Thursday, April 29, 2010

DINÁMICAMENTE MASIFICADOS



Porque en él vivimos, y nos movemos, y somos;
como algunos de vuestros propios poetas también
han dicho: Porque linaje suyo somos.

HECHOS 17:28 (Casiodoro de Reina, 1569).






OSKAR KOKOSCHKA [1886-1980]


La pittura è cosa mentale
Leonardo da Vinci




¿Qué es lo que permanecerá del arte de la primera mitad del siglo XX? Al preguntárnoslo, se nos ocurren cuatro o cinco nombres entre ellos Kokoschka. Fue sin duda una gran época del arte, aunque nunca antes se había teorizado tanto y tan confusamente sobre cuestiones estéticas ni nunca se habían hecho tantos y tan contradictorios programas artísticos, y jamás se había fabricado tanto seudoarte. Pero en medio del fuego artificial intelectualista en que se traducía el desasosiego de una era de transición, surgieron algunos creadores de horizontes más amplios, que supieron encontrar la forma adecuada para dar expresión a la miseria, la desesperación y las esperanzas del hombre de hoy.

El impulso creador que provocó hacia 1900 el viraje artístico partió del conocimiento de que el arte limitado al análisis óptico -que alcanzó su culminación en las obras maestras del impresionismo-, carecía de una dimensión esencial. Con el arte de Cézanne volvió a nacer el afán de síntesis, el anhelo de convertir la vivencia sensible mediante la configuración plástica, en vivencia espiritual. Kokoschka es uno de los que han logrado satisfacer este anhelo. Thomas Mann, hablando de él, dice que "en su mágica obra el espíritu se vuelva naturaleza y lo real deja traslucir lo espiritual".

Nació en Pöchlarn, pequeña población austriaca a orillas del Danubio. Esta región es la cuna del barroco austriaco, tradición que se vislumbra en la obra de Kokoschka, en la musicalidad y sensualidad de su visión pictórica. El joven Kokoschka quiere ser químico. Lo que lo atrae es una ilusión: el enigma de las retortas, universo de extraños conflictos y catástrofes, diálogos sorprendentes y encuentros inesperados. ¡Cómo se compenetran las sustancias, cómo se juntan voluptuosamente, cómo se absorben unas a las otras! La vida humana, con su nacer y morir, sus odios y amores, no es más emocionante que aquel mundo de los ácidos y las bases. ¡Qué sugestivo estar por encima de todo eso, como el titiritero sobre su teatro de fantoches, como Dios Padre encima de las penas y las alegrías humanas! De haberse realizado este sueño de Kokoschka, ¿en qué habría ido a parar?

Pero por entonces era más fácil conseguir una beca para una escuela de arte que para estudios científicos. Así Kokoschka, muchacho pobre, ingresa en la escuela de Artes Aplicadas de Viena.

En 1908 se organiza en esta ciudad la Kunstschau (Exposición de Arte), una gran manifestación de arte moderno. Kokoschka se presenta -audacia insólita- con murales (de los que no ha quedado nada) y con un drama. El drama y los murales desencadenan el máximo escándalo que jamás ha visto el mundo artístico de Viena. Kokoschka es el lobo feroz que ha invadido los apacibles rediles del "buen gusto vienés". La hostilidad del público toma proporciones de boicoteo; la situación del artista se vuelve insoportable. Huye a Berlín, en aquel entonces con París el centro artístico más joven, más vivo y más abierto a toda innovación. En esos años alrededor de 1910, Kokoschka pinta sus asosmbrosos retratos. Los rostros son para él un mundo inagotable. Cada uno es distinto, cada uno es una vivencia. Antropófago voraz, no se harta nunca de ellos. Dibuja a Yvette Guilbert, a Walden, ese fantástico negociante en obras de arte a quien, sea como sea, le corresponde el mérito de haber sido en Berlín el primero en exponer a Kokoschka, Klee, Chagall, Marc, Léger y muchos otros.



Pinta al poeta vienés Peter Altenberg y al tremendo polemista Karl Kraus, que escribió sobre ese retrato suyo: "Es posible que los que me conocen no me vayan a reconocer. Pero tengo por seguro que los que no me conocen me reconocerán." En el retrato de su amigo Adolf Loos, gran arquitecto, logra caracterizar lo férreo y tajante de su tipo: las manos como ensambladas y atornilladas, todo el cuerpo un angranaje de carne y hueso. Y el retrato más importante de aquellos primeros tiempos: el de Auguste Forel, el eminente naturalista suizo. Un anciano ya al borde de la eternidad. Pero el ojo que ha abarcado perspectivas tan vastas sigue abierto y en exploración. Hace algunos años Kokoschka escribió: "El ojo de anciano de Forel miraba al joven que era como desde otro mundo... Miraba desde una cabeza cuya actividad me esforcé por captar. El gran problema para mí era cómo pintar lo que un hombre sabe."



