Those of you following the thread about Sarnoff, Toscanini & the
NBC orchestra might want to seek out a book I recently came across, The
Other Side of the Record by Charles O'Connell (Knopf, 1947).  O'Connell
was music director of RCA Red Seal for 20 years, and the book is a series
of reminiscenses and anecdotes about the music greats he dealt with.
This is the pre-LP era of course.  It's hardly a "dish-the-dirt" memoir
in contemporary style, but he's fairly candid about his relationships
with the star singers (Melchior, Traubel, Pons, etc.), conductors
(Koussevitsky, Toscanini, Stokowski, Monteaux, Fieldler, etc.) pianists
and violinists (Iturbi, Rachmaninoff, Heifetz) he worked with.

He of course worked for Sarnoff, and was middleman between the General
and the musicians.  O'Connell was also an organist and conductor, he
conducted the NBC Symphony many times.  There is much about the founding
of the NBC Symphony and the various wrangles with Toscanini (and his son
Walter, who was given a sinecure job at RCA as go-between to his father).
O'Connell was no Toscanini fan, either personally or musically; on the
other hand, he adored Stoky, and Ormandy.  Likewise, as you might guess,
he loved Rubinstein & Rachmaninoff, not so keen on Horowitz.

An entertaining glimpse at a bygone era -- boy, is it ever bygone!

Art Scott
Livermore, Cal.

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