4Nov

Top UK music blogs (all genres) from Wikio, November 2010

1 Musicrooms.net 2 SoulCulture.co.uk 3 Alter The Press! 4 Lil Wayne HQ 5 St. Peter’s View 6 LondonJazz 7 Word Magazine blogs 8 Matrixsynth 9 No Rock And Roll Fun 10 Live4ever – The Brit Rock Daily 11 uncarved.org blog 12 Popjustice 13 PUT ME ON IT 14 Southern Hospitality 15 Slipped disc 16 Song, […]

Click to read more
4Nov

The last sound Shostakovich wanted to hear

Rudolf Barshai, who has died at his Swiss home, aged 86, was the best viola player in Russia. He had a long friendship with Dmitri Shostakovich, who called him one day in the summer of 1975 with technical questions about the instrument. When Barshai asked what he was composing, Shostakovich replied ‘a sonata, for you’. […]

Click to read more
4Nov

Just when you thought it could get no worse

Unbelievable. It’s the only word I can find to describe Alan Davey’s performance on the Today programme this morning. The chief executive of Arts Council England has just ‘discovered’ that many of the companies receiving regular grants, the so-called RFOs, never actually applied for them. Absolutely right. Maynard Keynes stipulated in 1945 that arts funding […]

Click to read more
4Nov

Just when you thought it could get no worse

Unbelievable. It’s the only word I can find to describe Alan Davey’s performance on the Today programme this morning. The chief executive of Arts Council England has just ‘discovered’ that many of the companies receiving regular grants, the so-called RFOs, never actually applied for them. Absolutely right. Maynard Keynes stipulated in 1945 that arts funding […]

Click to read more
3Nov

From the absurd to the ridiculous

I’ve just heard that Arts Council England has rushed forward an important initiative from next week to tomorrow. The announcement is its ten-year strategy for arts funding in England, a work three years in preparation and – I am reliably informed – hardly changed to take in the strategic effects of deep cuts to the […]

Click to read more
3Nov

From the absurd to the ridiculous

I’ve just heard that Arts Council England has rushed forward an important initiative from next week to tomorrow. The announcement is its ten-year strategy for arts funding in England, a work three years in preparation and – I am reliably informed – hardly changed to take in the strategic effects of deep cuts to the […]

Click to read more
2Nov

What the House of Commons culture committee wanted to know

The first question I was asked at the HoC Committee for Culture, Media and Sport was, ‘what’s wrong with the Arts Council?’ Since the committee’s brief is to examine the funding of arts and heritage with particular reference to budget cuts, this was a leading question. One MP in particular, Tom Watson (Labour), had formed a dim […]

Click to read more
2Nov

What the House of Commons culture committee wanted to know

The first question I was asked at the HoC Committee for Culture, Media and Sport was, ‘what’s wrong with the Arts Council?’ Since the committee’s brief is to examine the funding of arts and heritage with particular reference to budget cuts, this was a leading question. One MP in particular, Tom Watson (Labour), had formed a dim […]

Click to read more
2Nov

Classical pods sprout at the BBC

If you want to hear the classical charts wherever you go, the BBC will provide them on a podcast from tomorrow. I’m not sure it’s going to change many lives, but at least it tells you what music is going into the shops and at what speed it is leaving.   Here’s the announcement: Hello […]

Click to read more
2Nov

Classical pods sprout at the BBC

If you want to hear the classical charts wherever you go, the BBC will provide them on a podcast from tomorrow. I’m not sure it’s going to change many lives, but at least it tells you what music is going into the shops and at what speed it is leaving.   Here’s the announcement: Hello […]

Click to read more
2Nov

The state of classical music, late 2010

An arts foundation asked me to summarise the state of the art in the throes of its latest turmoil. I gave brisk answers to brief questions, but still surprised myself at my own general optimism that classical music will emerge stronger from recession and that the new wave of talent will generate its own energy. […]

Click to read more