Word: horowitz
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...Although revisionists set to work soon after the maestro's death, Understanding Toscanini is the most detailed examination yet of the man, his work and his audience. "To study how Americans perceived Toscanini is to study how they perceived themselves," argues Joseph Horowitz, a former music critic for the Times. "As a personality, even as a musician, Toscanini embodied 'self-made' virtues distinguishing the New World from the parent culture of Europe. As the dominant figurehead for Great Music, he furnished proof of New World high cultural achievement . . ." The quality of his interpretations was almost irrelevant; in Horowitz's view...
...almost from the moment he arrived at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1908, reports Horowitz, Toscanini was a celebrity. The story of his professional debut -- rising from the cello section to lead Verdi's Aida from memory in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 19 -- had preceded him, and the New York music critics provided a collective embrace. "As great and as welcome as anything that has come out of Italy since Verdi laid down his pen," proclaimed the New York Tribune in a typical response...
...book, however, is only incidentally biographical. In digesting countless reviews, Horowitz has provided a valuable look at the state of American music criticism during the first half of the century. And in a separate chapter, he also provides a musical assessment by examining Toscanini's recordings in formidable detail. But the author's most important contribution is his analysis of Toscanini's pervasive influence on what music was programmed and the way it was performed: the conductor's determination to play certified great works defined, and confined, the repertoire for the next generation of musicians. Igor Stravinsky, whose music Toscanini...
...still apply to too many conductors and their orchestras. Beethoven symphonies are wolfed down like bran flakes, high in moral fiber and good for the soul; meanwhile, less celebrated works are regarded as the aural version of empty calories. Here, apparently, is the enduring Toscanini legacy, and, according to Horowitz's plausible indictment, one that shows few signs of fading away...
...Burger, Howard G. Chua- Eoan, Tom Curry, Nelida Gonzalez Cutler, Sally B. Donnelly, Andrea Dorfman, Helen Sen Doyle, David Ellis, Kathryn Jackson Fallon, Mary McC. Fernandez, Cassie T. Furgurson, John Edward Gallagher, Nancy R. Gibbs, Lois Gilman, Edward M. Gomez, Christine Gorman, Rodman Griffin, D. Blake Hallanan, Janice M. Horowitz, Jeanette Isaac, Carol A. Johmann, Sinting Lai, Daniel S. Levy, JoAnn Lum, Katherine Mihok, Emily Mitchell, Lawrence Mondi, Christine Morgan, Adrianne Jucius Navon, Jeannie Park, Michael Quinn, Barry Rehfeld, Theodore P. Roth, Megan Rutherford, Andrea Sachs, David Seideman, David E. Thigpen, Sidney Urquhart, Jane Van Tassel, Elsie B. Washington, Leslie...