In Wiley's Narrative. Again, There Is an Apparent

in Wiley’s narrative. Again, there is an lives. Scholars of Russian culture and society apparent justification of this approach to can fill in for themselves the relevant details of Tchaikovsky’s life. As Wiley suggests, ‘he was the historical context, but for the kind of an avid reader and yet said so little about the general readers at which Oxford University issues of his day. He lived in momentous times; Press’s ‘Master Musicians’ series is explicitly what was he thinking about beyond his imme- aimed, it is something of a shame that more diate preoccupations? ...Tchaikovsky, an im- space was not devoted to a more integrated portant figure in the culture of his day, is diffi- portrait of the composer in his age (although cult to place within that culture’ (p. 449). that would surely have put yet more pressure This would appear to be the key to why on a book that is already long on detail). Wiley’s biography reads as it does. By basing Part of Wiley seems to long for Tchaikovsky’s Downloaded from its biographical chapters so relentlessly on missing letters to be released, restored, or redis- Tchaikovsky’s accessible letters, and by looking covered, for speculation and censorship to be outward from the composer’s own point of replaced with facts and corroboration. Yet he view, it naturally enough begins to take on also knows that deep down, ‘a sense of the inward, egotistical, domestic, or everyday not-knowing will remain’ (p. 449). Perhaps it is qualities of Tchaikovsky’s own concerns. There this sense of not-knowing that continues to is little here of Glenda Dawn Goss’s striking inspireçand might even account forçour ml.oxfordjournals.org recent attempt to situate the significance of Si- sense of Tchaikovsky’s elusive and paradoxical belius’s life and works at the very heart of genius. Finnish cultural self-realization and political PHILIP ROSS BULLOCK self-determination (Sibelius: A Composer’s Life Wadham College, University of Oxford and the Awakening of Finland (Chicago, 2009)). doi:10.1093/ml/gcq071 There is, of course, a decided advantage in refusing to make Tchaikovsky into anything at University of California, San Diego Libraries on December 17, 2010 like a symbol of his age or nation; Tchaikovsky The Socie¤ te¤ des Concerts du Conservatoire, 1828^1967. the man (and to some extent the composer) is By D. Kern Holoman. pp. xvi þ 620. (Univer- kept to the fore as a real, complex, contradict- sity of California Press, Berkeley, Los ory, enigmatic, and troubled individual. And Angeles, London, 2004, »63. ISBN 0-520- in a field such as Russian cultural history, 23664-5.) where the search for overarching explanations often becomes the pretext for banal and reduc- Only a conductor could write a book such as tive assertions of a crudely essentialist nature, The Socie¤ te¤ des Concerts du Conservatoire, 1828^1967, Wiley’s measured and judicious prose refuses and only a first-rate scholar would have the per- to give glib answers to trite questions. Yet severance to plough through thousands of docu- where there is a commendable restraint when ments from one hundred and forty concert it comes to unwarranted speculation (particu- seasons, the ability to see historical significance larly when it comes to questions of the com- in the smallest of details, and the imagination poser’s love life), this sense of moderation none- to bring them to life. D. Kern Holoman knows theless leads to a concomitant impoverishment how orchestras work. He understands their as- of context. To what extent does it matter that pirations and the mythologies constructed Tchaikovsky commented so little on, say, the around conductors; the work demanded of per- emancipation of the serfs or the Balkan formers as well as the fights over promotions question, or that one cannot be sure whether and recording contracts; what’s needed to keep his comments on realism (p. 450) allude to con- subscribers and the press happy; and the chal- temporary Russian debates on the nature of aes- lenge of generating enough financial resources thetics? Wiley rightly notes that by 1885, ‘Tchai- to repair instruments, hire soloists, fund kovsky’s professional status ...was higher than pensions, and balance their budget. Holoman that of any other Russian composer’ (p. 284), can also tell a story. Quoting from minutes of and surely it is in the knotty relationship their meetings, transcriptions of real conversa- between privately led life, mysteriously intuited tions, and interviews with still-living orchestra artistic inspiration, and publicly staged persona members, he makes us feel almost like we’re that much of Tchaikovsky’s significance is to there. With an engaging and accessible style, he be found. Few of us probably record our own re- seeks to recreate the excitement their perform- actions to the social and public discourses of ances generated, events ‘not to be missed’ the day, yet surely equally few of us would also (p. 3). This orchestra and chorus were