Over the course of sixty years, British artist Howard
Hodgkin (British, London 1932–2017 London) formed a collection of Indian
paintings and drawings that is recognized as one of the finest of its kind.
A
highly regarded painter and printmaker, Hodgkin collected works from the
Mughal, Deccani, Rajput, and Pahari courts dating from the 16th to the 19th
centuries that reflect his personal passion for Indian art. This exhibition
presents over 120 of these works, many of which The Met recently acquired, alongside
loans from The Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust.
The works on view include stunning portraits, beautifully
detailed text illustrations, studies of the natural world, and devotional
subjects. The exhibition will also display a painting by Hodgkin, Small Indian
Sky, which alludes to the subtle relationship between his own work, India, and
his collection.
This exhibition is accompanied by an issue of The
Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin.
The exhibition is made possible by the Florence and Herbert
Irving Fund for Asian Art Exhibitions and the Friends of Islamic Art.
The Bulletin is made possible by the Florence and Herbert
Irving Fund for Asian Art Publications and the Friends of Islamic Art.
The Metropolitan's quarterly Bulletin program is supported
in part by the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
established by the cofounder of Reader’s Digest.
Qui, 11 abr, 20:00 e sexta, 12 abr, 19:00, Grande Auditório
O prestigiado compositor e maestro George Benjamin dirige o Coro e a Orquestra Gulbenkian num programa que inclui duas composições de sua autoria, a obra Sinfonietta de Leoš Janáček, e ainda a célebre suite orquestral Le Tombeau de Couperin, escrita por Maurice Ravel durante a Primeira Guerra Mundial.
Sob a direção do maestro Nuno Coelho, a Orquestra Gulbenkian interpreta a célebre Sinfonia n.º 3 (Heroica) de Ludwig van Beethoven, num programa que inclui ainda as obras Restart, do compositor português Nuno da Rocha, e Subito con forza, de Unsuk Chin. O concerto será transmitido em direto no website e redes sociais da Fundação Gulbenkian.
Installée ce 20 mars 2024 à l’Académie des beaux-arts à
Paris en tant que membre associé étranger, la photographe a pu compter sur son
confrère Sebastião Salgado et sur Anna Wintour, directrice mondiale de Vogue,
pour l’accueillir comme une rockstar sous la coupole.
"La seule chose plus intimidante qu’Annnie Leibovitz,
c’est Annie Leibovitz brandissant une épée." En piquant de façon
délicieusement britannique son amie et collaboratrice au long cours chez Vogue,
Anna Wintour provoque les rires des Immortels. À la tribune, la papesse de la
mode internationale chargée de remettre son épée à l’artiste américaine tente
de dissimuler son émotion derrière ses cultissimes lunettes noires. Peine
perdue ! Sa voix s’éraille légèrement au moment d’évoquer "la femme et
l’artiste" et son travail teinté de "tant d’énergie, d’amour et
d’authenticité".
Avec l’arrivée d’Annie Leibovitz, 74 ans, au fauteuil numéro
5, précédemment occupé par l’architecte Ieoh Ming Pei, il flotte un petit vent
de rock et de glamour à l’Académie des beaux-arts....
The chemistry between tradition and innovation powered Sir
Simon Rattle’s relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker, above all during
his time as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director (2002-2018).
As the successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio
Abbado, his mission was to take this pre-eminent musical institution into the
21st century.
“What Rattle has brought … is a new spirit of adventure,”
declared The Times in 2006, and later looked back on the “exhilarating, epoch-hopping
eclecticism of Simon Rattle’s era in Berlin”. Through all this Rattle preserved
the orchestra’s distinctive sonority, notable, in the words of the New York
Times, for its “sheer grandeur … and rich, red-blooded warmth”.
He first
conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1987, and the recordings in this 45CD
box span the years from 1994 to 2012. Very much reflecting Rattle’s vision for
the orchestra, the symphonic, choral and operatic works range from pillars of
Austro-German Classicism, Romanticism and Modernism through French, Russian and
Czech repertoire to showcases for contemporary contemporary composers from
around the world – and even a film soundtrack. As Rattle said at the end of his
tenure in Berlin: “Music is for everybody, and we’ve all believed this.”
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic – context
Sir Simon Rattle: The Berlin Years (45CDs) brings together
all the recordings that the British conductor Sir Simon Rattle (b.1955) made
with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the years from 1994 to 2012 for EMI
Classics (now Warner Classics).
Simon Rattle first conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in
1987 (Mahler’s Symphony No. 6) and later said: “I had the feeling that I would
find my voice that day.” (At the time he was Principal Conductor and Artistic
Adviser of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – he was in charge of the
CBSO from 1980 to 1998. The first of his many recordings for EMI had been
released in 1978.)
In 2002, having conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker 58
times, Rattle became the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. He
remained in the post until 2018.
In 2017, Rattle took up the position of Music Director of
the London Symphony Orchestra, ending his tenure in June 2023. In September
2023, he began his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des
Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich.
The Berliner Philharmoniker, founded in 1882, is undoubtedly
among the world’s great orchestras. Indeed, it is often described as the
world’s greatest orchestra.
