John Deacon wrote:
>Mary Esterheld suggested that date of birth might have something to do
>with conducting talent.It sounds a little like an old cliche but one can
>observe that artistic achievement frequently grows out of a degree of
>hardship; many of the Hungarians mentioned had suffered under the nazi or
>communist regimes.
A great deal of the sparkling, eruptive genius of Central Europe of the
period of our Great Conductors had something to do with suffering, yes,
but I think it rooted more deeply in marginality. Perhaps the greatest
contribution was made by geniuses of Jewish descent. This was true of the
Budapesters,foremost, though other cities of the Double Monarchy--Prague,
Vienna--also rated. The Budapest contingent I have in mind, and whose
names have figured in several postings in this thread, were mostly of
Jewish background, though assimilated. They were born during the last
decade,or so, before the fin de siecle, and they inspired an era of
cultural and scientific innovation that was truly extraordinary. They were
not only in music, but in literature, drama, architecture, design and, of
course, at the cutting edge of far-out science--the Freuds,von Neumanns,
Tellers, you-name-them. In their formative years they profited from their
marginality, in the sense that they were beholden to nothing received,
nothing traditional, a freedom that allowed them to sally forth unfettered.
Persecution by the nazis and then by the communists extruded many of them
westwards, thus obliging them to broadcast their genius among us. For
this they were justifiably rewarded by world-wide recognition. Those
Budapest-born conductors who were never marginalized nor forced to emigrate
--eg Ferenc Fricsay-- also never managed to make quite the names for
themselves of the others.
Denis Fodor Internet:[log in to unmask]
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