Irrumpe en su vida algo nuevo, algo que aún no conoce: la mujer. El sexo. Otro Colón descubrirá tierras nuevas. En el paraíso que cree haber encontrado le sale al paso Eva, ofreciéndole la manzana que significa el naufragio en el maremágnum de la vida instintiva. Colón desencadenado es el título que pone a un álbum de litografías: las estaciones de una pasión pasa por el deseo y la felicidad y termina en la melancolía y muerte. De la misma experiencia surge el gran cuadro El torbellino (la traducción literal del título original, Die Windsbraut, es La Novia del viento): la pareja de amantes sobre las olas, arrastrada ¿hacia dónde? ¿A través del sueño hacia el abismo? Un estar juntos que es a la vez atracción y repulsión, un encontrarse y un perderse. El hombre es él, Kokoschka: su autorretrato.

Entre tanto, ha estallado la primera guerra mundial. Kokoschka está en el frente, en el campo de batalla. Un bayonetazo lo ha derribado y le ha abierto el pulmón. Ahí está tendido -como escribí en mi monografía sobre el pintor-, encima de él los cielos, solo consigo mismo, solo con lo que ha sido su vida y con Él, que da la vida. Los libros estaban abiertos, era como en el día del Juicio Final, a la hora de presentarse cada uno de nuestros actos para dar testimonio de nosotros. Y llegó una nube; las cataratas del cielo fueron abiertas y las aguas crecieron, crecieron. Y él, como Noé, en medio del diluvio. De estas visiones brotó El caballero errante.

Para restablecer su salud, se interna en un sanatorio cerca de Dresde. Después de la guerra lo nombran profesor de la Academia de Artes de Dresde. Un rarísimo profesor de artes plásticas que, según me lo contó uno de sus alumnos, reunió a su grupo antes de dar su primera clase y dijo: "Ya que no voy a poder enseñarles nada y para por lo menos de algo les sirva yo, voy a repartir entre ustedes mi sueldo."

Desde la ventana de su estudio se goza de una maravillosa vista sobre el valle del Elba y el viejo puente barroco. Una vista que lo fascina, un paisaje que lo reta a pintarlo, una ciudad que lo invita a hacerle un retrato . . . Pero algún día (del año de 1924) desaparece. De nuevo está en plan de fuga. Lo llama el mundo. Desde Suiza escribe a los señores de la Academia. Formula una especie de disculpa: algo, alguna inquietud, lo obliga a ver mundo. Viaja. En tres continentes pinta ciudades, paisajes y hombres.

En 1931 regresa a Viena para estar con su madre moribunda. Cuando Hitler llega al poder y es inminente el Anschluss, es decir, la subyugación de Austria, huye a Praga, donde crea ese espléndido cuadro de la vieja ciudad que, en cuanto a grandiosidad de la concepción, no tiene nada que enviar al Delft de Vermeer y a la vista de Toledo de El Greco. Y en 1937 -cuando el gusto salvaje de los nazis expulsa obras de los museos alemanes y, en la exposición de Munich llamada "arte degenerado", las pone en la picota- pinta su Autorretrato de un artista degenerado.



Del mismo año es el retrato de T.G. Masaryk, en el que capta al gran hombre de Estado, su aspecto exterior y el espíritu que representaba: al fondo el Hradschin, símbolo de la Checoslovaquia liberada,y del otro la figura de Comenio,* antepasado espiritual del primer presidente de la república checoslovaca.

* Comenio (1592-1671), gran pedagogo y gramático moravo, autor de la obra Orbis pictus (El mundo en imágenes) cuya idea fue poner la educación al servicio de la humanización del hombre. En la imagen veía un recurso adecuado para hacer entender los conceptos abstractos del niño.


WESTHEIM, P. Mundo y vida de grandes artistas II.. Biblioteca Joven del Fondo de Cultura Económica. Primera Edición. 1985. México, D.F.



April's Fool? February and March has gone so long ago, May is about to come. Current observations? Cielos cenizos, calor de la jodida, nublado pero sin amenaza de lluvia y viento de regular intensidad. I guess we deserve a rational answer, don´t you think?


"... porque el idioma cambia con los días ..." (Pacheco).


La Rojilla también también necesita un maestro competente, capaz de afrontar con estoicismo sus challenging questions utilizando tal vez explicaciones un poquillo más pedagógicas. Debido a su dedicación en las lecciones, he tenido que lidiar en forma práctica ya con los pronombres, los tiempos verbales, adjetivos, conjugaciones, objeto y sujeto, etc.

_ Why is vas, here? -pregunta extrañada la del lejano oriente.

_ It is an irregular verb, darling -intento atemperar su, a veces desbocada , disposición para aprender el castellano.

_ Why, here the verb combined with you and they is the same? -she asks.

_ Don´t know, luv; just the way it is -Ooops!, She's Got You, fake master.


"Time is a Train . . ."


Nada más difícil para un advenedizo y pretencioso escribano como la naturaleza dinámica de nuestra lengua.


_ When ser and when estar? What are the rules? -pregunta ella inocentemente.

_ Well, I think ser sometimes means something more dynamic, and estar a kid of static -Errr!

_ Don't get it, Marco -me responde con cara de insatisfacción total.

_ Yes, sweetie. Remember your philosophy lessons? -lanzo con with my best old grumpy style, pa' ver si salgo del atolladero.

