Oh, like I said, I'd be worried if they seemed to have known what I wrote because I'd figure I was saying something stupid.
Duncan's "brain trust" doesn't do anything but risk making me feel smug as they prove my case. I can only imagine what would have happened to the civil rights movement if they were running it, there would still be signs saying Whites Only all over the place as they were too busy keeping up with their shows. Thank God the religious left was running it.
Update Hate: Jascha got off easy there, when Virgil Thomson reviewed him he wrote one of his most famously infamous reviews, Silk Underwear Music. Which, I have to say, is enormously fun to read and, while, as so much of Thomson's criticism was, nasty, more than just a little true. Stupy would be scandalized. Nothing scandalizes him like people failing to respect the officially respectable. He's a real bohemian, you know.
Here's a clue, Schmucko. Thomson's use of the word "vulgar" in that Heifetz review is a classic tell. It's a perishing snob variant of the old chops (Ella Fitzgerald) versus soul (Billie Holiday) battles that used to rage in the letters section of DOWNBEAT, only with a sprinkle of anti-Semitism on top. How DARE that uppity Jew Heiftez play impeccably -- that's what the goyin are supposed to do.
ReplyDeleteArthur Berger who knew Virgil Thomson very well said he wasn't an antisemite, he said so in a letter in the Boston Globe after some ass wrote a book in which she made the accusation. In that, as in most other things of any importance, you are unqualified to have an opinion that matters to anyone of any intelligence.
DeleteHeifetz could certainly be vulgar, or do you figure that because someone is Jewish that means they are immune to being vulgar, because, um, dopey, know thyself. And there are certainly Jewish critics who have noted the vulgarity of other Jewish artists, which is nice because some of them going after each other was quite entertaining. The feud between Bellows and Roth comes to mind. Russell Sherman talked about his teacher, the great, great pianist Eduard Steuermann who he was surprised to see had a disc of Rubinstein's or maybe it was Horowitz, sitting unopened on his table. As I recall the story, after it had been there a while he asked Stuermann why he didn't open it, Stuermann said, "I'm afraid I might like it." Horowitz could be quite vulgar, though nothing so vulgar as Glenn Gould.
I read the review, I doubt you have, I thought his description of Heifetz's playing was spot on, which, by the way, he had some very high words of praise for, he compared it to Sarah Bernhardt voice and technique, his comment about the vulgarity was mostly about his choice of repertoire, mostly compositions by gentile composers, as I recall, maybe I'll look it up and read it again. It's been quite a while. He noted that, like Bernhardt, he excelled in wasting his abilities on lesser works, audience pleasers.
If he was an antisemite why was his review of so many Jewish artists and composers so extremely positive? Not to mention his relations with so many of his colleagues, such as Arthur Berger?
Oh, I should have mentioned that Virgil Thomson said he doubted anyone would remember him for anything except the two operas that he wrote to librettos from Gertrude Stein, who you will remember you championed when I pointed out she was a total asshole.
Delete"Arthur Berger who knew Virgil Thomson very well said he wasn't an antisemite"
ReplyDeletePeople who know Stephen Miller very well say he isn't an anti-Semite either. Proves absolutely dick.
Arthur wasn't a liar. You are, just one thing you have in common with the Miller Bitches.
DeleteSo, if he was such a huge antisemite, how come he was so friendly with Aaron Copland, Gertrude Stein, Marc Blitzstein, Leonard Bernstein, Darius Milhaud, Oscar Levant, . . . Apparently they never noticed. Too bad they didn't have the genius of Simels to lead them to discernment, hun? Maybe old Gert wouldn't have written those librettos for him.
You have antisemitism Tourettes.
Heifetz could certainly be vulgar, or do you figure that because someone is Jewish that means they are immune to being vulgar, because, um, dopey, know thyself
ReplyDeleteNo, I figure that anybody who claims, as you do, that the only way to play any piece of music is with slavish fidelity to the score as written, is a fucking idiot.
You are such a pretentiously phony ignorant ass.
DeleteAlthough a product of the late 19th Century Russian Romantic school, Mr. Heifetz was in many ways a thoroughly modern violinist. His playing abhorred sentimentality or expressive indulgence of any sort. Like conductor Arturo Toscanini, with whom he sometimes collaborated on concertos, Mr. Heifetz zealously pursued the ideal of musical truth, of scrupulous fidelity to the letter of the score. Any deviation was to him artistic dishonesty.
John von Rhein: Chicago Tribune December 12, 1987
Another significant observation denotes Heifetz’s endeavors toward fidelity to
Bach’s score. Acquiring a facsimile of the work at a time when such an enterprise was
uncommon, adding special markings and corrections to his Marteau edition so as to fit
the composer’s assumed intentions (including his deliberate elimination of the trill,
appearing in most contemporaneous editions as a requisite for the cadential bar 135 of
the Prelude), or his increased penchant for playing the complete set rather than some
of its selected movements—all serve as evidence of the artist’s inclination toward
“authenticity” long before this somewhat loaded concept and its related practice
began to emerge. Interestingly, previous research, targeted at determining the personal styles of Heifetz and Milstein through in-depth examination of their recordings of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas . . .
Dario Sarlo: : Israel Studies in Musicology Online, Vol. 13, 2015-16
I wonder if you've ever heard anything he recorded other than those encore thrillers that he wasted his talent on.
I wonder if you've ever heard anything he recorded other than those encore thrillers that he wasted his talent on.
DeleteSays you, shithead. One of the great recordings of the century, as they used to say at Angel/EMI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soQY-PUOpxw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwPdcaU8YJw
So, did you listen to them?
DeleteNow that you've actually seen some qualified writers noting that Heifetzw (not to mention Toscanini) was guilty of what you called me a "fucking idiot" for - you remember "No, I figure that anybody who claims, as you do, that the only way to play any piece of music is with slavish fidelity to the score as written, is a fucking idiot," - how come that doesn't apply to Jascha when he was also guilty of it? Not to mention Toscanini who was famous for it, as well? Or do you figure that the Simels ear, honed as it is on white-bread pop music, is of a higher discernment than these guys?
the Simels ear, honed as it is on white-bread pop
DeleteWe've already decided that I have forgotten about more blues and r&b than you ever knew.
https://powerpop.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-blues-came-down-from-nutley-nj-next_9.html
Says the guy who said Little Milton played harp.
DeleteIf you've forgotten, Simps, how do you figure you used to know it? That's a claim that only works second or third person, first person claims of the such only mean that the idiot saying that is an idiot.
Says the shithead who wants the Jews of Israel to move to Arizona.
ReplyDeleteNow, Simps, that proves it. If I were an antisemite I'd want them to move somewhere they might have to endure you.
DeleteYou know, Simps, that remark on the top post, you're a real low class jerk.
ReplyDeleteI've never met a classical musician who thought all those stupid things about oboists. That's non-musician bullshit, so you and that myth have something in common.
"He's a real bohemian, you know."
ReplyDeleteHe does have a jaunty beret...