The Philadelphia Orchestra's release of Price's First and Third Symphonies took Best Orchestral Performance, while Dudamel's Mahler Eighth from Los Angeles won Best Choral Performance and Philip Glass's Akhnaten Best Opera Performance. Among other winners: Jennifer Koh, Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma, Caroline Shaw's Narrow Sea. - San Francisco Classical Voice
In a long-expected move, Woolfe, who became the Times's classical music editor in 2015, succeeds Anthony Tommasini, who retired as chief classical critic last year. (That Woolfe's title does not include "chief" would seem to indicate that the Times doesn't plan to hire another staff critic.) - The New York Times
Determined to avoid another labor dispute and eager to make the orchestra a pillar of Detroit’s civic revival, she spent the next decade rebuilding the ensemble. The Detroit Symphony, digitally connected and agile, became a model modern ensemble. - The New York Times
The earliest, putty-colored cylinders deteriorate after only a few dozen listens if played on the Edison machines; they crack if you hold them too long in your hand. And because the wax tubes themselves were unlabeled, many of them remain mysteries. - NPR
“Stalin was no psychopath but an emotionally intelligent and feeling intellectual. Indeed, it was the power of his emotional attachment to deeply held beliefs that enabled him to sustain decades of brutal rule." - The New Statesman
Once a leader in Russian cultural diplomacy overseas, the Hermitage is now isolated by the cultural boycotts of Russia that have multiplied through the western world since the war began. - The Art Newspaper
Virtue signalling is more nuanced and more interesting than the picture painted by conventional wisdom and political rhetoric. As it turns out, there are bad and good things about virtue signalling – but probably not for the reasons you think. - Aeon
Once a slow-changing bastion of tradition, it was announced on Monday that the institution famous for its Renaissance masterpieces had last year leapt past Rome’s Colosseum, the ruins of Pompeii, the Vatican Museums and other well-known sites. - The Guardian
Adapting Mockingbird for the stage, Sorkin knew Atticus shouldn't be an icon of rectitude. "I realized I didn't have to create a flaw for Atticus, that he already had one. It's just that it had been presented to us as a virtue." What was that flaw? - MSN (The Boston Globe)
So, what is grammaticalization? Roughly speaking, it is the series of steps by which collections of individual words that refer to objects and actions gradually mutate into complex systems of grammar, with pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, verb endings, agreement, and so on. - LitHub
"By the time he was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 34, Kafka had already spent two decades worrying about disease. He took his holidays at convalescent spas, while letters to friends and lovers often amounted to little more than catalogues of symptoms." - Aeon
These days, the art of hanging out seems to be waning in cities. The American Community Life Survey reported last year that only 25 percent of people living in areas with “very high” amenity access actually socialize with strangers at least once a week. - The Atlantic
"I'm in an abandoned-looking house, where a woman appears like a dancing apparition. Then I'm going down a rabbit hole into a tea party in a bright yellow field. I'm conducting avatars moving to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring; taking a dance class where the teacher is a hologram." - The Guardian
So he is a traditionalist choice to win—but a traditionalist choice for an institution that has been changing. Following years of accusations about gender and racial bias—including from the Recording Academy’s own ousted leader—the Grammys have lately been on a reform mission. - The Atlantic
