Gramophone Award Winners 2012: Abbado, Calleja, Heinrich Schütz(!)

Tenor Joseph Calleja was named Artist of the Year, while éminence grise maestro Claudio Abbado received a Lifetime Achievement Award and had three different recordings win their categories. Record of the Year honors went to a sleeper candidate: Schütz’s radiant Musicalisches Exequien performed by the relatively unknown (but marvelous) Belgian group Vox Luminis.

L.A. Bond Guru’s Stolen Art Collection Recovered

“Jeffrey Gundlach said Thursday that an estimated $10 million in 20th century art that was burglarized from his Santa Monica home has now been safely returned, and that police told him they have arrested two suspects. … [He] had posted a $1.7-million reward for the return of works by Piet Mondrian, Jasper Johns, Richard Diebenkorn, Joseph Cornell and others.”

Pop Culture Has Turned Against The Liberal Arts

Time was, an archaeology professor (Indiana Jones) could be the hero of an entire action movie franchise. “If those films were released today, I wonder if some Hollywood producer would insist that the Jones boys be changed from professors to executives at a private treasure-salvaging company. The idea that liberal-arts lovers can be heroes seems even more antiquated than the artifacts the Jones’ [sic] are after.”