| Description |
464 pages ; 24 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Note |
Includes index. |
| Contents |
Part 1. Criticism -- A search for truth -- Enough "constructive criticism" already -- Why a critic follows the score -- A critic reflects on forty-four years in the business -- Part 2. Performance practice -- Artistic suicide -- Performing Bach en masse -- But would Bach play it like this? -- About virtuosity -- A matter of "authenticity" -- Of purists and purity -- On trills and other ornaments -- Modern literalism and repeats -- Romanticism and the modern mind -- then Miss Bingley sat at the pianoforte -- All those smart kids, where is their individuality? -- Yes, the artist can disagree with the composer -- Two critics, two opinions-but a bit of common ground -- The search for Romanticism -- Part 3. Composers -- Mahler's mystic ninth -- Scriabin: that marvelous, sensuous mystic -- Ives: complex and yet simple -- Grieg: once popular, now faded -- Mozart et P`ere: is an analysis needed? -- Mozart's son-perhaps that name was too much for him -- How Koczware came to a grievous end at Miss Hill's house -- Ives: compulsiveness, complexity, dissonance and power -- Liszt: a seminal force of Romanticism -- Copland: he wanted to reach us -- Scott Joplin: a real composer with something to offer -- Even Rossini's "sins" aren't serious -- Max Reger: better than his notices -- No one's laughting at Percy Grainger anymore -- Did Beethoven ever find a piano that made him happy? -- Sousa, Father of the big brass band -- Gottschalk and his monster concert -- Part 4. Contemporary music -- An end in itself -- Where are the young composers? -- The failures of contemporary composition-again -- The future of the symphony -- Boulez trips up downtown -- Part 5. Opera -- The easy way out: translations -- Rudolf Bing: a leader or a follower? -- "L'Amico Fritz": a sweet, simple thing -- When jazzing up opera becomes vandalism -- A Bayreuth "ring" that alarmed the old guard -- Opera is in the air-and it has a most familiar ring -- Meyerbeer, once the most idolized opera composer -- Don't sneer at Puccini's horse opera -- Awaiting the complete "Lulu" -- Why isn't a musical comedy an opera? -- Part 6. Singers and singing -- Renata Tebaldi: a prima donna who doesn't act like one -- The big voice and big temperament of Leonard Warren -- Of Wagnerian sopranos -- A decline in performance -- A farewell to the old Metropolitan Opera House -- The death of Mary Garden -- The goddess that was Geraldine Farrar -- Alas, no more Castratos -- There was nothing like the Ponselle sound, ever -- The Heldentenor species dies with Melchior -- Part 7. Piano -- An evaluation of Sviatoslav Richter -- The Rubinstein touch -- Did Rachmaninoff collaborate with God? -- Rudolf Serkin: in pursuit of an ideal -- Josef Hofmann: the greatest pianist of his time -- How sex plays a role at the piano -- Part 8. Conductors -- Bernstein and the aura of show business -- Karajan is Apollo, Solti is Dionysus -- Summing up the Boulez New York era -- Barbirolli and Szell: almost opposing paths to Parnassus -- Part 9. Miscellany -- The summer concerts of Minnie Guggenheimer -- Presenting Sol Hurok, impresario -- Pawns, rooks and notes -- Music over words -- Withdrawal symptons -- The man of Avon and the music of his time -- Violins, then and now -- Elementary, my dear Watson -- Phantom of the Opera -- Jiggery-pokery, musical jokery -- What would Bach have had for Christmas? -- The story of Santa-and his awful symphony -- God rest you, wandering comma -- How to manipulate a musician-or even a politician -- Will a hundred composers bloom? -- Elitism, in the arts, is good. |
| Summary |
A selection of the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic's writings on music and music criticism, composers, contemporary music, singers and vocal music, musicians, pianists, conductors and performance practice. |
| Subject |
Music -- History and criticism.
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Music (OCoLC)fst01030269
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| Genre/Form |
Music. (OCoLC)fst01423855
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Criticism, interpretation, etc. (OCoLC)fst01411635
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Music.
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| ISBN |
0671254065 |
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9780671254063 |
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0671605631 (pbk.) |
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9780671605636 (pbk.) |
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