Season with Solti: A Year in the Life of the Chicago Symphony

by William Barry Furlong

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0025420003
• ISBN13: 9780025420007
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating, if overly detailed

An extraordinary look back of the 'magic' period of the early '70s, when the world first became aware of this superb orchestra--despite its (then) 80-year history. Solti's demands to tour, combined with what can only be called a vacancy at the top of the American orchestral world, projected the CSO forward--but for the first time ever, it occurred at the speed of modern media. Heavily detail-oriented, the book spends a lot of time on individual players, which for many players of the era end up serving as memorials. It also lacks a grand overview of the direction of the season, dealing with schedules, tours, recordings and the work stoppage as episodes rather than clearly drawing the arc. But the book is redeemed by its loving depiction of what makes the CSO unique in North America; its extraordinary internal discipline, fierce pride in its Central European heritage and sound, tradition of training its own, and insistence on the very finest world-class first chairs, many of whom would ordinarily have superb solo careers. In explaining the CSO from that perspective, Furlong has written less of a diary and more of a primer as to why no one else gets it so right, year in and year out.The CSO recently left a prominent first chair open for four years, rather then comprimise on replacing the legendary Ray Still. Despite the troubles that today's rather generic conductors may cause, Furlong allows you to understand the CSO fully: the virtuosity, discipline, and tradition are intact, awaiting only the right conductor.