_ Yes? -he he! there yo go, genius.



David Gale - Lacan


_ Ok, Let's use the theology instead -are you sure about that, bloke? Let's see, God the father was, is and will be because of its timeless nature, but he himself has never been manifested, right? That could be an example of ser. On the contrary, God the son was alive 2000 years ago, so he was here in a defined time and space, so that could be an example of estar, better? -did you understand yourself, buddy? Although, in fact one theory of theology says that the Father, the Son and the Spirit (or the Ghost) are not three, but the same and one -oh, no!, well done teacher, so?

_ Which one is the dynamic, then? -I can see a glimpse of a winning smile.


_ Hmmm, alright; let's take another example -propongo un giro, mientras gano tiempo.

_ That is? -she certainly knows the game too.

_ See, my brother, yes my broda. We said he is a medical doctor, meaning since the very day he got that title until reaching his grave, he will be a doctor, that condition will never change again, in theory. Es un doctor, got it? It... is dynamic, practicing makes him not more or less doctor, but nevertheless his job is a never ending process until he ceases to exist, right? -well, my brain comes to a halt with the example.

_ Not sure, but then bring an example of estar -she challenges me, again.

_ Great, let's move, then. One concrete, He is seated, in spanish means está sentado is a non moving contidition, right? -finally you got it easy, boy.

_ Yeah, that's quite simple, the abstract one, then -she hardly forgets a promise, myth.

_ Oh, yeah, sorry -he he!, look what you got in store for her. He (my brother) is married, isn't he? He is married is está casado. That's a being stuck condition, cause he cannot change it unless he and his wife agree to do so.

_ Gonna check it -me responde con un muy saludable escepticismo. What about se? That really drives me nuts. See, my notes: "se le puede encontrar en el tercer piso" -me muestra una frase escrita en su notebook.

_ I guess we should use another concrete example, again. Imagine we were in the university again; you ask for Mrs. Kim Lee's room to someone in one of the roads up there. She knows her, and know where her room is, so she says: Oh yes, you can find her in the third floor of that building. In spanish sometimes we say: Sí, se le puede encontrar en el tercer piso de aquel edificio, meaning that I don't know if she is there right now, but certainly know that she still works there, she is gonna be there sooner or later -was it good? Well, my silly mind got another. Wait, now let's imagine you got her phone number, you call and ask for her. Her secretary answers like this: "She is not here now, she went to a conference today, but certaily will return to work tomorrow". Cause we are very clever at speaking we say it like this: "No está aquí, ahora; (se) fue a una conferencia hoy, pero seguro se presenta(rá) a trabajar mañana". See, although it looks like in the present tense, you are just extending the time when that is gonna happen, babe -afortunadamente the time is up for us.


Indeed, just the same applies to reality. Aunque nos quieren presentar los hechos concatenados solamente por una especie de daguerrotipo, ellos están entrelazados por algo más que instantes aislados deprovistos de su contexto general. Like it or not the upward trend in the economy of China (living standards are growing at the same pace for everyone?) did not start yesterday. La tragicomedia griega no estalló cuando se publicitó, ¿o sí? El impresionante resurgimiento ruso no se comprometió solamente durante la era Medvedev, will you accept that? El cambio en el centro de gravedad latinoamericano no se presentó de súbito, ¿estamos? Los conflictos en el Medio Oriente no comenzaron hace poco, ¿no es cierto?. El reciente intento por criminalizar a los inmigrantes no será el último de una larga lista de agravios, ¿me equivoco?


SOMOS MAS AMERICANOS MUS


But above all, esta mega crisis que tiene empina..., pardon, postrada a la mayoría de los países que apostaron por una economía irrestrictamente globalizada no es el resultado de una pequeña travesura en unas cuantos pisos de remates (o desde los pulcros teclados of a bit of fancy rooms out there), am I wrong?




¿Disculpe, asté?


Un presente de vértigo se prolongó innecesariamente para un par de indígenas queretanas. Una muestra más de que, la poco suertuda combinación de ser indígena, mujer y pobre, es un ticket gratuito para cualquier penitenciaria de la República Mexicana. Agraciadamente, existen todavía tipos para los que nuestros parámetros de medición del tiempo no limitan sus esfuerzos cuando de colaborar con nobles causas se trata. Hubieron de invertir casi cuatro años para probar que se trataba de un delito fabricado, algunos afirman que con el fin de desincentivar cualquier protesta renegada. Para no caer en el yerro de sobrestimar y personalizar el logro, más de una lección de la liberación de este par de feminas se puede extraer. A saber: la incansable persistencia del grupo de abogados de las acusadas, la difícilmente cuantificable solidaridad de miles de activistas y simpatizantes de la causa a través de todo el país y, la apreciable disposición de los pocos espacios periodísticos que continuaron informando sobre el derrotero de sus expedientes hasta el día de hoy . ¿Ha terminado con el caso de Alberta y Teresa, el deseo de aplastar todo movimiento que ose oponerse a la violación de nuestros derechos humanos? ¿Hemos pensado en una estrategia para extraer las experiencias que lograron ponerlas fuera de las rejas? ¿Habremos de elegantemente desperdiciar de nuevo, la oportunidad de montarnos en el momentum de una pequeña victoria pa' jalar nuevos compas a nuestro propio movimiento?


