MUSIC AND MORE - Essays 1975-1999

Evanston / Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1992. Cover: Max Beckmann: 'The opera box' (1827). Cover design: Jill R. Shimabukuro. Introduction: The culture of classical music today. Contents: I). Composers. 1). Music and Mao. 2). Why Kurt Weill? 3). American music: The years of hope. 4). Lenny on our minds. 5). Hugo Weisgall's six characters. 6). A new look at Prokofiev. II). Pianists. 1). Rubinstein the great entertainer. 2). Bartok at the piano. 3). Keith Jarrett joins the Bach parade. 4). Tthe pupils of Clara Schumann and the uses of tradition. 5). Does the piano have a future? III). Conductors. 1). Willem Mengelberg at the Philharmonic. 2). Pierre Monteux's success. 3). Toscanini and the love of great music. 4). Roger Norrington and authentic performance. IV). Critics and writers. 1). James William Davison of The (London) Times. 2). James Huneker and America's musical coming-of-age. 3). Edward Said, music critic. 4). But if the artist fail? V). Culture and soxiety. 1). Ivy Litvinov: the commissar's wife. 2). The muse under Mussolini. 3). Say no to trash: Mapplethorpe and the NEA. 4). Opera and politics. 5). Backward and downward with the arts. With notes. Samuel Lipman (1934 - 1994), music and cultural critic, pianist, and co-founder (with Hilton Kramer) of The New Criterion literary magazine. His bold essays passionately defend high culture against what he sees as its growing banalization and politicization. Samuel Lipman is the publisher of The New Criterion , the music critic for Commentary , and the author of The House of Music , Art in an Era of Institutions , Arguing for Music, Arguing for Culture , and Music After Modernism . IX + 318 pag. . 1st edition. Half cloth with dustjacket. Very good condition.. 23,5cmx16cm.