the most deny their interaction with, and indeed their important in Paris for decades, their performers very influence on, important aspects of our the city’s finest, and their audiences from 593 among the political, economic, social, and intel- The founder Franc°ois-Antoine Habeneck sets lectual elites. Through historically sensitive and the tone, responsible for the ‘artistic vision and evocative analyses, Holoman shows how the or- personal intervention’ that in 1828 transformed chestra evolved into one of the world’s great student concerts into ‘a lasting association of philharmonic societies. the most accomplished artists in the land’ The book is organized in five parts. The first (p. 12). Beginning with him, we get a sense of focuses on the orchestra’s musicians, their com- the ‘collective mission [that] took precedence mittees, and their relationship to the Conserva- over any one member’s essentially transitory toire; its original hall, known for superb acous- membership’ (p. 9). The members’ solidarity, tics and for seating only 800; and the concerts, based on ‘mutual esteem, travail, and talent’, from audience reception and the mechanics of derived from three organizational characteris- Downloaded from putting together a concert season to how much tics. For many years, they shared some relation- money was made over the years. Next comes a ship to the Conservatoire, most of them as its three-part chronological analysis of the orches- graduates or professors. Many remained with tra and its concert seasons, organized by the orchestra for decades, with some, such as period and conductor. Holoman analyses each Delvedez, Taffanel, and Gaubert, becoming of the twelve conductors’ background and its conductor. And the orchestra functioned musical preferences. He follows the orchestra’s in a democratic manner, with effective self- ml.oxfordjournals.org responses to political turbulence, personnel governance ruled by some fifty statutes and a crises, and changing tastes, and explains their constitution. There were competitive auditions evolving ambitions, showing it to be ‘as flexible for vacancies, elections for conductors, an as it was strong’ (p. 14). The fifth part, on a administrative committee of twelve elected website for the book (5http://hector.ucdavis members who met weekly, and annual general .edu/sdc/4), transcribes the orchestra’s adminis- assemblies. Performers behaved like a special trative archives. Clearly organized and a model kind of worker, competing to get their jobs at University of California, San Diego Libraries on December 17, 2010 for scholars working on musical organizations, and negotiating with one another over their it includes complete programmes (searchable disputes as well as the right to perform else- within each year), personnel lists, subscription where. At the end of the season, earnings were prices, statutes and decrees, discography, add- pooled and each socie¤ taire given an equal part, itional illustrations, comments by famous com- less any fines he might have incurred. Begin- posers, and bibliography. The programmes ning in 1838, members put aside 20 per cent of make possible almost endless inquiry. One can their earnings into emergency and retirement trace not only the evolution of their repertory, accounts. but also the careers of pianists, violinists, and The Socie¤ te¤ ’s administrative committee was singers who performed with them. (Under more powerful than any conductor. Through Andre Cluytens’s leadership in the 1940s and their minutes, which Holoman mines with con- 1950s, soloists were featured on almost every siderable skill, we watch the orchestra endeav- concert. I was fascinated to see Debussy’s Jeux ouring to balance audience taste and performer on their programmes twice in the 1960s. Was preferences, considering who could use their this interest in the ballet coming from Boulez, hall and for what purposes, pondering ‘options Stockhausen, and German scholars who had for dealing with compositeurs vivants’(p.254), begun analysing the work, or did the Socie¤ te¤ ’s facing the competition from other orchestras performances help stimulate renewed attention (see below), and struggling with the inevitabil- to it?) Unfortunately, the programme notes for ity of market pressures. We hear committee these concerts, which began in the late 1880s, members discussing ongoing problems, such as were far too extensive to include on the website. aging members and the need to retain choral The text itself reads like a kaleidoscope. singers, especially females. We follow their Holoman holds in his reader’s mind many debates on whether to accept women as elements at once, shifting his focus every few socie¤ taires, forbidden by an amendment passed pages. This facilitates experience of the orches- in 1843. (There was only ever one woman in- tra’s complex organizational life and diverse strumentalist, the harpist Alys Lautemann. She issues that rose to dominate their attention.

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