Dead or Alive?


El mundo tiene poca prisa, it certainly has existed before us. ¿Tenemos nosotros planes de aniquilarlo antes que vivir armoniosamente con él? Algunos intentan congelar
la historia, ocultar lo evidente bajo la alfombra si es posible, y postergar el encaramiento de sus excesos. Otros tantos añoran el retorno de viejos tiempos, donde un cerrado círculo disfrutaba mientras el masivo resto padecía a costa suya. Otro conjunto lo forman aquellos que ni siquiera se han enterado que la historia también la hacen ellos mismos todos los días con sus omisiones; largamente condicionados, harto complicado es saber si aún en el caso de que su vida peligre habrán de reaccionar o perecer sin pena ni gloria. Finalmente, existimos nosotros: organizados y dispuestos a la lucha... pacífica (hasta este día, and I hope it remains like that); pero a quienes un día sí y otro también, se nos bombardea sicológicamente con el objetivo de definir nuestro motto. Ustedes son éstos anquilosados, limitados, acartonados, lentos, incapaces, etc., etc., etc. No les repetiré por ahora de la táctica que pretenden infiltrarnos, la cual consiste en hacernos creer que no estamos aptos para retroalimentarnos tanto con nuestros aciertos como con nuestros errores también, o aquella de que no estamos hechos para redefinir nuestra resistencia. Existe una más sútil que consiste en desmembrar nuestros esfuerzos, volverlos estáticos y aislados, de modo que pierdan su carácter dinámico y creativo. "Esos son los borregos de... tal", ¿cuántas veces lo habremos escuchado ya? ¿Están dispuestos a "alargar" nuestro tiempo, o prefieren el cómodo business as usual?


1/4 Business as Usual is Over - Faithkeeper Oren Lyons

Fortunately, I got good news for you... all: no serán los cadáveres -ni siquiera los zombies- quienes habrán de rescatar a nuestro moribundo país y al planeta por igual. Tendrán que ser organismos vivos -complejos y dependientes de cada una de sus partes- entrenados para adaptarse y aprender lo mejor de las batallas anteriores y reinventar las futuras, quienes han de encontrar las soluciones para salvarnos todos, o no las ha de encontrar nadie más. AL TIEMPO.






M@RCOnjugador

MATAmoros, TAMecanizado celestialmente
;

30/04/10.



. . . un riesgo no tan infantil.



PREGUNTAS SIN RESPUESTA:


This is a tricky one. Solo pa´iniciados, fachos absténganse. La retórica de la War on Drugs, el concepto del Estado Fallido, and so on, no son más que, a mi parecer,
obviamente apoyándome en algunas buenas lecturas renegadas (not available in the mainstream media, of course), fases previas del verdadero conflicto larvado (Gabo dixit) artificialmente.



Esta semana hemos visto una detonación oaxaqueña (¿´ónde más? ¡vaya puntería, buddies!) que nos acerca un poco más a una colombianización real de México. Unfortunately, it´s not that easy here, huh? I hope you know why.



Now, fuera de análisis simplistas y maniqueos, el horno no está pa´(mis) bollos, up there, right? ¿Es genuina la desavenencia entre los estados de la unión o parte de un mismo libreto? What is more important: to get rid of those freaky brownies in our own holy land or the money-addicted Wall Street guys? Then, where do you think a Civil War (yo no estoy invocando nada, conste; just reading between the lines, that´s all) could start first: north or south the Rio Grande? What will prevail: the uncontrolled non-linear variables or the bullheaded (in both the civil and militar headquaters) playing-God masters?




Howard Zinn: Myths of the Good Wars (Three 'Holy' Wars)



SITIO INTERNÉ DE LA SEMANA:


Centro de Derechos Humanos “Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez”, AC.


http://centroprodh.org.mx/2008/




Alberta y Teresa demandan disculpa pública


WONDERFUL ENCORE:



A Lipelandia con Chabuelo.












Stravinsky: Violin Concerto 1st mvmt









http://creatividadsocialmentecomprometida.blogspot.com/2010/04/dinamicamente-masificados-porque-en-el.html

http://marcosalas.blogspot.com/2010/04/dinamicamente-masificados-porque-en-el.html

AI denuncia abusos a centroamericanos

México, D.F. (Agencias).- Amnistía Internacional (AI) denunció hoy, en un informe presentado en México, la existencia de un "panorama escalofriante" para los indocumentados que cruzan este país, ya que sufren secuestros, violaciones y otros abusos a sus derechos humanos, los cuales por lo generan quedan impunes.

Peligroso viajar por México
"La persistente inacción de las autoridades para enfrentar los abusos cometidos contra los migrantes irregulares ha hecho que su viaje a través de México sea uno de los más peligrosos del mundo", explicó a la prensa el activista Rupert Knox, investigador del secretariado de AI.
El estudio, titulado "Víctimas invisibles: Migrantes en movimiento en México", recuerda que en 2009 un total de 64.061 indocumentados fueron detenidos por el Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), de los cuales el 94,2% procedía de El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua.
Del total, un 93,8% fue deportado o repatriado voluntariamente, y sólo un 4,4% tuvo la posibilidad de regularizar su situación.

