I have just been told that the Queen has honoured Neil MacGregor with the Order of Merit, the highest honour in her gift. Neil, director of the British Museum since 2002 and, before that, head of the National Gallery, had previously turned down a knighthood, which is a political gift.
In eight years, he has turned around the BM from the nation’s aunt sally to the busiest museum or earth, with a higher footfall than the Louvre and more public awareness than the Met. Some 10 million people have downloaded his History of the World in 100 Objects from the BBC.
Seldom in my experience has the order been more richly merited. Arise Mr MacGregor, OM.
I have just been told that the Queen has honoured Neil MacGregor with the Order of Merit, the highest honour in her gift. Neil, director of the British Museum since 2002 and, before that, head of the National Gallery, had previously turned down a knighthood, which is a political gift.
In eight years, he has turned around the BM from the nation’s aunt sally to the busiest museum or earth, with a higher footfall than the Louvre and more public awareness than the Met. Some 10 million people have downloaded his History of the World in 100 Objects from the BBC.
Seldom in my experience has the order been more richly merited. Arise Mr MacGregor, OM.
If Osama bin Laden were to sue Citibank for giving him false advice in a takeover deal, he’d stand a decent chance in a New York court, given the general low repute of City bankers.
No such luck for Guy Hands, the man who owns the hedge fund that owns EMI. His $7 bn court claim that he was swindled into paying over the odds for the company was thrown out in four hours by a jury, unmoved by wails that Hands had lost 70 percent of his personal fortune when EMI’s share price fell by half.
Where that leaves EMI is firmly in the knackers yard. If the company cannot meet its next debt repayment, Citibank will call in the loan and put the comany into administration.
Vultures are circling. If Warner pass yet again on the chance to pick up the oldest and deepest music catalogue on the cheap, sources at Sony and Universal say the two giants will carve up EMI between them. Neither can buy the company without facing anti-trust action. But if they cherry-pick the remains, Citibank will get repaid and the label will fade into history.
As for Terry Hands, he’s running low on friends and the high-wire case will have cost him another chunk of an already depleted fortune. So sad.
If Osama bin Laden were to sue Citibank for giving him false advice in a takeover deal, he’d stand a decent chance in a New York court, given the general low repute of City bankers.
No such luck for Guy Hands, the man who owns the hedge fund that owns EMI. His $7 bn court claim that he was swindled into paying over the odds for the company was thrown out in four hours by a jury, unmoved by wails that Hands had lost 70 percent of his personal fortune when EMI’s share price fell by half.
Where that leaves EMI is firmly in the knackers yard. If the company cannot meet its next debt repayment, Citibank will call in the loan and put the comany into administration.
Vultures are circling. If Warner pass yet again on the chance to pick up the oldest and deepest music catalogue on the cheap, sources at Sony and Universal say the two giants will carve up EMI between them. Neither can buy the company without facing anti-trust action. But if they cherry-pick the remains, Citibank will get repaid and the label will fade into history.
As for Terry Hands, he’s running low on friends and the high-wire case will have cost him another chunk of an already depleted fortune. So sad.
Georg Straka, a double-bass player with the Vienna Philharmonic, was killed while climbing Mount Fuji on Wednesday during an orchestral tour of Japan. The tour continues.
Straka, 41, had four children and played with them in a family ensemble. Six years ago, he survived a brain tumour. His climbing companion on Fuji was violinist Wilfried Ramsaier, according to fellow-players.
This is not the first time in recent memory that the VPO have lost a player on the hike. Gerhard Hetzel, an outstanding and popular concertmaster, hit his head on a rock and died while climbing near Salzburg with his wife in July 1994, early in the festival. It was said at the time that he let his head take the blow to protect his playing hand from injury.
Austria is a mountain nation and many VPO musicians are fearless climbers. But an orchestra on tour needs to maintain collective discipline and security. It may have to restrict dangerous pastimes to off-duty periods.
Georg Straka, a double-bass player with the Vienna Philharmonic, was killed while climbing Mount Fuji on Wednesday during an orchestral tour of Japan. The tour continues.
