Amsterdam Concertgebouw
ENDNOTES, July 2019
A great conductor at 90, by Stuart Millson
A packed auditorium, whether in London, Amsterdam, Boston, Berlin or Chicago and sustained applause which continues for much longer than is usual – the chances are that the conductor is Bernard Haitink, the Dutch maestro who – this year, at the age of 90 – announced his retirement. A commanding, yet curiously self-effacing presence on the podium, Haitink began his career in 1954 in his native Holland, with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, studying and performing the essential core repertoire. Noted for his inspired and detailed performances, he soon approached the pinnacle position in his country’s musical life – the Concertgebouw, later, Royal Concertgebouw, whose role as principal conductor he held for nearly 30 years.
During these decades, thanks partly to an extensive and prominent recording schedule for the Philips label, the Concertgebouw became the natural rival to the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras; with Haitink setting down masterly interpretations of the Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler symphonies – the two latter late-romantic composers becoming the figures with which the conductor would be so associated. In fact, Haitink contended that the musical world should place a limit on the number of Bruckner and Mahler performances – as the fashion for this repertoire, especially during the 1980s and 1990s, threatened to diminish its standing. Continue reading
Driven to Blackface?
Rachel Dolezal, Credit 93.1 WZAK
Driven to Blackface?
by Ilana Mercer
Nkechi Diallo was recently charged with welfare fraud in Spokane, Washington State. Back in 2015, Diallo was better known as Rachel Dolezal. She has since rechristened herself. Rachel Dolezal, if you’re from Deep Space, is the lily-white woman who, in 2015, dared to “identify” as a black woman.
The “Racism Industrial Complex” is populated with frauds, shysters, imposters, phonies and morons; black, white and 50 shades of gray. Ms. Dolezal had been posing as all of these, teaching Africana Studies at the Bush college of Eastern Washington University. Our American Idiocracy confers the respect and the authority of a pedagogue on many like her, allowing them to spread the disease to college kids and beyond. So, why not Rachel?
Why, the Age of the Idiot sees killers exculpated, just because they kill. As the faulty reasoning goes, if an individual has murdered, raped, robbed or defrauded—then he or she must have been abused, neglected, racially oppressed (if black or brown); not wealthy enough, mentally ill, lacking in self-esteem. Anything but plain bad, slothful, sociopathic or parasitical. The more aberrant the crime; the more thrill-seeking, vulgar, immoral or wicked the conduct—the more elaborate, fanciful and scientifically baseless the excuse-making. Continue reading →
Share this: