ArtsWatch

Steven Spielberg has pledged $1 million for the National Museum of American Jewish History's new building on Independence Mall, the museum said after the Daily News reported the gift. The grant is to be made through Spielberg's charity, the Righteous Persons Foundation.
A peek at the foundation's 2006 tax return shows that Spielberg gives mostly to Jewish organizations, and mostly in relatively modest amounts (the Institute for Southern Jewish Life got $35,000, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture $525,000), so a million-dollar gift for them is a big deal.
The Spielberg money brings to $111 million the museum's $150 million campaign, a spokesman says. The new digs are now expected to open in the fall of 2010.

I turned on WRTI a little while ago and found myself in the middle of an incredibly interesting Beethoven 6. It seemed a totally new interpretation. The last movement was full of great ideas, consistently applied, tempos that created a narrative that was both emotional and intelligent.
I was sure the announcer would reveal the name of a young conductor who would no doubt be a big deal someday. Turned out to be Wolfgang Sawallisch leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Sawallisch - yet again!

Just as his replacement is starting work at the Mann Center, Peter B. Lane has left the job for which he left Philadelphia. Lane and the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts have "agreed to separate."
In the meantime, Catherine M. Cahill, the former CEO of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, has taken over the Mann.

You might not recognize this view of a familiar place. It's the Ballroom of the Academy of Music, which is undergoing a total renovation. More about the project later in the week.

Here is what the work looks like from the outside.

And this shows the view from the balcony overlooking Broad Street. Academy leaders once thought that visitors would be able to walk out onto the balcony after renovations provided for access to the slim walkway, but it turns out the balustrade is too low to be safe. One unlucky trip on your ballgown, and...

Now that the Academy of Music is paying such careful attention to its past, can't the money be found to rehire an Academy archivist? The position was eliminated several years ago, and one wonders how the archive will process some of the artifacts being uncovered in this latest round of renovations.

James Levine is having surgery this week to remove a kidney. The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera music director will withdraw from the balance of the 2008 Tanglewood season.
"Because of a cyst causing pressure and discomfort, Levine will undergo surgery this week to have a kidney removed," says a BSO press release. "The procedure has been described by Levine's doctors as curative, with no other treatment necessary and with every expectation for a complete recovery. The anticipated recuperation period is six weeks - leaving ample time to prepare and conduct the season openings of the BSO and the Metropolitan Opera in September."
Soon to be announced are the guest conductors taking Levine's Tanglewood dates.

Nature has come into her own again. In Independence National Historical Park, local artist Winifred Lutz has been helping it along. As part of her summer-long project to reveal something about Dock Creek, which once wended its way through the area, Lutz has marked out a portion of the creek with chalk lines.
But there's a shallow scar in the earth, too, a lingering reminder of the creek's path. With recent days of heavy rains, a few inches of water have gathered there, suggesting the appearance of what was once the creek's bed.
And Lutz is keeping the National Park Service's lawn-cutters away. This photo shows grass growing tall, outlining the creek's shape in a deep green swath of new blades and spikelets.
The American Philosophical Society has prepared a written piece explaining Lutz's project.

In another sign of the ever-finer nichification of cultural options and modern life in general, a new radio show devoted to contemporary classical composers launches Saturday evening. Modern Masters will premiere on SIRIUS’ Symphony Hall channel 80 and "will explore the works of living composers," according to the satellite radio network.
Of course, this raises all sorts of questions. SIRIUS says the show will highlight "today’s leading composers." But who are they? How does one define "leading" - and will record sales, fan letters and tax returns be considered as evidence?
The playlist for the first week includes Blue Cathedral of Jennifer Higdon (pictured), as well as Gorilla in a Cage by Stewart Wallace, Fanfares to Music by John Corligliano, Derive 1 by Pierre Boulez and Shadows, Op. 25 by Aulis Sallinen, a spokesman says.
SIRIUS stock, responding to the news with what can only be called irrational exuberance, soared 3 cents today to close at $2.07.

Gay marriage is not exactly sweeping the nation, but the Philadelphia Museum of Art isn't waiting around for progress. In all its correspondence to our home lately, the museum has quietly settled the matter.

An excerpt...

Dear Mr. and Mr. Dobrin,

As a member of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we know you have a
special appreciation of arts and cultural events...

For the record, we're registered at Tiffany & Co.

Who knew the announcement of a new arts and culture czar for the city would be so popular? About a hundred arts types - including Kimmel Center president Anne Ewers - were prevented from entering City Hall to hear Mayor Nutter's announcement today because they mayor's reception room was already filled to capacity with a rather celebratory crowd.
This on a Friday afternoon in the summer when the city is usually emptying out.
The Mayor's pick, by the way, is Gary Steuer, vice president of private-sector affairs at Americans for the Arts and executive director of the Arts & Business Council of Americans for the Arts.

We don't usually report on shoe transmitters, tree-stump listening devices or buttonhole cameras, but we've recently learned that Karen Corbin, the marketing smarty at the Franklin Institute, has decided to move south and become the International Spy Museum's new chief operating officer.

What do these enormous heads now popping up at 54th and Park in New York have to do with the Fidelio opening the Opera Company of Philadelphia's season? They are both the work of Japan-born artist Jun Kaneko.

Photo: Takashi Hatakeyama

Unable to find sponsorship, the Philadelphia Orchestra has canceled its 2009 European festivals tour.
The cancellation is doubly painful. The concerts in Lucerne, Paris, at the London Proms (Royal Albert Hall pictured) and Edinburgh Festival starting in August would have brought the orchestra incalculable artistic credibility with audiences and within the classical industry.
And this was to have been Charles Dutoit's first tour with the orchestra in his new role as chief conductor and artistic adviser.
Reasons for canceling the tour are numerous, says an orchestra spokeswoman, but include lack of sponsorship and the weak dollar.
The increased cost of flying was "icing on the cake," she said.
Dutoit's first tour with the orchestra will now be in the spring of 2010, says orchestra president James Undercofler.
"The weeks in late August, early September interrupted the musicians contractual vacation schedule. As such, we had negotiated fewer summer concerts (such as the Best of series). We can now rethink the early part of summer," he said.
Undercofler said he is disappointed. "But having been in the not-for-profit sector for decades, perhaps I have some understandable perspective. After all, what matters is enabling this great orchestra to play great music greatly!"
A tour slated for this January, in which Christoph Eschenbach takes the orchestra on a trek from the Canary Islands to Vienna, is still on, the spokeswoman said.

If you happen to be at the Aspen Music Festival August 2, you can eavesdrop on U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talking with Aspen Institute president and CEO Walter Isaacson about music, and then hear her play piano.
Maybe you didn't know that Rice was a classical pianist in training before turning her attention to...well, you know the company she's been keeping recently.
She'll be playing the first movement of Dvorak's Piano Quintet in A major, B. 155, op. 81 and the second movement of Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34.
My favorite sentence from the Aspen Festival press release announcing the event: "Secretary Rice has said publicly that her favorite composer is Brahms."
Photo: Rice partnering with Yo-Yo Ma (Reuters)

"But about Saratoga. We was there six days and not a soul from home seen us and everything came off just as we wanted it to, fine weather and horses and races and all."
- Sherwood Anderson, I Want To Know Why

Saratoga has a fine orchestra, too, starting next week. I'll be blogging - and filing for the newspaper - from Saratoga Springs, where the Philadelphia Orchestra is playing for the next three weeks. Charles Dutoit has long been in charge there, but this summer might feel a little more important, what with him soon taking the helm of the ensemble and all.