Entre otros delitos
El análisis documenta muertes y desapariciones, secuestros, amenazas y agresiones sufridos por los "sin papeles", quienes también fueron víctimas de un uso de "fuerza excesiva en su contra", víctimas de robos y de extorsión.
AI recuerda que uno de cada doce inmigrantes de los que pasan por México es menor de edad, y que 6 de cada 10 mujeres "sufren violencia sexual", violaciones en algunos casos.
Muchos "se enfrentan a una crisis de derechos humanos que les deja prácticamente sin acceso a la justicia por miedo a represalias y a ser deportados" si denuncian esos abusos, destaca el documento.
"México tiene la responsabilidad de prevenir, castigar y remediar los abusos, tanto si los cometen bandas delictivas como si son obra de funcionarios públicos", indicó Knox.

Botón de muestra
El guatemalteco José Alberto Donis, quien logró el sueño de muchos, llegar a EE.UU., pero fue deportado de ese país, contó cómo fue asaltado por policías en julio de 2008 y denunció el caso, pero su acción no sirvió para nada.
Relató que los asaltos al tren que recorre México de sur a norte son recurrentes y que en ellos incluso participan agentes de la policía en complicidad con bandas de criminales.
"No es posible que ninguna autoridad detenga esto (...) Da coraje, tristeza, todo lo que está pasando, lo que me pasó a mí, lo que les sigue pasando a ellos (...). ¿Hasta cuándo se va a detener todo esto, hasta cuándo?", se preguntó.
Mientras se liberaba el informe, la Secretaría de Gobernación (Interior) de México emitió un comunicado donde "comparte la preocupación" de AI por el tema.

Activista ejemplar
El activista Rubén Figueroa, quien apoya a los indocumentados en Huimanguillo, estado de Tabasco, sostuvo que a una persona que intenta llegar a otro país no debería tratársele como a un delincuente.
"Ellos no son criminales en ningún momento. Son gente valiente que va en busca de una vida mejor", concluyó Figueroa.

http://www.elbravomatamoros.com/noticias.aspx?seccion=4

Modern Makeover

Berlin's Fabled Philharmonic Gets a Reboot

By Joachim Kronsbein

Though still Germany's best orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic is worried about losing touch with audiences in the digital age. To face these challenges, it will be getting a new director -- with a television background and unorthodox views about how to address these challenges.

He still has his office in a converted factory in Berlin's Moabit neighborhood, where had had produced television programs for almost six years. His resume includes police procedurals like "Tatort" and "Polizeiruf 110" as well as programs airing on paid television, such as the court show "Richterin Barbara Salesch" and "Bauer sucht Frau," a show about farmers looking for wives.

Martin Hoffmann, 50, is a media manager. He was managing director of the German private broadcaster Sat.1, where he was expected to stabilize the channel. But, in 2003, he was ousted after only three years on the job -- and just after having managed to improve the broadcaster's ratings and reputation with productions such as "Das Wunder von Lengede," a made-for-TV film about a 1963 mining accident, and the Cold War drama "Der Tunnel." After leaving Sat. 1, Hoffmann became CEO of the TV production company MME Moviement AG, where he came up with new television shows.

Today, Hoffmann is back in his old office developing visions for one of the most famous, successful and idiosyncratic institutions in German high culture, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

The elite orchestra, one of the top three in the world, has selected Hoffman to become its new director. He will present his plans in mid-May and assume office in September, when he will move into his new office in Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the famous building designed by Hans Scharoun, not far from Potsdamer Platz.

Born of Revolt

Hoffmann's new position is somewhat of a revolving door. Few of his predecessors have held on to it for very long. Some have been shown the door, while others have walked through it voluntarily. Current Director Pamela Rosenberg, 64, is leaving the orchestra after four years, at her own request. Her predecessor, Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, lasted only a year in the job. The Berlin Philharmonic can make music without a conductor, if necessary, and sometimes it does so for the sheer fun of it. It can certainly manage without a director -- or at least that is how it sees things.

This exceptional orchestra consists of 128 musicians. Together, they decide who will be their principal conductor and how long he will hold on to that job. The musicians also choose and approve each new member and, together with the conductor, their director. The Philharmonic is organized as a foundation and manages itself, as an orchestra republic of sorts.

A revolt in 1882 led to the Philharmonic's establishment. Benjamin Bilse, a conductor in Berlin, ran a tight ship with his music ensemble. When the group was scheduled to give a guest concert in Warsaw, Bilse told his musicians that he would only approve fourth-class train tickets for them. Some 50 musicians mutinied, quit their jobs and formed their own orchestra. From then on, they were determined to decide their own fate, and it has remained that way to this day.

Traditionally, a director and the principal conductor jointly develop the programs, engage guest conductors and soloists, and organize tours. Hoffmann -- who plays the violin, can read music and admires the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein ("Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent") -- wants to do, and is expected to do, a lot more.



