayor, and the head of the city’s cultural bureau declared themselves on board.
Exit Järvi…
Neeme Järvi’s last season with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is unveiled, and it plays like nothing so much as a summing up of the 15 years of artistic growth which the Motor City has enjoyed under the Estonian maestro. There are crowd-pleasers (Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana,) and critic-pleasers (Ned Rorem’s Third Symphony,) but mostly, there is the enthusiastic personality of Järvi himself, capped off in the final three weeks of the 2004-05 season, when Järvi the father will be joined, on stage, by his three children: flautist Maarika, and conductors Paavo (of the Cincinnati Symphony,) and Kristjan.
…Enter Wigglesworth?
Handicapping a music director race is always a dicey proposition, since symphony orchestras tend to treat such matters with the secrecy normally reserved for international war plans, but one of the best ways to distinguish the front-runners from the also-rans is to note carefully which conductors keep popping up unexpectedly during the time that the search is ongoing. In Detroit, current conventional wisdom says that 39-year-old Mark Wigglesworth, a talented Briton who has been making the rounds in North America for the last several years, may be high on the DSO’s list to replace Neeme Järvi.
Hard Work and Lofty Goals: The Vänskä Vision
When the Minnesota Orchestra appointed Osmo Vänskä as its new music director, there were approving nods from orchestras around the world, and many murmurs to the effect that the famously stoic and hard-working Finn might just nudge the Minneapolis-based ensemble closer to the top of the American orchestral heap. But no one in Minnesota seems to be interested in nudging. In fact, in only Vänskä’s first season, the orchestra is recording a complete Beethoven cycle, paying a visit to New York’s famously skeptical critics, and embarking on an ambitious 20-day tour of European musical capitals. Andrew Clark sees a distinct strategy in play: “a concerted push for promotion to the orchestral super league.”
Picking The Carcass Clean
It didn’t take long for the vultures to descend in South Florida, where the now-defunct Florida Philharmonic auctioned off its salable assets yesterday, with many items going for far less than their actual value. When the final gavel banged, the Phil had raised only $170,000 from the sale of instruments, music stands, and other musical detritus.
Will Florida Learn From The Phil’s Demise?
The Florida Philharmonic’s bankruptcy auction marked the final humiliation for an orchestra which, for any number of reasons, never found its niche. In fact, orchestras across the Sunshine State are in similarly dire straits, and many observers fear that Florida is losing whatever tenuous commitment it once had to creating a respectable arts scene as a result.
PhilOrch Official Heads To Jersey
Months after losing its executive director to Pittsburgh, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has plucked its next chief executive from Pennsylvania’s other major city. 40-year-old Simon Woods, currently the artistic operations manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will take over the business operations of the NJSO in March. The announcement completes the transition to a new management team in Newark, where the NJSO recently announced the appointment of Neeme Järvi as its next music director.
Smithsonian Gets Martial
“Officials at the National Museum of American History yesterday announced plans to open a $19 million permanent exhibit exploring an oft-times fervently debated topic: the depiction of the nation’s military history, beginning with the French and Indian War in the 1750s, running through World War II and Vietnam, and culminating with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan… It will be the first time the museum has taken a panoramic view of the U.S. military experience.”
So He Cut Off The Ear Just For Fun, Then?
“A recently discovered letter by Vincent van Gogh on display for the first time speaks of a tiny grave and his father’s grief over the loss of his first child — a boy also named Vincent who was stillborn. The letter, the first authenticated one by van Gogh to surface since 1990, is the only known reference by the artist to the family tragedy, said Leo Jansen, a researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, which added the letter to its exhibition yesterday. He and other experts say its passionless tone contradicts theories by some biographers that van Gogh may have suffered from alienation as a ‘replacement child.'”