“The distinctions that have been made between art in architecture, art as decoration, outdoor sculpture and public art still have not fully entered the consciousness of the visual-art community. Many find it easier to blame local authorities for their highly compromised, so-called public art schemes, but perhaps it is time to point the finger closer to home.” – The Sunday Times (UK)
Tag: 10.15.00
ET TU, SHOSTAKOVICH?
In London, an attempt to discredit Shostakovich. “The essence of the attack is that Shostakovich is unfit to stand comparison with Beethoven, and that placing them side by side merely emphasises Shostakovich’s shortcomings. But the campaign runs deeper than that, for what is being claimed is that few of Shostakovich’s works are worth performing at all, and that recent attempts to find coded anti-Stalinist messages in them – thereby making them seem emotionally ambiguous and thus more ‘interesting’ – are simply a waste of time.” – The Herald (Scotland)
THE HIGH COST OF BEING GOOD
The St. Louis Symphony has achieved a great measure of artistic success. But its bank balance seems to slip a bit further with each season. “Over the last 17 or 18 years, the orchestra has accumulated a potentially crippling deficit of $7 million. (Its annual budget is now $26 million for the orchestra itself with an additional $3 million for its music school.)” – New York Times
AMERICA’S BEST CONCERT HALL?
What’s the best concert hall in America in which to listen to music? That’s easy – Boston’s Symphony Hall. – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
ART OF BUILDING
“During the past decade, new American performing arts facilities have been popping up like mushrooms after a rain, but architecturally they’ve been a pusillanimous lot. When not actively nostalgic, as in Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall, they’ve tended to favor a kind of buttoned-down corporate look, as in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, or shopping-mall lite, as in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center and West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center.” – Dallas Morning News
LIFE WITHOUT BOULEZ?
Where would our musical cultural have been without Pierre Boulez? “Important works by a vast number of other composers — Elliott Carter, Gyorgy Ligeti, Harrison Birtwistle — would never have been commissioned or recorded. And there would have been no one to keep contemporary music in the public eye, especially in the public eye represented by the television camera.” – New York Times