Since my Oct. 10 post on the non-renewal of Nicholas Smith's contract with the SC Philharmonic, Dan Cook came out with a piece in this week's issue of the Free Times which sheds more light on the circumstances. If you pick up the hard copy before this Wednesday, you'll be treated to the surreal image on page 23, top half of which has Cook's article headlined "Philharmonic Seeks New Direction," bottom half of which has a big ad for tonight's SCP concert at Koger Center, advertising their "Peformance" in big bold print. I kid you not. Maybe they need proofreaders in the SCP office more than a new conductor! Or is this some kind of interdisciplinary collaboration with Andres Serrano of which I was unaware?

Last night at dinner a person prominent in the Columbia arts scene pointed out to me that the SCP board's timing of this announcement, complete with assessments of the SCP's situation as "stagnant," comes at an odd time just as the season is virtually at its start. This person felt it was a strange way to try to sell the current season to potential concertgoers. I hadn't thought of that, but had to agree.

It's not every day that a newly-discovered Beethoven manuscript shows up somewhere. As always with Beethoven's manuscripts, seeing what he crossed out and what he changed is the real fascination. It gives us a window into the creative process that we don't really have with Mozart, for example. So much of Mozart's work seems to have emerged full-blown onto the page, so fully formed in macro-and-micro-structural level from the get-go, that it has been postulated he was actually autistic, in the manner of the remarkable Temple Grandin. It often seems as if Mozart's music was dictated directly from the mysterious divine, while Beethoven is the hero of rationalists everywhere for the way in which his music resulted from the very human struggle to give order to raw material. This manuscript is an exciting find. One thing is for sure, new manuscript or not...the Grosse Fuge was definitely one wacked-out great piece and it still is a challenge to the listener 180 years later.

Last Friday, the State newspaper in Columbia reported that Nicholas Smith will leave his position as the South Carolina Philharmonic's conductor when his contract is up at the end of the 2006-07 season. The orchestra board is looking for someone who is going to have a greater time commitment to the community; apparently, Maestro Smith only spent about 15 weeks a year here. The board may end up looking at veteran conductors who might have a bit of glamour about them and are good at shaking money out of the trees. The problem in that case is that almost certainly SCP would be only one of 2 or 3 orchestral commitments by that conductor, so the lack of time involvement with the community might still be a concern.

Top-notch American music schools are churning out well-trained conductors with doctorates by the hundreds these days. Surely there is some gifted and charismatic man or woman out there in their early 30's for whom SC Philharmonic would be an excellent job. I'm envisioning someone with solid musicianship, good stick technique, leadership skills and an "outside-the-box" thinker when it comes to repertoire, presentation, marketing. This person probably would not yet have a terribly full plate of guest appearances or another orchestra to take care of elsewhere. He or she might only stay a few years, using the job as a stepping stone. That's OK. SC Phil is not a job for somebody to grow old in, but that person could bring talent and energy and new ideas with them for those few years. Somebody using this job to "make their mark" is exactly what this orchestra could use. Vision and energy can inspire donors to give just as much as a stellar resume can.

I hope the SC Phil board will look seriously at talented young candidates for their next music director. These younger candidates might not have as much on their printed resume as the more veteran candidates; therefore, the SCP board should pay very close attention to videotapes, recordings, and recommendations. Even better, they should not sit back and wait for the applications to come in; they should go head-hunting, aiming for that hungry and creative 30-something visionary. They need to sell the orchestra and community to the candidate just as much as the candidates need to sell themselves to the search committee.

For those of you not so familiar with that world, the "culture of celebrity" exists in the realm of classical music, too. If you're a bit tired of seeing Renee Fleming shilling for fancy watches in glossy magazines, or hearing about Yo-Yo Ma's latest crossover collaboration with 50 Cent or whoever it is this month, here is a refreshing piece on two marvelous pianists. I know both of these guys and they are excellent, dedicated musicians. It always feels good to see some unsung heroes of the profession get some national attention. (Link may require free registration)

My wife and I , both being the "W&G" fans that we are, had been eagerly awaiting the premiere of "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" for weeks and weeks. Finally, it opened in Columbia last night and we were there. I'm happy to say it was everything we had hoped for and more. The word is bandied about too casually, but here it truly applies: Nick Park is a genius. I hope his team has already gotten started on the next one, since it takes so darn long to make these movies! This kind of animation just blows away all the computer-generated stuff, though I think some CG is used in backdrops, etc. What's most impressive to me visually is the sense of atmosphere, ex., a foggy evening streetscape, a bright sunny day outside, or the indoor lighting of Wallace's house. There is a "reality" about that which contributes to the viewer's truly forgetting they are watching unreal animated characters. That's a clumsy way of saying the characters are three-dimensional, and thus seem real. Bonus points for use of "Venus" from "The Planets" in the soundtrack.

Park also wonderfully slips in quite a few double-entendres, visual and verbal, to keep the grownups entertained.