1A - Carlos Chávez - Sinfonía India - Dudamel y la Filarmónica de Berlín

Part 2: Exploring New Media Channels

Hoffmann has been given the task of making the Philharmonic a modern brand and one ready for the future of media. When it comes to this subject, "excellence" is Hoffmann's favorite word. He wants to ensure "that he maintains, advances and develops the public's attachment to the level of excellence with which the music of the Berlin Philharmonic transports audience, and perhaps even via numerous media channels."

When he makes such statements, Hoffmann -- with his tousled hair, jeans and black turtleneck sweater -- leans far forward across his orderly desk. He stretches out his arms, bringing his hands together on the desk surface in an imploring gesture, as if he were trying to pull listeners to his side.

The Berlin Philharmonic is one of the best-funded orchestras in the world. Every year, it receives more than €15 million ($20 million) in government subsidies, which is a lot when you compare it with what the Munich Philharmonic gets (€13.7 million) or what the symphony orchestra in the western city of Bochum collects (€6.8 million). Deutsche Bank is the main sponsor of the Berlin Philharmonic, which consistently sells 90 percent of its concert tickets. Indeed, the orchestra does not suffer from any lack of audiences, attention or prestige.

What it does lack, however, is a plan for the 21st century. Should the Philharmonic only give black-tie concerts at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, or should it also do so while on tour in New York, Tokyo, Paris and London?

And who will even buy CDs in five or 10 years? Today's market for music sales is merely a weak reflection of the boom it experienced in the 1980s and 1990s, when the CD, a novel item at the time, attracted classical music fans back into the stores.

The Marketing Heyday

In the Philharmonic's marketing heyday, when Herbert von Karajan -- the principal conductor from 1954 to 1989 and successor to the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler -- still headed the orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic made dozens of recordings a year. In those days, the musicians always collected a share of the orchestra's handsome profits. With these royalties, their salaries and the fees they earned as instructors at music colleges, they were among the best-paid musicians in the classical music industry.

Even Claudio Abbado, Karajan's Italian successor, made a relatively sizeable number of recordings when he was the principle conductor. But the current occupant of that role, Sir Simon Rattle, 55, has only made 27 recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic in eight years.

Other elite ensembles are not faring any better. Production costs are high, and sales are weak. What's more, there are already dozens of excellent recordings of the current repertoire available on the market.

New Sources of Revenue

The record company EMI, with which Rattle has a contract that more or less obliges the Berlin Philharmonic to record for it, is in a crisis. Hoffmann's job will be to develop new sources of revenue. One model could resemble that of the renowned London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and other ensembles that are now marketing themselves via various media channels. For example, the LSO produces its own recordings and sells them through an online platform.

But the LSO is selling its concert recordings. And although these come with a certain element of spontaneity and the charm of live performance, they still can't match the product of a sophisticated studio recording in which repeat takes can be used to iron out mistakes.

New York's Metropolitan Opera also produces its own CDs. Indeed, every recording of an opera performance for which there appears to be a market could theoretically be published digitally. Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met and a former record executive with the Sony label, has also found another way of milking the Met's brand name. For several years now, he has had opera evenings broadcast live in selected movie theaters or in open-air venues across the world. Nine productions are scheduled for this season. Nevertheless, under Gelb, the Met has still racked up a deficit in the millions.

To date, the Berlin Philharmonic can only be found online at the Digital Concert Hall, a Deutsche Bank-sponsored platform that allows users to download live concerts. But success seems to be slow in the coming. The only figures Hoffmann will mention are those that are "steadily growing" but "capable of improvement." He wants to hold onto the orchestra's current audience while attracting a new, younger audience, as well.

Part 3: Where Is the Star Power?

Self-marketing has long been commonplace in the pop-music industry. Many artists have made themselves independent of the record labels and their exclusivity requirements. Madonna, the British band Radiohead and rapper Jay-Z have all said goodbye to their conventional record contracts. Likewise, recording production costs have now declined as drastically as CD sales figures. Finally, since pop artists earn much of their income through concerts and merchandising, they no longer are dependent on having a major record label to make money. And the distribution structures have changed, as well, as pop albums are increasingly bought online and no longer just in record stores.

Whether similar strategies will work just as smoothly for classical music is still up in the air. The classical music aficionados who rave about Mahler, Brahms and Bruckner aren't exactly the group you would classify as cutting-edge and eager to adopt new things. And despite being aware of the problem, the artists themselves can be stubborn, as well.

There's also this issue: Star culture only works with stars. And conductors -- as the industry has discovered in recent years -- aren't nearly as much of a draw as they used to be. These days, instrumentalists and singers are the star attractions. And the notion of remaining true to the gracious art without offering glamour makes it difficult to attract mass audiences.

Differences between Karajan and Rattle

With his unruly hair, for example, Simon Rattle could prove to be a handicap. The Briton is an excellent conductor, but his recordings of contemporary music are often more appealing than his interpretations of the core classical repertoire.

