{"id":2628,"date":"2023-05-25T23:14:32","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T03:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2628"},"modified":"2023-05-25T23:14:34","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T03:14:34","slug":"the-marriage-an-alchemical-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/05\/the-marriage-an-alchemical-quest.html","title":{"rendered":"The Marriage — “An Alchemical Quest”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From Erik den Breejen\u2019s review of my novel The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, in the current New York Sun<\/em>::<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMr. Horowitz\u2019s is an alchemical quest \u2013 to bring memories and accounts from dusty archives to life . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen recreating a rehearsal of Mahler\u2019s own Second Symphony, Mr. Horowitz\u2019s rich use of detail compellingly evokes the feeling of the music but also the artist\u2019s own unease in his new home: \u2018a hushed and distant trumpet song, a tender lullaby over cascading harps. Memories \u2013 despoiled by these renegade Americans in a city of cement.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis in contrast to the vivid description of the triumphant debut performance in Munich of Mahler\u2019s \u2018Symphony of a Thousand\u2019 . . .  The music created \u2018a surging organism, a sentient community bound by a single primal impulse of apocalyptic sound and feeling.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile rehearsing the orchestra, Mahler instructs the players that the work is \u201ca mosaic, not a blend. Shifting grains of color, always individual grains\u201d \u2013 an astute description of Mahler\u2019s music as well as The Marriage<\/em> itself, with its myriad distinct strains coalescing into a convincing whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Den Breejen also writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the central problems facing contemporary orchestras is how to appeal to a generation raised on 15-second videos. A \u2018dumbing down\u2019 of programming is not what Mr. Horowitz sees as the solution. ‘\u2019Orchestras have moved in a different direction than museums,\u2019 he says. \u2018The thing that most dismays me is that museums are so far ahead of orchestras. They have scholars on staff, they embrace scholarship, they curate the past, which means they have a knowledgeable understanding of previous achievement, and in particular, American achievement. No orchestra even aspires to do that. . . . \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmid this weekend\u2019s sold-out performances of Mahler\u2019s Ninth Symphony led by the New York Philharmonic\u2019s future music director, Gustavo Dudamel \u2014 who inspired the character Rodrigo on the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle<\/em> \u2014 I asked Mr. Horowitz if he thought the problem of the ‘celebrity conductor’ that he outlined in Understanding Toscanin<\/a>i<\/em><\/strong> persisted to this day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe offered diplomacy, while adding, ‘The fact that a conductor, rather than a composer, should be the iconic musician, is, I think, a problem that begins with Toscanini and exists to this day.\u2019’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Erik den Breejen\u2019s review of my novel The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York, in the current New York Sun:: \u201cMr. Horowitz\u2019s is an alchemical quest \u2013 to bring memories and accounts from dusty archives to life . . . \u201cWhen recreating a rehearsal of Mahler\u2019s own Second Symphony, Mr. Horowitz\u2019s rich use of detail compellingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Go","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2635,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions\/2635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}