Fifteen years is a long time for a conductor to stay with a single orchestra, so it’s not surprising that, as Daniel Barenboim prepares for his final sendoff as music director of the Chicago Symphony this week, the assessments of his tenure are not universally positive. But John von Rhein says that, on balance, Barenboim has been good for the CSO: “Like all marriages, that of Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony survived honeymoon, discord, absences, misunderstandings, threats of divorce and shared successes. Both used the other for their own benefit. Both traveled an enormous learning curve together.”
Tag: 06.11.06
Boundless Talent, Offset By Endless Self-Importance
The CSO may have benefitted from Daniel Barenboim’s celebrity, says Alan Artner, but it certainly didn’t benefit from his self-important conducting style. “The emotional blockage, vainglory and shallowness of interpretation I heard at the beginning I still hear; only now, it’s no longer offset by the promise of natural ability and aptitude… In place of audible conviction, we have gotten testimonials.”
Opportunity In Challenges For NY Phil?
The New York Philharmonic faces big challenges – looking for a new music director as well as an extended exile from Lincoln center while its home is renovated. Might this lead to changes? “Imagine if the status quo were shaken up. For a month or so an orchestra would present varied weekly programs, like those today. This could be followed by, say, a minifestival focused on a single composer or an overall theme, with a different program for each concert. Then the musicians might subdivide into chamber orchestras and perform in high school auditoriums and smaller halls before reassembling at the homestead for another installment of weekly programs.”
Toronto’s New Castle Of Used Books
A giant new used book store is taking shape in Toronto. “Modelled on the Strand bookstore in New York, which boasts that it has “18 miles of bookshelves” and on Half Price Books, a chain of 80 secondhand stores in the American southwest, it will be like nothing Toronto has seen before, at least on this scale.”
Painter Of The Back Nine
“An artist virtually unknown in the world of art, Linda Hartough is considered the country’s most distinguished painter of golf — and yet even that distinction characterizes her work too broadly. Ms. Hartough paints golf landscapes — the azaleas of Augusta National, the tall grass of Shinnecock Hills and St. Andrews, the contours of Carmel Bay at Pebble Beach. Golf balls, putters and Phil Mickelson or a surgeon in midswing wield no interest for her.”
And The Artists Shall Lead Them…
These days, there is no shortage of gay characters on television or stage, and the increasingly easy familiarity of theatre audiences with gay culture makes it easy to forget just how far we’ve come in a relatively short time. Are we really only 20 years removed from La Cage Aux Folles, with its stereotypical drag queens and (at the time) shocking revelations of gay life? Dominic Papatola says that, at a time when much of America seems to be swinging hard to the right on social issues, the evolution of the arts paint a much different picture of the future.
Sun-Times’ Critic Delacoma Leaves The Newspaper
After 15 years, Wynne Delacoma packs it in as music critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I joined the Sun-Times just before Halloween in 1990 and inherited the critic’s post the following April Fool’s Day. Goblins and tricksters, not the most auspicious omens for major career changes. But on my watch, benevolent forces far outweighed evil influences on Chicago’s classical music scene.”
The Ongoing Minnesota Miracle
Minnesota’s Twin Cities have seemingly always enjoyed a thriving cultural scene far larger than a medium-sized metropolitan area could reasonably be expected to support. The quiet secret to the region’s artistic success has been a long history of private stewardship, spearheaded by a succession of ultra-rich benefactors who have poured a sizable chunk of their net worth into orchestras, museums, and theaters. There have always been doomsayers who warn that once the existing generation of philanthropists dies off, the Twin Cities arts scene will wither on the vine. But recent evidence suggests that a new generation of supporters is ready and able to take the reins.
Arts Need Mission As Much As Money
Louisville has a long and proud cultural tradition, but in recent years, many of the city’s arts groups have struggled financially, and Andrew Adler says that the problem isn’t merely monetary. “Simply saying we ‘need’ an orchestra isn’t sufficient. Same with the opera, the ballet, etc. Of course it takes money to keep these organizations afloat, and more than that, to make them thrive. But the aesthetic imperative continues to be obscured when financial concerns constantly occupy the foreground.”
We Vote For Whichever One Doesn’t Remind Us Of Braveheart
Scotland’s national orchestra is making a push to choose a new national anthem for the region, to supplement the UK-wide anthem, “God Save The Queen,” which doesn’t have a great deal of resonance with Scots. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has recorded renditions of five contending songs (not surprisingly, two are based on poems by Robert Burns, and a third is a bagpipe tune,) and is inviting Scots around the world to vote on its website over the next month.