The James Levine era begins at the Boston Symphony this evening, and to say that expectations are high would be a gross mischaracterization of the situation. “Levine has such a strong artistic vision it will reach beyond the BSO players and audiences. BSO audiences will take their ears to other organizations and will be listening in a different way.”
Tag: 10.22.04
Pops Goes The Producer
The Boston Pops has made a lot of money from recordings over the years. But with the recording industry all but getting out of the business of recording orchestras, the Pops had a big void to fill. So the orchestra has decided to self-record and produce its own recordings…
Emin Fights Film Rating
Artist Tracey Emin is showing her first film at the London Film Festival. But she’s angry at the UK ratings board who gave the movie a rating that bans kids from seeing it. “Top Spot, which receives its premiere at the London film festival today, was awarded its rating by the British Board of Film Classification for its depiction of suicide. But the decision has surprised and dismayed the 41-year-old artist, who hoped her ‘modern morality tale’ would be watched by teenagers.”
Garcia Marquez Alters Book After Pirates Steal Copy
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ publishers released the Nobel laureate’s new book early when pirates began selling stolen copies of it. “Vendors were tapping on car windows, offering the long-awaited novel at half the official price.” But it appears that Garcia Marquez changed the last chapter for the official version and that the pirated version is wrong.
Broken Lessons – Music Instruction In The UK
What’s wrong with music instruction in the UK? Well, for starters, students from poor families are largely shut out of lessons. A study also found that there was “clear gender stereotyping” in the choice of instruments, and found little being done to tackle this.
Drowning In The Booker
What is it like to be a judge for a prize like the Booker? “Reading 132 books in 147 days is like taking a course in kick-boxing; you quickly lose any flabby concentration and wishy-washy standards, becoming fitter and leaner and more demanding. In the process, you learn a great deal about why so many novels—even well written, carefully crafted novels as so many of those submitted were—are ultimately pointless.”
Hollinghurst: More Than Gay
Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker Prize win earlier this week was announced in much of the British press as a victory by a “gay” novel. But it’s much more than that. “I only chafe at the ‘gay writer’ tag if it’s thought to be what is most or only interesting about what I’m writing. I want it to be part of the foundation of the books, which are actually about all sorts of other things as well – history, class, culture. There’s all sorts of stuff going on. It’s not just, as you would think if you read the headlines in the newspapers, about gay sex.”
Winning The Booker – Not Always The Ticket To Sales
There is a myth that books that win the Booker Prize end up selling a lot of copies. But a look at previous winners’ sales shows that isn’t always the case. “Due to the scale of the Booker award any book that wins, whatever your reason for buying it, will be the sort of title that will become a library staple in many people’s homes and will continue to sell across the decades. The surprise this list throws up is how some books you may not have expected are stronger sellers than some of the bigger names further down the list.”
A Month Of Listening – Taking The Music Industry’s Temperature
Just where is music going at the moment? One journalist decides to take the industry’s temperature by listening to every CD released in the month of October. “I’m struck not just by the sheer quantity – 25,793 CDs were released last year, over double the figure produced in 1994 – but also by the variety. The cost of entry into the market is lower than it ever was before. It costs less to manufacture CDs, and it costs less to record an album. At the same time, the gap between those albums that sell in huge quantities and those that don’t is probably greater than ever.”