# Promoted glamor, glitz and the decline of quality in the classical music industry



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

From violinist Gidon Kremer, his letter of resignation to the director of the Verbier Music Festival. Polite, discreet, it nonetheless clearly addresses the new atmosphere of promoted personality, the young concert artists who are placed as 'the new next greats' and all the rest which has many a slightly older generation classical professional more than concerned.
*
Gidon Kremer ~ "WHY I QUIT THE CELEBRITY RAT-RACE" *
https://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/07/gidon-kremer-why-i-quit-the-celebrity-ratrace.html


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

CM's getting quitters from all sides. Something needs to be done, or there'll only be two or three schmoozers left, and events will be fighting for them, as trees do for dogs in the fierce heat of the summer. :lol:

This from a critic/pianist, *'Classical Music needs an enema, not awards'*.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/mu...des-classical-music-needs-an-enema-not-awards


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Vaneyes said:


> CM's getting quitters from all sides. Something needs to be done, or there'll only be two or three schmoozers...


Even this forum is not without guilt, full as it is with nattering nabobs of negativism. Furthermore, all of us wore neckties to grade school! We are truly an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize ourselves as intellectuals. (well, yes, a couple of quotes in there... :lol


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Even this forum is not without guilt, full as it is with nattering nabobs of negativism. Furthermore, all of us wore neckties to grade school!


Uh, oh! Those who wore neckties to grade school were either in parochial schools or some private academy, I think... wow, that is upper crust elite, n'est-pa?


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> Uh, oh! Those who wore neckties to grade school were either in parochial schools or some private academy, I think... wow, that is upper crust elite, n'est-pa?


It's worse than you imagine. We wore neckties to school even though we *didn't* attend parochial schools or private academies...


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> It's worse than you imagine. We wore neckties to school even though we *didn't* attend parochial schools or private academies...


Well, look at it this way, you could be rousted at 5 a.m. out of the deepest sleep and in one second have that tie on, slip, Half-windsor; Windsor; Pratt (? new to me); Four-in-hand, and all done on auto-pilot.

Ready to go.


----------



## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I read the letter, which is quite amusing in its disappointed idealism :lol:. Sincerely, though, it only makes me like him.

A little oddity I discovered on Wikipedia. Gidon Kremer is actually credited with a movie role: "Paganini," in the film Frühlingssinfonie. Whether it's any good is beyond me, but here it is: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frühlingssinfonie_(Film)

And a clip: 




Looks glamorous and glitzy!


----------

