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- GUITAR
LEGEND DIES: John Fahey, the acoustic guitarist who proved
that folk music and instrumental virtuosity were not antithetical,
has died at the age of 61. Fahey, who revolutionized the world
of folk guitar with his complicated steel-string variations, slipped
into a coma following open-heart surgery. Nando
Times (AP) 02/25/01
- GREATEST
OF THE 20TH? The debate over Igor Stravinsky has always been
a fierce one. Was he the greatest composer of the twentieth century,
or an overrated, self-promoting musical bully? Did his decision
to flee Russia compromise his music, or make it all the more important?
With the century officially over, prominent musicians and composers
are weighing in. Los Angeles Times
02/25/01
- ATTENTION
MUST BE PAID: Harrison Birtwhistle is everything we envision
a composer to be: gruff, hermitlike, and dressed like a poverty-stricken
professor at a liberal arts school, right down to the tweed jackets.
Maybe that predictability is why he is so often forgotten among
modern composers. But get beyond the outward appearance, and Birtwhistle
reveals himself to be one of the most consistent, and consistently
good, composers of the last hundred years. The
Sunday Times 02/25/01
- FILLING
IN THE GAPS: Charles Mingus was one of the great innovators
of jazz, and has been written about, studied, and copied extensively.
But until quite recently, little was known about the early output
of the great bassist. A new recording reveals that Mingus was
a rabblerouser from the very beginning, bending existing forms
of jazz to suit the inimitable style that the world would come
to know as his. Chicago Sun-Times
02/25/01
Saturday February 24
- SURREALISM
OR PORN? The painter Balthus, who died recently at age 92,
presents a problem for fans of his breathtaking surrealist work.
While Balthus was certainly an innovator, and perhaps a genius,
he also had a disquieting habit of painting prepubescent girls
in nude and near-nude poses that would make most people more than
a little uncomfortable. Balthus claimed that there was nothing
sexual in the images, but many continue to regard him as little
better than a highbrow Larry Flynt.
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 02/24/01
- THE
LAND OF OZ: Israeli writer Amos Oz is a respected and controversial
political commentator, as well as a successful novelist. But drawing
the line between his worlds of fiction and reality is growing
more and more difficult as the Middle East heats up once again.
The Independent (London) 02/24/01
Friday February 23
-
POSTHUMOUS
CITIZENSHIP FOR HIKMET: Turkey's most prominent poet of
the 20th century, Nazim Hikmet, died in exile in 1963, stripped
of his citizenship. Now a movement to restore that citizenship
is being pushed by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. "Nazim
is known around the world. He doesn't need this recognition,
but the Turkish republic does." Not everyone agrees;
several nationalist politicians are fighting the idea.
The Guardian (London) 02/22/01
Wednesday February 21
- BEING LIKE
BING: How to explain the phenomenon of Bing Crosby? He was
more than a simple pop singer or movie star. "The emotions
that Crosby elicited did not seem inherent so much in him as in
his audience and their lives. He touched on the feeling latent
in every common recurrence, Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day,
each season in its turn" New
York Review of Books 03/08/01
Tuesday February 20
- KRAMER
GONE: Stanley Kramer, the famed director of "High Noon,"
"Judgment at Nuremberg," and "Inherit the Wind,"
has died in a hospital near Los Angeles of complications from
pneumonia. He was 87. New York Times
(AP) 02/20/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
- BRA-BURNING
DEEMED TOO CALLOUS: Greece has announced that it will not
be burning the undergarments of opera star Maria Callas that it
acquired at auction recently. The plan to incinerate the diva's
unmentionables so as to preserve her honor met with sharp criticism,
and government officials have decided instead to stash them away
in a safe. Nando Times (AP) 02/19/01
Monday February 19
- BALTHUS
DEAD AT 92: French-born painter Balthus, considered one of
the 20th century's finest realist painters, has died in his home
at Rossiniere in Switzerland." The
New York Times 02/19/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
- MORRISON
AT 70: Writer Toni Morrison turns 70 and her friend turn up
for a party. "Even at 70, Morrison continues to astonish
her readers with a lyrical agility and a grasp of imagery so keen
they seem to constitute a language of their own."