Simon Rattle’s immediate predecessor as Chief Conductor was
Claudio Abbado (tenure from 1990-2002), who succeeded Herbert von Karajan
(tenure 1957-1989) and Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922-1934 / 1952-1954).
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic – a
transformative era
The Berliner Philharmoniker is self-governing and Rattle was
elected as Chief Conductor by the orchestra’s players in 1999. The other main
contender was Daniel Barenboim. This is how one of the orchestra’s horn players
recalled the choice faced by the orchestra: “Do we turn the clock back, be a
more traditional orchestra with a living museum role, or do we embrace the
future?”
Rattle was a somewhat unorthodox choice: in 1999 he was
associated less with Austro-German symphonic music of the late 18th/19th
centuries than with diverse and eclectic repertoire from later eras. Over his
16 years with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle both asserted his authority
in the orchestra’s traditional repertoire and broadened its musical horizons to
run from early music to new commissions.
In 2018 The Guardian wrote of Rattle’s mission to “maintain
Berlin's wonderful sound, forged in the eras of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert
von Karajan during the mid-20th century, but simultaneously throw open the
doors to the Philharmonie and drag what is still widely regarded as the
greatest symphony orchestra in the world into the 21st century.”
The writer
admired “the sheer quality and intensity of the orchestral playing … how [the]
wind players are at the same time … expressively independent and yet form a …
seamless, cohesive unit, and how the strings manage to combine a wealth of
detail with fathomless depth of tone.” In 2015 the New Yok Times had written of
“the sheer grandeur of the Berlin Philharmonic sound” and its “assertive
confidence and rich, red-blooded warmth”.
Citing the “exhilarating, epoch-hopping eclecticism” of
Rattle’s approach to repertoire in Berlin, the Times wrote that “What Rattle
has brought … is a new spirit of adventure … the Berliners sound rejuvenated.”
Rattle’s achievement in the Romantic Austro-German
repertoire was expressed in a 2018 Times review of a Berliner Philharmoniker
performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 (CD41): “What will chiefly be
remembered about his German years, however — and tremendously evident in this
turbulent and profound account of Bruckner’s complex score — is his genius for
digging beneath surfaces that say one thing and finding chasms of dark matter
saying something very different.
It’s possible to play this epic as the zenith
of 19th-century symphonic aspiration, but in Rattle’s hands it sounded
experimental and unresolved, as though Bruckner, even in his last moments, was
determined to say prophetic and challenging things to those who came after
him.”
At the end of his time as Chief Conductor, Rattle said: “I
think we moved this big, big ship forward … Music is for everybody, and we’ve
all believed this, and this was really one of my most important goals while I
was here … To spread it everywhere.”
Sir Simon Rattle: The Berlin Years – overview
The 45 CDs in the box provide a representative picture of
Rattle’s years with the Berlin Philharmonic. The repertoire ranges from the
18th century (Haydn – a composer long favoured by Rattle) to the 21st century
(even the score for the 2006 film Das Parfum). It embraces symphonic music
(including spectacular works from the late-Romantic/Modern eras), choral music
and opera, all from a diversity of national and cultural traditions. The
‘traditional’ Austro-German repertoire is given its due.
Roma, 26 Marzo 2024 - Il Presidente della Repubblica, Sergio
Mattarella, ha inaugurato questa mattina la mostra dal titolo: “Napoli
Ottocento”, allestita alle Scuderie del Quirinale. Ecco le immagini. /
Quirinale
Florencia, año 1743. A la princesa Anna Maria Luisa, última gobernante de la familia Medici en Toscana, le quedan pocos meses de vida. Los enemigos acechan y ella, con sus últimas fuerzas, lucha por evitar que el ingente patrimonio de su dinastía sea saqueado por el imperio austriaco.
En la epoca actual, Ann Carrington, una profesora americana, recibe el encargo de viajar a Lisboa y pujar en una subasta por un libro del siglo XVIII dedicado al famoso Fiorentino, el diamante de los Medici. De forma casual, entre sus páginas descubrirá unos extraños números que, claramente, esconden un mensaje cifrado. ¿Serán las coordenadas que conducen a los tesoros perdidos de la familia ducal?
Así da comienzo un trepidante thriller histórico que arrastra a sus protagonistas por media Europa, en una carrera en la que no todos son quienes dicen ser ni persiguen los mismos fines.
Due out on 13 February 2024 for the PlayStation 5, Microsoft
Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is
an upcoming story driven action-RPG where player decisions have dramatic
consequences. In the game, players assume the role of Antea Duarte and Red mac
Raith who act as ‘Banishers’ – ghost-hunters who have to solve haunting cases
whilst also protecting the living. At the same time, players are also able to
unlock new gear and abilities, whilst uncovering ancient secrets and mysteries
in a campaign that’s promised to be “between 20 and 30 hours, maybe more“.
I spoke to Philippe Moreau (Creative Director, Don’t Nod)
and Karim Benfares (Executive Producer, Don’t Nod) about Banishers, and also
got to ask them as to what it is about Don’t Nod that allows the studio to make
games that are considered to be fairly unique in an increasingly formulaic
market. Enjoy!
