“As Wolfgang Sawallisch ends his decade with three weeks of concerts that started last week and a forthcoming tour, he is as firm a personification of the Philadelphia Orchestra as Leopold Stokowski or Eugene Ormandy. He restored the Philadelphia Orchestra’s famously velvety sound, erasing the more generic, international svelteness Muti imposed. He could be a fiery podium presence – sometimes. He didn’t shrink from tough decisions, and several controversial moves only helped to concretize his leadership.”
Tag: 04.26.03
The Cultural Plunder Racket
“Although it is difficult to track the extent of the black-market culture trade, several have tried to do so. According to Argos, a French insurance group, about US$10-billion worth of art treasures is stolen and traded around the world every year. It’s become the fourth-largest illicit activity – behind drugs, guns and fraud. The history of modern conflict is the history of mass looting – and not just the garden-variety filching of electronic goods; an educated few leap on wars as opportunities to take a nation’s cultural collections into private hands.”
Savannah Symphony Files For Bankruptcy
The Savannah (Georgia) Symphony, which was unable to meet its payroll in January and hasn’t performed since, has decided to file for bankruptcy. The orchestra owes $1 million it can’t pay.
Why Has Music Dropped Off The Intellectuals’ Map?
Why are people who pride themselves on being educated and up on the latest books, movies, and even art, so uninterested and uneducated in serious music? “There is a startling ignorance about music among contemporary intellectuals who value the latest literary and philosophical thinking. It was not always like this. Gradually music has become more and more marginal to intellectual endeavour, and this separation may be traced to the first half of the 20th century. Until this time, writers and thinkers saw reflection on music as a culturally central consideration, a view that can be traced right back through the works of Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, St Augustine, Galileo, Newton, Goethe and Nietzsche…”
Florida Arts Cuts Rolling In
Florida arts supporters can see the cuts in arts funding by the state legislature rolling towards them. It’s not a question of will there be cuts anymore but whether there will be any arts funding left after the House, Senate and Governor get done. Last year the arts got $28 million. This year?
The Tally So Far
Across America states are cutting or eliminating arts funding. Here’s a list of the damage so far
Failure To (Teach) Writing
A new report says that writing is not being well-taught in American schools. “The commission’s report asserts that writing is among the most important skills students can learn, that it is the mechanism through which they learn to connect the dots in their knowledge — and that it is now woefully ignored in most American schools. Writing, always time-consuming for student and teacher, is today hard-pressed in the American classroom. Of the three R’s, writing is clearly the most neglected.”
Baghdad – Land Of Opportunity (For Marketing American Culture)
Ever in search of new markets to conquer, American culture is set to flood into Iraq. “From Dan Rather to Britney Spears, Fox News to MTV, Madison Ave. to Hollywood, fashion magazines to new school textbooks, every extended limb of American pop culture is stretching to grab Baghdad.”
The Cult Of Frank Lloyd Wright
Was architect Frank Lloyd immortal, as he declared? “More than 50 years later, it would seem the flamboyant, self-promoting genius heralded by himself and others as the “greatest architect” may have been right. Of the more than 500 buildings he designed, 400 are still standing. His legacy as both an architect and interior designer is such that each May thousands of devoted fans line up for the privilege of standing in a Frank Lloyd Wright ‘space’ for just a few minutes.”
Zagreb – City Of Art
The city of Zagreb claims to have more museums and galleries per square foot than any other city. “One of the oddities of Zagreb is that although there’s an amazing abundance of museums and galleries, there’s no national art gallery. Instead, several of the leading galleries are named after prominent collectors who left their treasures to the nation.”