Arthur Lubow profiles Gustavo Dudamel for the New York Times Magazine. A friend notes that the New York Philharmonic is playing it rather cool with regard to Dudamel's debut with the orchestra at the end of November; the concert is headlined "Gil Shaham Plays Dvorak."... Congratulations to Anne Midgette, who, Musical America reports, will be interim chief critic at the Washington Post while Tim Page takes a sabbatical at USC.... Some good news from Chicago, via John von Rhein: "For the second straight year, the [Chicago Symphony] exceeded 85 percent paid capacity in ticket sales, including a more than 3 percent increase in single ticket sales from the previous year. Roughly 30 percent of CSO main series concerts were sold out or exceeded 95 percent capacity. The renewal rate for CSO main series subscriptions was more than 87 percent, the highest in 11 years, according to orchestra officials."... I expended over twenty thousand words trying to explain what happened to classical composition after WWII; Timothy Mangan needs only a hundred.... Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy home delivery of the New York Times? It's a splendid publication.
