Berlin’s museums are in disarray. Rumors are flying about breaking up longtime collections and reorganization of the city’s museums. And ambitious new projects seem to find favor one minute, then just as quickly lose steam. – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Tag: 12.02.00
LITTLE AUCTION FIRM WINS MAJOR SALE
The most important art auction in Canada this year features a big Renoir and Chagall. But it’s not being sold by one of the major auction houses. Instead, a self-described “fussy little firm” that usually specializes in rugs and jewelry snagged the sale from a distressed Japanese collector. – The Globe & Mail (Canada)
MAN ON A MISSION
The self-effacing pianist Maurizio Pollini has always been a bit of a mystery, ever since his abrupt withdrawal from public life after winning the Warsaw Chopin Competition at 18. “When I learn a new piece, I try to work as quickly as possible at first; I have to know how it sounds, before I can begin to work on what it means.” – The Independent (UK)
POLITICS OF WORLD MUSIC
“In the days before World Music, the Music of Africa series of 10 LPs, recorded in Africa and introduced by Hugh Tracey, were one of the few ways the general listener might encounter African music. A charismatic Englishman, Tracey was the great pioneer in the recording and study of Africa’s traditional sounds. But, throughout the surge of international interest in African music in the Eighties and the world-music boom that followed, Tracey’s name was barely mentioned. Not only did his ethnographic approach seem antiquated, Tracey himself was an embarrassment – a colonial figure who had distorted the music for his own purposes and allowed himself to become a tool of apartheid.” – The Telegraph (UK)