As of 2016, “the SWR Symphony Orchestra, based in Freiburg and Baden-Baden, is merging with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, thanks to a combination of budgetary cuts at the radio organisation that pays for both of them and what musicians in Germany call the ‘cultural barbarity’ of the radio bosses.”
Tag: 11.26.13
Leonard Slatkin On The Detroit Symphony’s Concert Webcasts
“How does this new technology help solve the so-called ‘crisis’? Clearly, the age of this audience is mostly younger. We know this through the comments we receive each week. They love, not only the programs, but also the additional content.”
William Tell, Cyborg Comic Book Superhero
“In the comic Tell, the legendary nationalist has returned as a towering cyborg who protects a crumbling future Switzerland from villains sowing anarchy in once-pristine Zurich. Tell’s digital eyes identify foes, and his trademark crossbow shoots radiation-tipped arrows.”
Romanian Art Thieves Get 6+ Years In Prison For Rotterdam Heist
“Radu Dogaru, 29, had admitted planning the three-minute heist of works by Picasso, Monet and Gauguin in October 2012 at the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam, dubbed the ‘theft of the century’ in the Netherlands.” Accomplice Eugen Darie received the same sentence. Dogaru’s mother faces trial for allegedly burning three of the stolen canvases.
Hollywood’s China Strategy
“Like every other gigantic business, Hollywood wants to sell its products in China. But selling movies in China is different from selling bubble gum or Coke. The country’s official gatekeeper, the China Film Group, allows in only 34 foreign films per year, a number recently raised from only 20.”
Funding The Arts – How?
“There is a view that the model of state funding for arts in the UK is bloated, London-centric and ripe for replacement by more generous private backing seen in places like the USA. Others, however, say public money keeps the arts vibrant and accessible.”
An Opera Boom In Chicago?
“Opera is a messy, insanely complex undertaking and finances are always a concern. But for now, Chicago opera lovers are basking in the luxury of multiple choices.”
Jazz Drummer Chico Hamilton, 92
“Saluted by the Kennedy Center as a “Living Jazz Legend”, and appointed to the President’s Council on the Arts, this recipient of a NEA Jazz Master fellowship was considered one of the most important jazz artists and composers, creating vivid, positive, uplifting, engaging & relevant music until the end of his life.”
How The Bolshoi Is Like Russia
“Ballet is a self-destructive art, privileging the will over the body. Great dancers retire in physical ruin; the next generation assumes their roles. That same impulse has been observed politically over the course of Russia’s history. The nation has repeatedly dismantled itself in the service of renewal. Institutions are collapsed, or allowed to collapse, to facilitate their transformation by the ruling powers. The Bolshoi will emerge from this time of troubles to better reflect the nostalgic imperialism of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”
A Juror’s-Eye View Of Twelve Angry Men
“Nobody shouted or got into a fight in our jury room – but I definitely recognised the tense atmosphere. Our foreman was always trying to keep order, and in one of the cases, the majority of jurors initially favoured a guilty verdict, and gradually changed their minds.”