Moreover, Rattle doesn't have Karajan's charisma. In the 1960s, Karajan made himself indispensable in the music world, boosting his fame and, with it, that of the Berlin Philharmonic in Milan, Salzburg, Vienna and elsewhere. At the time, there was a joke about Karajan, that whenever he got into a waiting car anywhere in the world and the chauffeur asked where he wanted to go, he would simply respond: "Oh, it doesn't matter. They need me everywhere."

Rattle has none of that. The conductor is a team player, serious and intellectual, but chances are that the Philharmonic had higher expectations of him when it comes to his effect on the public. In recent years he and his orchestra have performed Wagner's "Ring" to mixed reviews at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, in France, and at the Salzburg Easter Festival. And there are no recordings of these performances.

Moreover, although Rattle goes on tour with the Berlin Philharmonic and does an admirable job working with young people and in music education, he has not become an international brand whose name represents the entire package -- like Kleenex for tissues or Karajan for classical music. And he probably has no interest in doing anything of that kind.

Hoffman's Hopes

When he introduced his new director at Hoffmann's first public presentation, Rattle was somewhat restrained. Hoffmann, he said, didn't "exactly match the profile I had imagined for a director." But, he added, the new man has the "strategic thinking" needed to "develop new orchestra models and integrate our existing tradition into those models."

Hoffman wants to strengthen the Philharmonic's connection to Berlin and make it part of the city's culture. Shouldn't it go without saying, he asks, that the orchestra be involved in important commemorative events, such as the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of Germany's constitution? In the end, the orchestra was not involved in these events.

Hoffmann also envisions collaborative ventures with the nearby National Gallery, and he dreams of not just engaging a violinist, composer or -- as is currently the case -- the pianist Lang Lang as the Philharmonic's creative partner for a season. As he sees it, such a celebrity figure could also be a visual artist or a writer.

He wants to organize new concert series and, in the long term, build a new, third concert hall with fewer seats than the current 1,200-seat chamber music hall. The large concert hall seats 2,400.

Hoffman's Challenges

Despite all these hopes, Hoffmann's main task will be to fulfill the musicians' expectations. Their goal is to boost their fame and income and present a modern face to the world, complete with the latest in media sophistication, while at the same time not forfeiting their reputation as Germany's elite orchestra.

But there is a lot of competition in Berlin. The city has eight symphony orchestras, and the best of them, next to the Philharmonic, is Daniel Barenboim's Staatskapelle orchestra, which he directs primarily in operas, but also in concerts.

Likewise, big changes could also soon be coming to the Berlin classical music scene as a whole. Hoffman plans to present the Berlin Philharmonic performing with opera productions in the German capital and around the world. There have been occasional concert productions of operas at the Philharmonic in the past, but an elaborate production -- with scenery, costumes, action and all the magic of a stage performance -- has never been part of the package.

Richard Strauss's "Salome," for example, could be a candidate for a full-blown opera spectacle with the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle. As is, the production will premier at the Salzburg Easter Festival next year, with Stefan Herheim as director and the American soprano Emily Magee in the title role.

Hoffman also wants to stage these kinds of events in Berlin. One day, that is. In an opera house. With the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic in the orchestra pit.

It would be a coup -- and a audacious challenge to Berlin's three opera houses.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan



First Subprime, Now Europe

Revenge of the Rating Agencies

By Marc Pitzke in New York

The New York Stock Exchange: The power of the credit rating  agencies has remained undiminished, despite their role in triggering the  2008 financial crisis.
Zoom
AFP

The New York Stock Exchange: The power of the credit rating agencies has remained undiminished, despite their role in triggering the 2008 financial crisis.

Many observers assign a large part of the blame for the 2008 financial crisis to the "big three" credit rating agencies, which gave their AAA seal of approval to worthless investments. Now those same agencies are helping to bring the euro zone to its knees -- and no one is trying to stop them.

The scandal brewing over Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's biggest bank, has been sucking in more and more players. These include the bankers and traders who sold the infamously risky credit products that helped trigger the subprime crisis, the hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, who cashed in big at the expense of the victims, and the US politicians who condoned the farce for the longest time.

One group, however, has so far escaped the grip of the widening affair, although it's embroiled just as deeply. That group is the major credit rating agencies -- the same ones which are now causing Europe to shudder, having downgraded their ratings for Greece, Spain and Portugal.

It was Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's, the same two agencies which are now rocking the European boat, which in 2007 had given their seal of approval to "Abacus 2007-AC1," Goldman's ill-fated credit product, by giving it the highest AAA rating -- only to cut it down to "junk" status nine months later. Goldman's investors lost more than $1 billion; the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing Goldman for fraud, alleging that it misled investors.

Phantoms and Puppet Masters

Wherever things blow up in the financial world, the rating agencies' tracks can be found. The anonymous analysts of S&P, Moody's and Fitch (the smallest of the "big three") were center stage during the global crash. They also appear in the SEC fraud complaint against Goldman. And now they're causing financial havoc in Europe.

They're the éminences grises of Wall Street, phantoms and puppet masters. They wield enormous power over the fate of loans, deals, companies and even countries. Yet rarely has anyone ever really questioned their actions -- let alone held them accountable.

