Word: toscaninis
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Understanding Toscanini...
From then on, Toscanini's every move was diligently chronicled. When he . resigned from the Met in 1915, his departure was accompanied by a chorus of speculative articles. His return to an American post with the New York Philharmonic in 1926 was frantically cheered. A decade later he was granted the most flattering gift of all: an orchestra created specially for him. As director of the NBC Symphony, he reached a national radio and television audience and became a visitor to millions of homes that had never heard classical music in such abundance. He was no longer merely a conductor...
...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...
Today those words 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...
John Gregory Dunne' s The Red White and Blue chronicles the corruptibility of power. -- Toscanini is reappraised and devalued...