[78-L] Lorin Maazel

[simmonssomer]

Can't imagine.  .

Now...where the hell are my car keys...and where was I going?

Al S.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2011 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Lorin Maazel


> 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
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