Washington Post 02/19/01
Sunday February 18
- MICHAEL
GRAVES WINS GOLD MEDAL: Architect Michael Graves wins the
coveted Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects. "Graves
is a ranking member of an exclusive club of famous architects
whose services are in constant demand. There is no definitive
membership list, nor an established set of standards to get in.
It takes a combination of talent, vision, ambition, discipline,
savvy, a sense of timing, and sheer luck." Washington
Post 02/17/01
- MR
OPERA DEAD: Opera impressario Boris Goldovsky has died at
the ge of 92. "Mr. Goldovsky himself, and then his students,
fundamentally changed the nature of operatic performance in this
country and the public perception of the art. In his hands, it
was not an exotic and irrational entertainment, but the most precise,
inclusive, accessible, and communicative of the performing arts."
Boston Globe 02/17/01
Thursday February 15
- PATRON SAINT: Investor Alberto Vilar, the world’s
most generous individual patron of ballet and opera, says his
latest gift - $50 million to the Kennedy Center - "kills
two birds with one stone. It isn't just about putting on wonderful
performances. It's about doing something to build skills in the
world of arts management – to start an international institute
where the future heads of organizations like the Kennedy Center
can learn all the aspects of running a house." New York Times 2/15/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
- "DOT PAINTER" DIES: Australian painter Johnny Warangkula
Tjupurrula, who popularized the Aboriginal "dot painting"
style, died Monday at age 75. During his lifetime, his work fetched
the highest prices ever paid for an indigenous painting. The Age (Melbourne) 2/15/01
- TODAY'S
BIBLICAL SIGN OF ARMAGEDDON: Luciano Pavarotti has announced
his intention to aggressively pursue the opportunity to duet with
Madonna. Yes, that Madonna. But he's not getting his hopes up.
"I have asked her but she has been busy - first she makes
the baby and then, I don't know."
BBC 02/15/01
- A WALKING
CONTRADICTION: Arthur Erickson has been hailed as a visionary,
and derided as pompous and out-of-touch. He has lived high on
the hog, and lost everything. He has built architectural wonders
for use as low-income housing, and designed a grand concert
hall widely considered to be the ugliest and most acoustically
inferior in North America. In fact, it is the inconsistency
of the man that makes him so interesting.
The Globe & Mail (Toronto)
02/15/01
Wednesday February 14
- INVALID
VALEDICTORY: You may have seen a poem identified as the "farewell
letter" of Gabriel García Márquez circulating on the Internet.
It's poignant, because García Márquez has lymphatic cancer. It's
galling, because he didn't write it. "[N]ot once during his
long and distinguished literary career has Gabriel García Márquez
ever written poetry." Brill's Content 02/09/01
- RUSHDIE STILL
THREATENED: The edict threatening the life of Salman Rushdie
seemed to fade for a few years. Now a hardline Iranian newspaper
is again calling for Rushdie's murder. "The daily said in
an editorial that Rushdie's move to the United States would make
his killing easier.... [T]he country's main military force issued
a statement saying the death sentence against Rushdie still stands."
Salon (AP) 01/13/01
Tuesday February 14
- THE
DU PRE TRADE: Cellist Jaqueline du Pre seems to hold endless
fascination, even years after her death. "Endlessly recycled
images of her gilded youth and wheelchair-bound decline symbolise
the malign power of the illness that killed her. Meanwhile, the
furore unleashed by her siblings' memoir and its consequent film
– painful truth or grotesque travesty? – rages on." And now
a new documentary (an answering documentary to the "Hilary
and Jackie" movie, perhaps?) examines her life again.
The Independent (London) 02/13/01
- BOND
MADE SHAM ART SALES: Fallen Australian business tycoon Alan
Bond evidently managed to sell millions of dollars-worth of his
art collection in the early 1990s as his business empire was collapsing.
