Subject: | |
From: | |
Date: | Thu, 26 Aug 1999 18:03:15 +1200 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Richard Pennycuick was mystified about Norman Lebrecht:
Other people will know more than I do, but this Lebrecht fellow seems to
be a music journalist from London (Daily Telegraph) who writes polemical
tracts and hunts after conspiracies and corruption in the music industry.
All I have of him is a book about conductors called The Maestro Myth which
is certainly a provocative read. I can't give a detailed summary because
I spent one night devouring it in a feverish mixture of fascination and
disgust and have not touched it since.
Certainly some interesting 'revelations': most conductors were apparently
either insatiable womanisers or screaming homosexuals. Apparently Bruno
Walter was an unbelievable swine who was hated by all who knew him
personally.
I'd better qualify the above in case anyone takes my somewhat over-the-top
summary of Lebrecht's 'Maestro Myth' to task as a reliable impression of
my critical acumen. The bit about Walter is more or less accurate; the
rest is of course an unfair exaggeration. If I remember correctly, L.
does say some interesting things about the damage done by Karajan and
the present conductors' crisis, and he certainly works hard to dispel any
illusions we may have about people like Tocanini, Furtwangler or Bernstein.
The problem is that the portraits are overwhelmingly negative, they are
drawn with the confident air of the truth finally being revealed, and they
*are* interlaced with a whole heap of prurient and salacious muckraking
and gossip about the conductors' private lives. That disguises the book's
valuable insights (valuable in so far as they turn out to be true) and
makes one rebel against the author outright, precisely because he presents
his material in such a forceful and sensationalist way that one feels
irrationally drawn to it.
The writing style is very sharp and effective, and L's opinions insinuate
themselves into your brain (I've gone off Walter's recordings somewhat
since reading the book). There are footnotes at the back, but I have not
followed them up and have no idea to what extent I can trust this man.
What is in any case objectionable is that he allows his conclusions about
the conductors' politics and personal life to influence his judgment of
their interpretations.
(As regards 'Borders' - is this some kind of record retail chain?) [Yes,
a chain of large book & music stores. They are also one of the larger
online book/music sellers, along with Amazon and Barnes & Noble. -Dave]
Felix Delbruck
[log in to unmask]
|
|
|