Saturday Just For Fun

Even the first headline was wrong. Blind auditions were to prevent all sorts of bias, to prevent people voting for their friends, their relatives, their students, friends of their students and on and on. And yes, it also prevented bias against women players. The "diversity" in the second headline is really only referring to skin color, which means that it is advocating a policy that is simply racist.

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Ok, that got too serious towards the end. So let's have some comic relief. This is the worst performance ever of a wedding march:

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Via Slipped Disc we learn that Yuja Wang doesn't just wear hot pants and short-shorts on stage, it is also her preferred lounging gear:

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A debate: Will the pandemic have a lasting effect on the arts? Well, duh.

Chronicle classical music critic Joshua Kosman and movie critic Mick LaSalle debate the question. 

Kosman: But look, when artists have to do something different from what they normally do, that is a change in the artistic landscape. Shakespeare’s a good example. In the musical world, my favorite example is the 17th century German composer Heinrich Schütz, who began his career writing big elaborate pieces for lots of singers and instrumentalists. Then the Thirty Years War devastated Europe to the point where he was lucky to compose for one singer and one instrument, and you can absolutely watch him adapting his aesthetic, thinking, “What can I do with these measly resources that’s as subtle and impressive as what I used to do on a large scale?” 

LaSalle: I’ll give you that — if this lasts 30 years, artists will have to adjust. But I think a closer example would be the 1918 Spanish flu. It killed millions and yet had little or no impact on the arts. Why? Because once it was over, people just wanted to forget about it.

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There seems to be something wrong with universities today: Minds Stocked Only with Opinions.

Part autobiography, part defense of impractical intellectualism, and part cultural lament, Lost in Thought forces us to contemplate the ways in which we might salvage thoughtfulness—perhaps not through our universities but in spite of them. In fact, now that the solvency of many schools is no longer guaranteed, Hitz’s elegant invitation to seek out intellectual fulfillment in any quiet corner, not just in library stacks, could not come at a more opportune moment. 

As Hitz explains, “much of what counts as education in the contemporary scene is the cultivation of correct opinions,” whether the “much-maligned education supported by progressive activists, education that seeks primarily social and political results” or the “conservative mirror image of progressive activism: the promotion of correct opinions about free markets.” Whatever the political flavor, Hitz argues, faux-academic sloganeering has infiltrated our institutions of higher education.

I can't quite see this happening in well-founded music departments because of their commitment to aesthetic quality and the obvious consequences of any relaxation of that commitment--see the organist's attempt at the wedding march above for an example.

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We only had one envoi yesterday, so let's have a few today. First, from the Verbier Festival's virtual concerts is one devoted to Evgeny Kissing, streamed a week ago. This is a mammoth five-hour presentation devoted to the artist with a host of performances and interviews.

I hope I haven't already posted this one: Canadian guitarist Drew Henderson with a spectacular performance of three sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti:

How about some opera? This is a concert performance of Lucia's cavatina from Lucia de Lammermoor sung by Anna Netrebko with Yuri Temirkanov conducting the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Now that's bel canto.