[78-L] Lorin Maazel

[David Lennick]

How in the world could I forget about all those MGMs!

dl

On 1/22/2011 1:07 AM, Eric Goldberg wrote:
> Solomon was the conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony and conducted a number of records for the old MGM classical series.
>
> Alfidi settled in Europe and continued playing. I have a recording of him playing the Brahms Sonata in f.
>
> Eric
>
>
>
> --- On Fri, 1/21/11, David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>  wrote:
>
>> From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Lorin Maazel
>> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Date: Friday, January 21, 2011, 11:51 PM
>> I've run across Solomon's name on
>> records, but nothing in recent decades. Some
>> accompaniments for Jascha Heifetz with the RCA Victor
>> Symphony come to mind.
>>
>> And what ever became of Joey Alfidi? I have half an album
>> by him (one of two
>> discs on Jubilee).
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Alfidi
>>
>> dl
>>
>> On 1/21/2011 11:44 PM, DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
>>> Those of us into classical music should appreciate
>> this.  I recently read a book
>>> by David Ewen called "Dictators of the Baton".
>> This book was written in 1943
>>> and covers the careers of the significant living
>> conductors of the day;  the
>>> only exception is the chapter on Frederick Stock who,
>> as it is pointed out, died
>>> while the book was being written.  In a chapter
>> towards the end he discusses
>>> child prodigies and points out that conducting is the
>> one area in music where
>>> there are no child prodigies and that no child prodigy
>> has ever developed into a
>>> successful adult conductor.
>>>
>>> Here is a quote:
>>>
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>
>>> "Only recently a child conductor excited admiration
>> and publicity in New York
>>> with guest performances with the NBC Orchestra.
>> Lorin Maazel, aged 11, was the
>>> first child ever to direct a major American Orchestra,
>> and he directed it in
>>> programs which would have taxed the experience and
>> equipment of a much older
>>> musician.  The story goes that at the age of
>> eight he revealed he could read a
>>> full orchestral score;  that on his ninth
>> birthday, (as his gift), he was given
>>> the opportunity to rehearse an orchestra in
>> Tchaikovsky's Marche Slav.  His
>>> career began officially with the National Youth
>> Orchestra which he directed at
>>> the New York World's Fair.  A guest performance
>> at the Hollywood Bowl, (where he
>>> shared the baton with Stokowski), prefaced his New
>> York appearances with
>>> Toscanini's orchestra.
>>>
>>> But young Maazel, for all his apparent talent, has
>> proved himself to be little
>>> more than a routined time-beater.  He seems to
>> know the music he conducts, and
>>> he responds to it emotionally.  He has a good
>> ear.  But he has no understanding
>>> of the artistic forces which give  the music its
>> dramatic, emotional, or lyric
>>> greatness.  He plays bar by bar as if he had been
>> taught to do so by rote;  of
>>> imagination, sensitive refinement, artistic planning
>> or design there are not the
>>> slightest traces.
>>>
>>> Consequently, if we are to search for the conductors
>> for tomorrow, we will not
>>> find them among child prodigies,....."
>>>
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>
>>> I know David Ewen lived long enough to eat his words,
>> (d. 1985);  I wonder if he
>>> ever did - to Lorin Maazel personally or in print.
>>>
>>> This is a wonderful book to read - illuminating the
>> careers of conductors who
>>> until now were, to me, little more than names on
>> records, such as Walter
>>> Damrosch.  The conductors who, in 1943, he feels
>> hold promise for the future are
>>> Izler Solomon, Dean Dixon and Sylvan Levin.
>> Dixon is the only one I know of who
>>> had a career, I've never heard of Solomon at
>> all.  Strangely, there is no
>>> mention of Leonard Bernstein whatsoever;  I
>> believe his career was underway by
>>> 1943.
>>>
>>> db