His name is, in fact, Mozart. “He is 82, lives in Linz and trades in stolen archaeological items from Italy. The carabinieri have found 3000 items to have passed through his hands and around 600 have already been returned to Italy.”
Tag: 11.02.05
Today’s 10-Year-Old Music Fan: Denied Access
As a child Rupert Christiansen spent countless hours in the music collections of public libraries, exploring and listening. “Could a 10-year-old budding maestro – or opera critic – enjoy the same adventure today? Only if he or she was the winner in a postcode lottery. Decent public music collections have become increasingly hard to find in a library structure which has replaced its old mission of humanising and educating in favour of providing value-free dissemination of information. I see the logic in this, but feel impelled to defend my own culture’s corner.”
Esa-Pekka Salonen On Conducting:
“You know, in some ways conducting is counter-intuitive. It’s like winter driving in Finland – if you skid, the natural reaction is to fight with the wheel and jam on the brakes, which is the quickest way to get killed. What you have to do is let go, and the car will right itself. It’s the same when an orchestra loses its ensemble. You have to resist the temptation to semaphore, and let the orchestra find its own way back to the pulse.”
S&S Editor Korda Retiring
After 47 years at Simon & Shuster, star editor Michael Korda is retiring. “The 72-year-old industry veteran, who was born in England and remains one of the most well known and well-respected editors in New York, will leave his top post at the end of the year and take on the role of editor in chief emeritus.”
Radio For Cats And Dogs
“Now dogs, cats, hamsters and parrots can keep the anxiety, the loneliness, the restlessness at bay while their owners are out. It is radio just for them, live 17 hours a day, 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific time, and podcast for the rest of the 24 hours. Those who listen to DogCatRadio will find that there is generally an animal motif to the playlist, like “Hound Dog”: You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog cryin’ all the time.”
BBC – Updating Shakespeare
The BBC is launching a series of updated Shakespeare plays this fall, with the emphasis on updated. “It’s unsurprising that writers and directors in a media- and celebrity-obsessed age find Shakespeare’s texts reflect those obsessions. Because the history of Shakespearean-updating shows the translators stamping their own times or minds on the plays.”
Dorment: Tate Was Lucky To Get Ofili
Richard Dorment is shocked that the Tate is being attacked for its recent purchase of Chris Ofili’s “The Open Door.” “With MoMA breathing down their necks, the Tate trustees either had to act at once or lose one of the most important works of British art painted in the last 25 years. Had the gallery let the work go, I’d now be writing an article castigating the director and trustees for their obtuseness. And what if Ofili had stepped down from the board? It would still have been possible to point to his recent association with the gallery and accuse Tate of cronyism. By asking the artist to step aside during the negotiations, the trustees secured a masterpiece while adhering to the highest ethical standards.”