Their role, however, is far from unblemished. In the US, the rating agencies' behavior is now finally being called into question, albeit slowly. New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman accuses them of "a deeply corrupt system." US Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat, sees them as the main culprits in the credit crisis: "If any single event can be identified as the immediate trigger of the 2008 financial crisis, my vote would be for the mass downgrades starting in July 2007," he says. "Those mass downgrades hit the markets like a hammer."

From AAA to Junk

Levin chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, which on Tuesday also ripped through Goldman's top management. For 14 months, the committee has investigated the rating agencies. Last week, it published its preliminary findings -- a mountain of files, 581 pages thick. Levin's damning conclusion: "I don't think either of these companies have served their shareholders or the nation well."

The agencies "used inaccurate rating models in 2004-2007 that failed to predict how high-risk residential mortgages would perform; allowed competitive pressures to affect their ratings; and failed to reassess past ratings after improving their models in 2006," the inquiry found. "The companies failed to assign adequate staff to examine new and exotic investments, and neglected to take mortgage fraud, lax underwriting and 'unsustainable home price appreciation' into account in their models."

The result: Of all the subprime mortgage bundles which in 2006 were AAA-rated, 93 percent are "junk" today.

The Agencies Still Carry Carte Blanche

These are the same companies which are now messing with Europe's financial present and future. This is how it works: The agencies set the credit ratings for companies, even entire countries, and assess the risk of their investment products. These range from simple bonds to complex constructs like the derivatives and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) which formed the house of cards that collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis and which are also at the center of the current lawsuit against Goldman Sachs.

Despite this dubious track record, the agencies still carry a carte blanche: If they award their highest seal of approval -- an AAA rating -- it means it's safe for investors. Unfortunately, such a rating can also be a trap. An AAA rating snared the Goldman clients -- among them the German bank IKB -- who invested in "Abacus 2007-AC1."

The agencies' quasi-monopoly goes back to 1909. That year, the financial analyst and investor John Moody began to categorize and score information about railroad companies, their stocks and their management. Later he added other industries and firms to the mix.

Today, Moody's analyzes more than 12,000 companies in 100 countries. S&P, which also maintains the famous S&P stock market indices, has been issuing ratings since 1916. It was bought by the financial and media conglomerate McGraw-Hill in 1966. Fitch, which was founded in 1916 and is now a subsidiary of the French holding company Fimalac, is the smallest member in this elite club.

Leading the Economy to Ruin

Ratings range from AAA all the way down to D. This traditional system proved to be worthless during the credit crisis. The dubious investment products at its heart defied serious and simple ratings. They were highly overrated by the agencies -- often at the request of the same companies who managed those products, which in return paid the rating agencies.

As early as 2006, Angelo Mozilo, then CEO of Countrywide, America's largest mortgage company, called Countrywide's subprime loans "toxic." Yet it took Moody's until the summer of 2007 to downgrade them. All this happened under the watchful eye of the US government.

That example was no exception. For years, the agencies gave their blessing to subprime loans which would later become the quicksand of the crisis, even when their risks were already known. This puts much of the responsibility for the collapse that followed onto the agencies' shoulders.

Their ratings helped lead the investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns into ruin and helped destroy the insurance giant AIG. They also contributed to a trillion-dollar hole in the US budget. "The story of the credit rating agencies is a story of colossal failure," says Representative Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

'We Sold Our Soul to the Devil for Revenue'

For a century, the rating agencies have acted as Wall Street's trusted referees. "But now, that trust has been broken," states Senator Levin's committee. "And they did it for the money."

From 2002 to 2007, the three top credit rating agencies doubled their revenues, from less than $3 billion ($2.2 billion) to over $6 billion per year. Most of this increase came from ratings. Their executives got paid "Wall Street-sized salaries," according to the Senate committee.

"It's like one of the parties in court paying the judge's salary, or one of the teams in a competition paying the salary of the referee," the report continues. The New York Times put it this way: "It is as if Hollywood studios paid movie critics to review their would-be blockbusters."

Not that they weren't aware of it themselves. Back in 2006, an S&P employee wrote in an internal email: "We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it." The next year, one of Moody's executives complained to his superiors that he felt "like we sold our soul to the devil for revenue."

The agencies and the banks are not just connected by money, but also by personnel. In 2005, Goldman hired Shin Yukawa, a ratings expert, away from Fitch. Yukawa immediately put his knowledge to good use -- in Goldman's mortgage department, which created "structured" credit products and made sure they got splendid ratings. One of these products was "Abacus 2007-AC1."

Little Chance of Reform

Yet a reform of the system is not in sight. The Democrats' current proposals to further regulate the US financial industry contain little about the rating agencies, apart from a tepid appeal to "strengthen" their regulation.

Some critics are now trying a different approach. A few institutional investors -- among them the state of Ohio -- are suing the agencies for their role in the financial crisis. On Monday, a Manhattan court denied Moody's and S&P's joint motion to dismiss one of those class-action lawsuits.

Two days later, S&P's hammer fell on Spain.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,692007,00.html