Big band leader Artie Shaw quit the music business 50 years ago. But before he did: “A clarinetist and bandleader, Mr. Shaw’s music sold more than 100 million records with a stunning series of hit-making songs, including Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust.” His music so defined its period that Time magazine wrote that on the verge of World War II, the United States meant to the Germans ‘skyscrapers, Clark Gable and Artie Shaw’.”
Tag: 12.30.04
Experts Warn Of Fake Bible-Era Objects
After important Bible-era fakes were proven so in an Israeli museum, experts have sent out a call to other museums to be on the lookout for more. “Scholars said the forgers were exploiting the deep emotional need of Jews and Christians to find physical evidence to reinforce their faith. ‘This does not discredit the profession. It discredits unscrupulous dealers and collectors’.”
Art Of The Fake
How do you make fake ancient religious objects good enough to fool experts? It’s not really so difficult…
Lebrecht: The Year Recording Didn’t Die (But I Don’t Apologize)
Last year Norman Lebrecht brashly predicted that 2004 would be the end of the classical recording business. But a funny thing happened in the form of numerous interesting new releases. “With such exuberance on offer and more promised in the year ahead, what then of my rock-solid prediction 12 months ago that 2004 would see the end of the classical recording industry? Must I now eat humble pie, not mince? The evidence suggests otherwise. For effervescent as the new crop may seem, no-one is making any money.”
Vienna Philharmonic Donates For Disaster Relief
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra says it will donate $136,000 to the World Health Organization to help provide drinking water to survivors of the tsunami disaster. “We wish to express our solidarity with all those who have lost everything.” The orchestra typically donates $68,000 to humanitarian causes every New Year’s day from the poroceeds of its worldwide New Year’s broadcast.
The Definitive Holmes
A California lawyer has published a major new edition of the 56 Sherlock Holmes stories, heavily annotated with his exhaustive footnotes. “The collection, published last month by W. W. Norton is being hailed as the definitive exegesis of Holmes and his times. As a single reference work ‘The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes’ seems unlikely to be superseded for some time.”