Süddeutsche Zeitung 10.01.2007

In a wonderful article, Reinhard J. Brembeck explains how and why historical performance practices have declared war on the vibrato, and how British conductor Roger Norrington is intent on banning it from the music of Mozart, Beethoven and the 19th century. In the context of his "purification cure" of Stuttgart's Radio Sinfonieorchester, he "forbade all of his musicians from playing the vibrato. Of course something like that will come as an enormous shock to an orchestra musician, because for a good century orchestras have been vibrating passionately (although this is not indicated in any scores)."

In an accompanying interview, Norrington clarifies his point in discussing his recording of Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique": "Noble, Shakespearean tragedy, but not a wailing wall. 'Pathetique' means passion, but not self-pity." And he has this to say about the vibrato phenomenon: "The evil began in the 20s. At that time life was radically changing after the traumatic experience of World War I. Suddenly all of social life was dominated by cheap effects. Hollywood set the tone, and no one batted an eye when women started wearing thick makeup and drinking in public."


Frankfurter Rundschau 10.01.2007

Oliver Herwig reports from Ulm, where three new buildings by architects Stephan Braunfels and Wolfram Wöhr are swinging the urban balance away from automobiles in favour of the inhabitants. Since the 1990s, Herwig writes, city planners decided that "buildings, squares and passages were to bloom out of the asphalt. In a word, a new urbanity was to be born." And just that is now happening: "When the Weishaupt Kunsthalle designed by Wöhr opens this spring, Ulm will have achieved what so many communities are still striving for: it will have found its centre. The three buildings will break new ground. A new urban structure will now grow up around them, where previously traffic arteries dominated the cityscape. Mayor Alexander Wetzig sums up: The special thing about Ulm's new city centre, he says, is 'creating a new urban space without having to getting rid of traffic flow altogether. It was a long, difficult process,' he concludes, 'But we've come a long way in improving the quality of urban life.'"


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10.01.2007

Heinrich Wefing met up with the Turkish-German lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ates, who had to quit her law practice last year after receiving death threats and still doesn't know if and when she will resume practicing. "Every day that she can't work is a victory for all those who ignore or repress the fatal mix of violence and sexuality that exists in many Turkish and Kurdish families. Every day that Seyran Ates doesn't practice law is a defeat for the constitutional state – and a devastating signal to all who are desperately hoping for its protection." (here an article by Ates on multiculturalism)

Bernd Schultz, director of the auction house Villa Grisebach, defends the German museum directors of the postwar era, who stood up for the art that the Nazis had ostracised and never consciously hung art that had been looted during the war. "What unscrupulous, overly clever restitution lawyers in the United States but also in Germany want to make of it, claiming 'we must liberate the last war prisoners from the Second World War,' is to open up German museums and guarantee supply for the international art market and very well endowed collectors. The word 'Holocaust' is said when in fact 'money' is meant."


Die Welt 10.01.2007

Sonja Margolina offers a portrait of the Russian sociologist Yuri Levada, who died last November. He was a genuinely independent man under whose directorship the VCIOM "became the leading opinion polling institute in Russia. The powerful, who knew how to influence their popularity through 'administrative resources', became increasingly wary of the independent and incorruptible institution of the truculent sociologist... As a result the audit court went at the VCIOM for supposed misuse of public funds. In 2003 Levada was removed from office. But a nasty surprise awaited the new, conformist boss: an empty room with cleared desks and data-free computers. The entire VCIOM research group was not to be seduced by the promises of doubled wages and went with Levada, who then went on to found his own private Levada Centre."