Phillipe Moreau: Well, we could say that it’s a story-driven
action RPG that’s set in the haunting wilds of the 17th century in New England.
We are in an alternate version of history where witches have real powers and
ghosts exist. So you play as a couple of Banishers who are basically ghost
hunters – named Red and Antea, a male and a female – and you are here to solve
haunting cases. But the twist of the game is that one of the characters dies at
the very beginning of the game, Antea, and so she comes back as a ghost
herself. And so you will play this duo throughout the game, this couple, and
you can switch from one character to another very seamlessly. And it’s a game
centered around choices, because during the game you will have to make choices,
and this will have an impact on how the couple will evolve throughout the game,
and how the fate of the human beings will also be altered.
Your studio, Don’t Nod, has also done Life is Strange, and
is therefore renowned for its story-driven games that are quite eclectic. Why
do you think your studio makes the kind of games that it does, and what is it
about your studio that you think makes it unique in an industry where so many
other titles happen to be so formulaic. What is it about the creative process
of Don’t Nod that separates it from other studios out there and their products?
Karim Benfares: I think that our unique way to do games is
because we think about stories first. I’m sure that some other studios will
think about gameplay first or art first. Of course we do think about those too,
but first we think about stories first. We think about the fact that everything
must be logical and make sense about its story first. That’s why I think our
games are unique. The second thing is probably because we always try to use a
realistic setting that we can then mix with a supernatural aspect. In Life Is
Strange, it was about rewinding the time. In Banishers, it’s because ghosts
exist. And thanks to that, we can create atmospheres where the players can
immerse themselves easily, because we have the realistic aspect, but at the
same time, we also have this supernatural aspect as a twist.
If I remember correctly, Remember Me was the first title
that Don’t Nod did, so that must mean that you guys have been going for about
15 years. How long have both of you been with Don’t Nod?
Phillipe Moreau: So I started working at Don’t Nod 13 years
ago on Remember Me as a Game Designer, more specifically as a Combat Designer.
And then I worked on Vampyr as a Game Director. And now I’m working on
Banishers.
And yourself, Mr Benfares?
Karim Benfares: My story is a bit different. I joined Don’t
Nod 5 years ago after my previous project at Quantic Dream where I worked on
Detroit: Become Human as the Senior Producer. And to be fair, I was also very
interested in Vampyr, and thought that it was a great game, even if it did have
some flaws. But in a sense, I really liked it. And I had the opportunity to
join Don’t Nod, but only if I could join the Vampyr team. And this is exactly
what happened, where I joined Philippe’s team just after Vampyr to create
Banishers.
What’s the likelihood of Banishers coming to GamePass when
it’s released, or anytime soon?
Karim Benfares: It’s not expected. We don’t know. I don’t
think so.
What’s your opinion on GamePass and subscription services in
general?
Karim Benfares: Well, my personal point of view is that I
think it’s going to work. It’s working. I think it changes the way in how we
consume games, if I can say…
In a healthy way, or in a bad way?
Karim Benfares: It depends… If we talk about customers, if
we talk about players, I think it’s great for them. They have the opportunity
to access a huge library of games, so I think it’s great for them. They can,
with only a few bucks, play a ton of games easily, and probably have huge
knowledge of video games. This is insane, and I think it’s great.
What about from an industry standpoint?
Karim Benfares: From an industry standpoint, it can be great
because for some developers who may struggle to create games that make money,
it can be great because they can have the opportunity to just have one game on
GamePass. However, I think it can be dangerous at the same time. Because it can
create a kind of “game-for-hire”, or “work-for-hire” system. Like the cinema
industry and Netflix, where you can just have one game and you are paid for
that, but you have no access to royalties or anything like that. You are just
paid for one game, and then have to create another one. And I think that
studios may become too dependent on Microsoft if it becomes too big. I think we
have to keep both so as to make sure that studios and publishers can live
together.
What’s the post-release strategy for Banishers? Any DLC or
new characters?
Karim Benfares: We are thinking about it.
How long has the game been in development for?
Karim Benfares: Almost 5 years.
Last question… Going forward, you were able to make Life is
Strange into some sort of a franchise. However, Remember Me and Vampyr were
pretty much standalone games. What are your hopes for Banishers? Do you think
we can expect more Banishers games in future, or is it going to be pretty much
a standalone title? And after Banishers, what are your future plans as a
studio?
Phillipe Moreau: I don’t think we can say too much about it
because we’re still in the process of growing the project and wanting it to
evolve. But one thing’s for sure is that we want to capitalize on Banishers. If
the IP is good enough, and if the reception is good from the audience and
players… For sure, we’d want to continue to make action RPGs because we want to
iterate upon our strengths, and want to learn from our mistakes, and do even
better games next time. So I think we are in a good place. For Vampyr, we
learned a lot, and we fixed a lot of the issues that we had. But I think
Banishers will be even better. And hopefully in the future, our next games, our
next action RPGs will be in the same spirit… Always narrative driven games, but
always trying to be better.