My lay-in-bed-with-the-flu reading turned to Terry Teachout's splendid biography of Louis Armstrong, Pops. I went through the index the other day to see if there was a mention of Andre Previn that I could post here, Previn being a fine jazzman, but no such luck.
But then Teachout erupted with a sensational article in the Wall Street Journal, where he is theater critic, commenting on the dearth of performing-arts programming on PBS. I've mentioned Teachout on the blog before. He writes a fine blog on the artsjournal.com site, "About Last Night," and he's also written noted biographies of H.L. Mencken and George Balanchine, the libretto of The Letter, which premiered at Santa Fe Opera last summer, and he once played a pretty mean jazz bass in Kansas City. I appreciate Teachout's criticism even, maybe especially, when I think he's wrong, because, like the best critics, it's not whether he's giving a thumb's-up or thumb's-down that is interesting, it's the presentation of his thought, the ability to feel the critic's mind at work, which makes him always worthwhile.
In response to a speech the CEO of PBS gave recently, in which she acknowledged that the public network had grown lax in its arts broadcasting, Teachout gives one of those "if I were king" pronouncements about what PBS should put on the air, and he's on target, and not just because he says, "I'd telecast David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony performing Samuel Barber's 'Prayers of Kierkegaard'"--although that was awfully nice. Teachout says PBS needs to put its cameras not just on what's going on in Manhattan or what's up with the Dude at the LA Phil, but expose the wealth of performing arts and artists all across the country.
This comes naturally from Teachout, who grew up in southern Missouri (or as he calls it in his blog, Smalltown, USA), one of the few critics writing for a major newspaper in a major city who knows that there is art happening west of the Hudson. He is one of the few, if only, critics who travels to repertory theaters across the country, including the one in St. Louis, and comments on the fine, and sometimes not-so-fine, work being produced there.
One could imagine that if people saw exciting performing-arts broadcasts from Seattle and San Francisco and Santa Fe and St. Louis, and not just New York, an arts Renaissance in the United States could occur with the discovery that good art is homegrown, and can be encouraged and nurtured and attended and funded.
But I would add that PBS would have to do it right. Coverage of dance and theater and orchestral music is often dullsville on TV. PBS would need to put its most imaginative people together to make the live dance/theater/concert experience have life on the flat screen, and the dance and theater companies and orchestras would need to cooperate and give them access and freer reign. Catching the moments that make an orchestral concert exciting is no easy thing, but it's more than worth a try, especially live from Powell Hall.
In response to a speech the CEO of PBS gave recently, in which she acknowledged that the public network had grown lax in its arts broadcasting, Teachout gives one of those "if I were king" pronouncements about what PBS should put on the air, and he's on target, and not just because he says, "I'd telecast David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony performing Samuel Barber's 'Prayers of Kierkegaard'"--although that was awfully nice. Teachout says PBS needs to put its cameras not just on what's going on in Manhattan or what's up with the Dude at the LA Phil, but expose the wealth of performing arts and artists all across the country.
This comes naturally from Teachout, who grew up in southern Missouri (or as he calls it in his blog, Smalltown, USA), one of the few critics writing for a major newspaper in a major city who knows that there is art happening west of the Hudson. He is one of the few, if only, critics who travels to repertory theaters across the country, including the one in St. Louis, and comments on the fine, and sometimes not-so-fine, work being produced there.
One could imagine that if people saw exciting performing-arts broadcasts from Seattle and San Francisco and Santa Fe and St. Louis, and not just New York, an arts Renaissance in the United States could occur with the discovery that good art is homegrown, and can be encouraged and nurtured and attended and funded.
But I would add that PBS would have to do it right. Coverage of dance and theater and orchestral music is often dullsville on TV. PBS would need to put its most imaginative people together to make the live dance/theater/concert experience have life on the flat screen, and the dance and theater companies and orchestras would need to cooperate and give them access and freer reign. Catching the moments that make an orchestral concert exciting is no easy thing, but it's more than worth a try, especially live from Powell Hall.
