A decade of Slipped Disc

A decade of Slipped Disc

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norman lebrecht

December 27, 2019

In 2010, Slipped Disc was hosted by artsjournal.com and the leader in classical music news was Alex Ross.

A decade on, www.slippedisc.com has 1.7 million monthly readers, at least four times as many as any other site.

Although we lost much of our backlog when the site went independent in 2014, here are some highlights of the decade:

2010 Boris boosts music education. It practically wrecked his career.

2011 Musicians seek boycott of Israel Phil BBC Prom. All the usual suspects signed on.

2012 Federer faces Beethoven.  Won in straight sets.

2013 JFK airport agents destroyed my flutes. The post went viral on Reddit, crashing the AJ site and prompting our move to www.slippedisc.com

2014 Jonas Kaufmann in love. You read it here first.

2015 Ten men sang most at the Met. No women.

2016 The orchestra with the most married couples. Then the conductor got divorced.

2017 Kissin weds. Just another exclusive.

2018 Maestro gets fired. Usual reason.

2019 Yuja Wang. It just got shorter.

 

Comments

  • Jack says:

    When I see posts like “DEATH OF 3-IN-A-BED CONDUCTOR” I’m not quite ready to pin the crown of ‘leader in classical music news’ on Slipped Disc. Quite often a good source of gossip and prurient content, yes (i.e. Yuja Wang’s wardrobe). But LEADER in classical music news? I’m not so sure on that count.

    To my knowledge, Alex Ross is no longer an aggregator of anything. He does much more important work. I look to him and other arts journalists for the most important writing in this area. For that I have my own set of links and regularly visit those sources directly.

    Trolling for content — which is primarily what SD seems to do — does turn up some pearls among the other swill that anyone can easily find on the internet. So to the extent that SD points me to those pearls, it performs a valued role, though usually stories of note (the pearls) are already available on major media.

    Looking up above, it’s kind of sad that much of what Norman cites as ‘some of the highlights of the decade’ easily falls into the swill category, and notable milestones are completely ignored.

    Norman, consider this a call from one reader for some greater editorial oversight.

  • Petros Linardos says:

    I am surprised at the choice of highlights.

    Aside from gossip, Slippeddisc often publishes news or insightful commentary. A good example of the latter was, I think, the Maazel obituary.

    https://slippedisc.com/2014/07/lorin-maazel-a-maestro-of-limitless-possibilities/

  • Norman, with all my rispect I think you write too much about the marketing of miss Wang

  • Emil says:

    This list is a good summary of the site: some exclusives, some good news coverage, and some gratuitous ogling of one of the world’s leading pianists.

  • Rob says:

    Slipped Disc? I suppose it’s better than a broken heart.

  • Mick the Knife says:

    I look at this site now before the NY Times and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

  • Bloom says:

    I like the democratic spirit of Slipped Disc ( the commentary section). The diversity of opinions expressed here is something like a rara avis in the present very polarized ( undemocratic) world.

  • Has-been says:

    I would like to suggest SD drop the issue of deceased artist’s political affiliations. Did Gilels and Richter’s communist background affect their interpretations ? Or, did Karajan and Boehm’s NS affiliations influence their music making ? These issues have been litigated over and over and there
    is nothing new to be said.
    Just a thought.

    • Petros Linardos says:

      Or, at least, SD should qualify the level of political affiliation. There is a huge difference between being a “Mitläufer” (hanger on) and actively supporting a totalitarian government, not to speak of taking actions that harm others.

      Some empathy could also help: some of the musicians who are subjected to lots of armchair criticism in this space, where human beings who had to protect their own children or, in some cases, Jewish relatives in the Third Reich.

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