The sales were a sham, say prosecutors and were arranged through
a complicated web of offshore businesses. The
Australian 02/13/01
Monday February 12
- SERIOUS
AT SEVENTY: Pianist Alfred Brendel is turning 70 and embarking
on a grand birthday tour. He is considered to be a the top of
his powers but his writings and pronouncements on music are...a
little too serious for some. New Criterion
02/12/01
Sunday February 11
- REMEMBERING
HEIFETZ 100 YEARS LATER: "Jasha Heifetz - the father
of modern virtuoso violin playing - has had a powerful influence
on practically every violinist. He single-handedly changed the
standard of violin playing forever.'' Miami
Herald 02/11/01
- THE
MAKING OF A LEGEND: Edward Albee was proclaimed a genius early
in his career, then knocked down until his success in 1991 with
"Three Tall Women." Now he can do no wrong. "Why
this change of critical heart came about, I'm not quite sure.
Perhaps it's because there's a new team of reviewers in place,
guys who do not have a vested interest in demanding that Albee
repeat the much-admired 'Virginia Woolf' ad nauseam."
New York Post 02/11/01
- LIFE
BEYOND CONDUCTING: Esa Pekka Salonen just took a sabbatical
from his job as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
He's coy about his future: "Does the star conductor of the
82-year-old orchestra, one of the most sought-after guest conductors
in the world today, mentioned as a candidate to head any major
orchestra in need of a music director - in short, one of the great
hopes of classical music - does he mean to say that he's giving
up conducting?" Orange County
Register 02/11/01
Friday February 9
- ANOTHER FAREWELL:
Dancer/choreographer Pauline Koner is dead at the age of 88. Koner
was one of the dance world's great outsiders, an iconoclast who
never studied modern dance formally, but became one of its leading
proponents by combining aspects of multiple styles, from classical
ballet to Spanish folk dance. The New
York Times 02/09/01 (one-time registration required for access)
Thursday February 8
- ANNE MORROW LINDBERG DIES: Anne Morrow Lindberg, the writer
and wife of Charles Lindberg died Wednesday at age 94. She was
the author of more than two dozen books of prose and poetry, including
five volumes of diaries. Her 1955 book "Gift from the Sea"
was a phenomenal international success. New York Times 2/08/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
Wednesday February 7
- NURSING
MATISSE: She was Matisse's nurse for a year and had dreams
of a career in design. He used her as a model, and, when he saw
her drawings, offered to teach her. But Arokas passed up the chance
to become Matisse's only pupil. After a year in his fascinating
but restrictive company, the lure of the big city was again too
much. 'I wanted to revel in my youth and to join a fashion school
- silly girlish things'." The Telegraph
(London) 02/07/01
- FINDING FREEDOM: Nobel Prize Laureate Gao Xingjian
("Soul Mountain") hailed Taiwan in a speech there this
week for its support of artistic expression - unlike Hong Kong,
where he said he felt "embarrassed" by the territory's
lack of freedom. "He called Taiwan the only Chinese community
in the world where culture and arts were fully respected."
Xingjian’s work has been condemned by the Chinese government,
and he has lived as an exile in France since 1988. China Times
2/07/01
Tuesday February 6
- A WORN-OUT WELCOME: It seems Australians have had enough
of Robert Hughes. The tides of public opinion have turned against
the once-revered art critic ever since his May 1999 traffic accident,
and his vitriolic outbursts that followed. "Whereas only
two years ago his name was almost universally spoken with deep
respect, he now seems to be torn asunder at every turn." Sydney
Morning Herald 2/06/01
- DEATH OF A TRAILBLAZER:
The man who made the trombone a legitimate jazz instrument, and
became one of post-war America's most important ambassadors of
bebop, has apparently committed suicide. J.J. Johnson was 77. The New
York Times 02/06/01 (one-time registration required for access)
- SPIEGELMAN'S
ART: No one has done more for the cause of the serious comic
book than Art Spiegelman. The 53-year-old author/artist behind
Maus, the chilling narrative of the Holocaust in comic
book form, has gained legitimacy and fame from his Pulitzer Prize
and the continued rise of the form. His latest work,
however, is aimed squarely at a more traditional comic book audience:
children. CBC 02/04/01
Monday February 5
- XENAKIS
DIES: Iannis Xenakis, the Greek-French composer whose highly
complex scores were based on sophisticated scientific and mathematical
theories, died yesterday at his home in Paris. He was 78.
