“A cri de coeur about the philistinism and commercialism of contemporary society”
– Edward Said, The New York Times Book Review
“One of the most forceful and original essay in the sociology of music I have ever encountered”
– Rupert Christiansen, Spectator [UK]
“A socioeconomic study of the classical music industry and of the growth, through radio, recording, and television, of a musical mass culture. The book criticizes in depth the values of the society as a whole as exemplified in its selling or, rather, selling out of its musical culture. No one concerned with the fate of the arts can afford to ignore Joseph Horowitz’s courageous, necessary, and for the most part irrefutable cultural case history. American musical society, not only musical, owes a great debt to his incisive mind and humanist spirit.”
– Robert Craft, The New York Review of Books
“A landmark in musical socio-history”
– Norman Lebrecht, Classical Music [UK]
“This absorbing examination of Toscanini, his cult, and the incredible promotional machine that grew up around him is a richly detailed, thoughtfully considered, vividly written study of a cultural phenomenon that could only have happened in America. Even more provocatively, Horowitz analyzes the long-term legacies of Toscanini worship in the increasingly cynical manipulation of mass media by today’s classical music powerbrokers and artistically bankrupt superstars. Required reading for anyone who cares for music and its future.”
– Peter G. Davis, New York Magazine
“A major achievement, the kind of detailed case-study of the role of serious music in a popular culture that has never been attempted before. The implications of Horowitz’s work are far-reaching and disturbing –- the book should be required reading for all arts administrators, critics, musicians, music lovers and people who care about artistic values. It maps a road we’d be fools to follow any further, but which we will.”
– Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe
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