Museums curate the past. They help us to shape and populate our impressions of history. Orchestras do not curate the past. A typical symphonic program (alas) begins with the selection of a soloist. The resulting programs are eclectic: a potpourri. During his historic music directorship of the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein was the rare conductor for whom … [Read more...] about Bernstein the Educator
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Furtwangler and the Nazis — Take Two
I am returning to the topic of Furtwangler because my previous blog produced a minor miracle – a thread of responses that yielded heightened understanding of a complex topic. I wrote to William Osborne and Stephen Stockwell: “Thanks so much for this engrossing feedback. Maybe we could summarize that the truth about Furtwangler falls within these two polarities: “1.He … [Read more...] about Furtwangler and the Nazis — Take Two
Furtwangler and the Nazis
This weekend’s Wall Street Journal includes my review of Roger Allen’s “Wilhelm Furtwangler: Art and the Politics of the Unpolitical.” As some readers of this blog may remember, my most controversial and notorious book – “Understanding Toscanini” (1987) – deals rather extensively with the American career of Furtwangler. I also use Wagner’s "Lohengrin" Prelude to illustrate … [Read more...] about Furtwangler and the Nazis
The Gershwin Moment — Part Five: Klemperer, Tibbett, Gerstein
As I’ve had occasion to observe in my various George Gershwin blogs, Gershwin and J. S. Bach are the two composers most malleable in performance. There is no Gershwin style. And if there is, there’s full license to ignore it. The most recent “PostClassical” broadcast on WWFM includes two little-known but … [Read more...] about The Gershwin Moment — Part Five: Klemperer, Tibbett, Gerstein
El Paso, Kurt Weill, and Tornillo’s Tent City
Readers of this blog may remember my last filing from El Paso – a “Kurt Weill’s America” festival, part of the NEH-supported “Music Unwound” consortium I direct, that ignited a week of discussion and debate about immigration past and present. My most memorable experience that week was visiting Eastlake High School, in a semi-rural colonia, and telling 3,000 students about … [Read more...] about El Paso, Kurt Weill, and Tornillo’s Tent City