ArtsWatch

André Previn, the pianist-conductor with ties to the Curtis Institute of Music, tells us what he thinks of Curtis grad Lang Lang, in The Guardian.
"It's a circus act, you know? Why doesn't he just come out and juggle? He's an amazing pianist, but I can't watch, not for one minute. And yet he is probably the biggest box-office success in the world, for a classical musician."
It's a long interview, amazingly candid, and fascinating reading even for someone not fascinated with Previn's own career.
On his decision to leave MGM as a film composer: "At MGM you knew you were going to be working next year, you knew you were going to get paid. But I was too ambitious musically to settle for it. And I wanted to gamble with whatever talent I might have had."
He weighs in on some other film composers. "You know, when I hear Titanic - James Horner - which was a huge hit, it's the same 16 bars played 185 times. It's not interesting," he says.
On one of his former wives, Mia Farrow, he says: "She goes to Darfur like other people go to New Jersey. She does a lot of good there."

At the start of the Philadelphia Orchestra's "opening night" Saturday (I use quotation marks since by Saturday the orchestra was well into its 109th season) president James Undercofler made note of the two big image screens above stage. The idea is for cameras to catch close-ups and action of the orchestra for visually oriented audience members.
The orchestra has been doing this off and on for a decade, but this season is adding screens to the concert experience more often.
People either love them or hate them, Undercofler told the audience.
Actually, there's at least one other camp: people who don't feel strongly about them one way or the other but wish they were used more smartly.
As Saturday's concert showed, the screens might add an extra layer of understanding when a camera zooms in on a soloist's hands, as was often the case when Martha Argerich played.
But there were other moments when shots were switched so quickly they actually drew attention away from the thing they were supposed to be spotlighting (not to mention the sound of the music). The director makes the decisions about what gets seen, and it's the director who should be aware that images for an audience in the concert hall serve a different purpose than images being watched at home on TV. It's a distinct presentation, and one that demands less movement, less switching from shot to shot.
I tend to look away from the screens. I spend enough of my day multitasking as it is. In the case of Argerich especially, I have my fill of the experience just listening to her playing.
Will we have to call the Philadelphia Orchestra audience viewers rather than listeners from now on?

Charles Croce is the the new vice president for marketing and public relations at the Kimmel Center. Croce currently holds the same position at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he oversaw the creation of a campaign that encouraged visitors to look beyond blockbusters for the art that lives fulltime at the museum.
Croce has worked at the New York Philharmonic, Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Lufthansa, so he'll no doubt bring a wide perspective to establishing an image for the arts center. Rounding out his knowledge of the performing arts, he's married to a cellist.
Croce starts his new job Nov. 17.

I've left the blog slip while busy with print stories in the past couple of weeks, but I'm back, and here are a couple of unrelated items.

On the Philadelphia Orchestra's endowment. The stock-market implosion stole some thunder from the announcement yesterday that the orchestra has raised $130 million in new money for endowment. Despite the new gifts, the overall value of the endowment has slipped badly - by about $50 million from its high. But imagine where the orchestra would be today if it had not done this endowment campaign.
Actually, we don't have to imagine. We can do the math. A few years ago the orchestra had only $75 million in the bank. That would have generated about $3.5 million a year to underwrite operations. Today the orchestra has about $160 million, which will spin off $8 million or $9 million a year.
Scary to think about where the smaller endowment would have left the orchestra today.
On the other hand, the Philadelphia Orchestra has a long way to go to catch up with the industry's gold standard. The Boston Symphony Orchestra has bragged about having $400 million in the bank. Then again, that was in June. And if you've peeked at your own 401k statement lately - stop doing that! - you know that everyone's portfolio has changed dramatically in the past few months.

Excuse the self-product placement here. But the Curtis orchestra review today, I feel compelled to point out, has really cool audio imbedded in it from the actual concert.

Also, take a moment to look at a story-book take on the Please Touch Museum's new home in Fairmount Park. It's the kind of web project I hope we can do more of.

Miguel Angel Corzo, the former head of the University of the Arts who left to become president of the Colburn School of Music, has resigned, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Maybe Sarah Palin spilled a drink on a Stella, or John McCain put a fist through a Picasso. Mysterious, this item reported in the Huffington Post that the RNC spent $6,000 on art restoration.
From the Huffington Post:
"An employee at Wimsatt & Associates declined to discuss the services it provided for its client, only confirming that the company deals in repairing damaged artwork, not in selling pieces. The RNC, meanwhile, did not return requests for comment."

Anticipating that patrons will switch out of their Friday afternoon concert in order to avoid the Phillies parade crush on Broad Street, the Philadelphia Orchestra is putting its Friday 2 p.m. concert on sale.
Ticket are an astonishingly low $10. Ever-sturdy James Conlon is conductor in a program that includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
Go ahead, take a chance. Maybe the crowds will have headed down to the stadiums or South Street by the time the Kimmel Center concert lets out at 4 p.m.
You can buy tickets by phone, online or in person. The secret passcode, which you'll need to get the $10 price, is - you guessed it - GOPHILLIES.
215-893-1999 or philorch.org.