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"Remarkably accurate and sensitive. . . . not only a book about Wagner in America, but an informative description of the development of musical taste in the United States from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day."--Daniel Barenboim, Music Director, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
"Horowitz adds another to his list of impressive books on American musical culture.
Wagner Nights surpasses any previous writing on the history of American operatic culture in the Gilded Age. If only for Horowitz's resurrection of Anton Seidl--an unbelievably iconic figure in late nineteenth-century American musical life--his book would be of great value. And to have put Seidl, appropriately, in the context of the 'genteel tradition' of Victorian America, is a historical coup. Horowitz writes with solid scholarship and an extraordinarily fresh eye. This is a brilliant and compellingly readable account."--H. Wiley Hitchcock, author of
Music in the United States "A fascinating account of Anton Seidl, who became America's premier interpreter of Wagner, and of the women of the Seidl society who supported his work. In an era that was as complex and divided as our own, some sought to tame Wagner while others relished the intense emotions he evoked. This important story really bursts the seams of the existing paradigm of 'genteel' late nineteenth-century American culture."--Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, author of
Culture and the City
A propos de l'auteur
Joseph Horowitz is Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1981 to 1994 he was program editor for the Kaufmann Concert Hall of the 92nd Street Y, where he also served as artistic advisor for the annual Schubertiade. He was music critic of the
New York Times from 1976 to 1980. His three previous books are
Conversations with Arrau, winner of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award;
Understanding Toscanini: A Social History of American Concert Life, named one of the most distinguished books of 1987 by the National Book Critics Circle and now available from California in paperback; and
The Ivory Trade: Piano Competitions and the Business of Music.
