“There are few great compositional figures who aren’t already vastly aged, from Steve Reich to Elliott Carter, from Philip Glass to Pierre Boulez, there’s no single path for younger generations of composers to follow, it’s all been done before in every context you can imagine, and there are no sounds to discover that haven’t already been heard.”
Tag: 10.23.10
Melbourne Festival Just Doesn’t (And Maybe Can’t) Have ‘Wow Factor’
Robin Usher: “The festival event of the year for those lucky enough to see it was the pan-European production of Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre … [at the] Adelaide Festival last summer. Nothing in the current Melbourne International Arts Festival … has come close to matching it and, given his guiding philosophy, it is unlikely anything could.”
James DePriest Defines A Mission For Pasadena Symphony
“For a quarter-century, defining that mission fell to Jorge Mester, who quit as the orchestra’s music director last June after a contract dispute. With Mester gone and the orchestra nowhere near replacing him, someone needed to minister to the ensemble’s artistic needs, even if only temporarily.”
The Neuroscience Of Morality
“The idea that moral behaviour is dependent on brain function presents a challenge to our usual ways of thinking about moral responsibility. Indeed, neuroscientific evidence has been found to exert a powerful influence over decisions by judges and juries.”
Michael Govan ReUps As LACMA Director
“On his watch, LACMA has planned and built one facility, the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion; opened another that was in progress when he arrived, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum; and purchased property along Wilshire Boulevard that could permit further growth.”
What Motivated The “Bernie Madoff” Of The Art World
“The same anguished questions have tortured dozens of other victims — from celebrities to wealthy collectors to artists and those managing their estates — defrauded of some $120 million by a man some call the Bernard Madoff of the art world, owner of a lavish Upper East Side gallery one luxury magazine called the best in the world.”
Liberace Museum Says Goodbye
“The move came as the museum’s finances — and attendance — decreased to the point that the attraction was in danger of draining the Liberace Foundation scholarship account. It also came as Hollywood gears up to make a movie about the flamboyant entertainer, born in a Milwaukee suburb in 1919.”
International “Thriller” Night
From Argentina to Australia; from Holland to Deutschland and dozens of undead places in between, Michael Jackson fans took to the streets in a zombie invasion because, as the late MJ sang it: “this is thriller, thriller night.”
Can The Movies help In Hard Times?
“Historically, the movies have helped get the country in gear when the solution to a crisis depends at least in part on new resolve and a boost to the spirits. But the bewildering journey through a subprime lending crisis, a market collapse and federal bailouts, added to the lingering pain of chronic joblessness, appears to have left filmmakers at something of a loss.”