{"id":3275,"date":"2024-09-24T23:37:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T03:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3275"},"modified":"2024-09-24T23:40:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T03:40:42","slug":"the-downfall-of-classical-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2024\/09\/the-downfall-of-classical-music.html","title":{"rendered":"The Downfall of Classical Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If you\u2019re in the mood for a rollicking conversation about the downfall of classical music<\/strong> in the US, check out this podcast conversation<\/a> I recently had with the terrific conductor Kenneth Woods (who\u2019s based in the UK rather than the US, in which he deserves a music directorship of consequence).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose chickens that are now coming home to roost are the chickens I\u2019ve been writing about since the 1980s [in Understanding Toscanini<\/em>], for which I was initially vilified. But now that I\u2019ve turned into a prophet, I\u2019m simply ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These, in sequence, are the topics at hand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.The grim situation of the arts in the UK<\/strong> right now: no money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.My visit to South Africa<\/strong>, and how classical music there is evolving with notable Black leadership (thanks in part to Nelson Mandela<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.My ruthless analysis of the interwar popularization or \u201cdemocratization\u201d of classical music in the US, which anointed Arturo Toscanini<\/strong> \u201cthe world\u2019s greatest musician\u201d even though he wasn\u2019t a composer. This was a commercial operation headed by David Sarnoff (RCA\/NBC) and Arthur Judson (the managerial powerbroker who declared that \u201cthe audience sets taste\u201d). Dead European masters — easiest to merchandize — were prioritized. Amateur music-making was discouraged in favor of broadcasts and recordings by the experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.A barrage of pointed questions and observations from Ken attempting to figure out Toscanini\u2019s primacy (\u201cwhy he won\u201d). Toscanini\u2019s appeal to mass taste<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.Ken proposes a thought experiment \u2013 subtract Toscanini from the story of classical music and what do you get? You get Serge Koussevitzky<\/strong> and Leopold Stokowski<\/strong>. And where might that have led? I marvel in passing: \u201cStokowski didn\u2019t care about integrity, it wasn\u2019t part of his vocabulary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.Dmitri Mitropoulos<\/strong>, and why his 1940 Minneapolis Symphony premiere recording of Mahler\u2019s First seems to me the most remarkable Mahler recording ever made \u2013 and unthinkable today (with choice audio examples<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.Ken asks: What if Leonard Bernstein<\/strong> had been appointed Koussevitzky\u2019s successor in Boston in 1950, rather than winding up at the New York Philharmonic (which had no pertinent tradition of espousing American music)? Ken answers himself: \u201cIt would have changed the repertoire of all American orchestras.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.My own favorite thought experiments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— What if Gustav Mahler<\/strong> had premiered Ives\u2019s Second Symphony with the New York Philharmonic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— What if George Gershwin<\/strong> had lived as long as Aaron Copland?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either would have fundamentally changed the trajectory of American classical music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9.What if Anton Seidl<\/strong> \u2013 who was bigger than Toscanini or Bernstein in New York City \u2013 had not died in 1898 at the age of 47? There would have been an annual Wagner festival in Brooklyn as pedigreed at Bayreuth \u2013 limiting the damage inflicted on Wagner by Hitler and Winifred Wagner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine life without cultural memory, although we\u2019re beginning to get a glimpse.\u201d Today\u2019s \u201cmakeshift music<\/strong>,\u201d sans lineage or tradition \u2013 \u201ceagerly acquisitive and open-eared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s famous instrumentalists sans lineage or tradition \u2013vs Sergei Babayan and Daniil Trifonov<\/strong>, who perform Rachmaninoff \u201cin full awareness of a tradition of Russian composition and performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11.The Metropolitan Opera\u2019s \u201cworst ever\u201d Carmen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

12.Leonard Bernstein\u2019s<\/strong> capacious vision, revisited today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re in the mood for a rollicking conversation about the downfall of classical music in the US, check out this podcast conversation I recently had with the terrific conductor Kenneth Woods (who\u2019s based in the UK rather than the US, in which he deserves a music directorship of consequence). My favorite sentence: \u201cThose chickens that are […]<\/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-3275","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-QP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275","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=3275"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3282,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275\/revisions\/3282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}