Straka, 41, had four children and played with them in a family ensemble. Six years ago, he survived a brain tumour. His climbing companion on Fuji was violinist Wilfried Ramsaier, according to fellow-players.
This is not the first time in recent memory that the VPO have lost a player on the hike. Gerhard Hetzel, an outstanding and popular concertmaster, hit his head on a rock and died while climbing near Salzburg with his wife in July 1994, early in the festival. It was said at the time that he let his head take the blow to protect his playing hand from injury.
Austria is a mountain nation and many VPO musicians are fearless climbers. But an orchestra on tour needs to maintain collective discipline and security. It may have to restrict dangerous pastimes to off-duty periods.
I was asked the question at the House of Commons culture committee and suggested Sir John Tusa as a good candidate. He has run the BBC World Service and the Barbican Centre to very good effect and remains so passionate about the arts that its hard to find him at home of an evening.
John would do a great job of cleaning those Augean stables, the more so after today’s massive debacle.
However, I hear there are more names in the frame. Whispers in the past 24 hours suggest that former Marks & Spencers boss Stuart Rose and Tesco chief Terry leahy are being considered by the Goverment. Neither has prior form in the arts or any notable passion. Past experience of business moguls has been dismal – remember Labour’s Gerry Robinson.
If there is a plan to remove Liz Forgan before her term expires in 2013, Jeremy Hunt should keep his focus on someone from the arts with a no-nonsense history. Tusa’s the name.
I was asked the question at the House of Commons culture committee and suggested Sir John Tusa as a good candidate. He has run the BBC World Service and the Barbican Centre to very good effect and remains so passionate about the arts that its hard to find him at home of an evening.
John would do a great job of cleaning those Augean stables, the more so after today’s massive debacle.
However, I hear there are more names in the frame. Whispers in the past 24 hours suggest that former Marks & Spencers boss Stuart Rose and Tesco chief Terry leahy are being considered by the Goverment. Neither has prior form in the arts or any notable passion. Past experience of business moguls has been dismal – remember Labour’s Gerry Robinson.
If there is a plan to remove Liz Forgan before her term expires in 2013, Jeremy Hunt should keep his focus on someone from the arts with a no-nonsense history. Tusa’s the name.
Music
Ranking recorded by Wikio
Music
Ranking recorded by Wikio
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’. It was to be his final work.
Barshai had already applied to leave the country and was officially an outlaw. The sonata, opus 147, was published and performed in Moscow with a dedication to Feodor Druzhinin, viola player of the Beethoven Quartet.
Out in the wide world, Barshai fulfilled his ambitions to be a conductor, working with many orchestras though never achieving star status. His finest moments on record are with a German youth orchestra with which he performed
Mahler’s fifth symphony and his own realisation of
Mahler’s tenth. Both are legends among Mahlerians and his score of the Mahler tenth is gaining widespread acceptance. It is probably as close to what Shostakovich would have done, had he accepted a 1941 invitation to complete the work.
For more details see Why Mahler? and Elizabeth Wilson’s Barshai interview in Shostakovich: A Life Remembered.
There is a rather lovely picture of Barshai with a bemused look on his face as his friend Yehudi Menuhin demonstrates his yoga skill of standing on his head.
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 was to be ‘informal’ and the Arts Council existed to choose ventures and support those which had a ‘reasonable prospect of success’. This is foundation stuff. How is it possible that Davey has been chief executive for three years and does not know this?
And what point is there in making a National Theatre apply for its grant? Will any Arts Council ever dare to drop a national enterprise?
The gimmick comes with a ten-year strategy plan that was first sketched in 2007 and bears no relation to present reality.
Unbelievable, in both senses of the word. The ACE initiative makes you wonder whether they are living on the same planet as the rest of us. And Davey’s presentation was so tremulous, so lacking in personal credibility that no-one can possibly imagine why this man is still in his job, earning £191,000 after a £16,000 increase last year.
Unbelievable.