The New York Times 02/05/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
- IS
MIME OLD-FASHIONED? Mime Marcel Marceau is 78. "He looks
as if the craggy head of Methuselah was attached to a 20 year-old's
lithe body. In speech and gesture, a child's exuberance alternates
with sad wisdom. This is as it should be, for Marceau defines
everything through contrast." Irish
Times 02/05/01
- FIGHTING
DEPORTATION: A violist with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra
in Ontario is appealing a government ruling that would send him
and his family back to their native Albania. The violist claims
that he is in imminent danger from the Albanian government, and
the orchestra is backing him.
CBC 02/02/01
Sunday February 4
- MODEL
ENTREPRENEUR: 88-year-old Donald Seawell worked as a counter-intelligence
agent, wrote speaches fpr Roosevelt and Truman, produced Broadway
plays and published the Denver Post. Last season he took considerable
risks to produce a 12-hour production of "Tantalus"
that drew theatre lovers from all over the world. Now he's helped
bring the production to London... The
Guardian (London) 02/03/01
- MASTER
TEACHER: Few people outside the world of classical music have
heard of 82-year-old Maria Curcio, but within that world she's
a legend: as Artur Schnabel's favourite pupil, as the muse of
Rafael Orozco and Radu Lupu, and as a tutelary goddess second
to none. Her verdict on Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, with whom she once
duetted in concert, would get that lady's lawyers scurrying for
a writ; likewise, kindness prevents my repeating her damning view
of one of today's celebrated young stars in the pianistic firmament."
The Independent (London) 02/03/01
- SAVED
BY THE PRIZE: Matthew Kneale was struggling as a writer before
he won the Whitbread awrd last week. "If the novel had sunk
without trace, it would have been a body blow, both financial
and psychological, from which he might never have recovered. Now
suddenly he is soaring. On such happy accidents - or bold gambles,
depending which way you look at it - careers turn."
The Telegraph (London) 02/03/01
Friday February 2
- GAO
IN CHINA: The Chinese Writers' Association has denounced the
Nobel committee for choosing writer Gao Xingjian for this year's
literature prize, charging the move was politically motivated.
Gao became the first Chinese-language Nobel literature laureate
in the award's 100-year history. Gao says even though his books
are banned in China it is not difficult to find copies of his
books on the mainland. Since leaving China in 1988, Gao has lived
in exile in France. China Times (Taiwan)
02/02/01
- LEARNING
ON THE JOB: Itzhak Perlman will begin a new career path this
fall, when he becomes Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit
Symphony. He is hardly the first high-profile soloist to make
the leap to the podium - Bobby McFerrin in St. Paul and Mstislav
Rostropovich in Washington both caused controversy when they decided
to try waving the baton on a semi-full time basis. A Perlman guest
stint in San Francisco reveals much about what he has learned
already, and what he has yet to grasp.
San Francisco Chronicle 02/02/01
Thursday February 1
- IT'S
NOT OVER 'TIL... Luciano Pavarotti is getting older, and speculation
about his retirement from the operatic stage is rampant. Many
critics are viewing his current stint as Radames in Verdi's "Aida"
as his Met Opera swan song. While Pavarotti will undoubtedly continue
to pack concert halls and stadiums, his voice can simply no longer
hold up against the rigors of a fully staged, 4-hour opera performance.
Ottawa Citizen (AP), 02/01/01
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