Well, it's as well that he includes such a cavet in the circumstances, but 167 pages? - And over that period of time? Brahms died in 1897, the book wasn't published until quite some time after Strauss had died more than half a century later, by which time the transcripts had apparently disappeared decades earlier.
I'm not talking specific factual errors here but the very premises on which the interviews were documented in the book; I've already told you that I'm at a disadvantage here because I don't have the book to hand and this is why I pointed you in the direction of others who have cast doubt upon it in print, including some who know a great deal more than I do. That said, I wish now that I did have a copy and then peerhaps I could cite some examples for you!
No, I don't believe that you are; my understanding is that Abell did indeed write them up but that, as I wrote earlier, all the transcripts were supposedly lost presumed destroyed during WWI, more than four decades prior to publication.
Best,
Alistair
Hi Alistair,
With a different font, paper size, different margins, et c.,
Talks With Great Composers could be 50 pages instead of 167 pages.
Either way, you aren't at a disadvantage "here" - I am working off of memory alone, my copy of the book I gave away several years ago, and as well my entire music library is in the U.S. - if I do need to check up on something ["what was that chord inversion again?"
], there is I.M.S.L.P.
Normally I give away books when I am through with them, although some I keep such as -
A very old Oxford University Edition of Shakespeare [and, yes, Mr. Shakespere
who signed his name with a different spelling every time, was the author]
Allan Bloom's translation, with an interpretive essay, of Plato's Republic
[Allan Bloom was the author of the controversial book "Closing of the American Mind"; I don't think the first edition of Allan Bloom's Republic translation had the massive and incisive interpretive essay]
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason in Norman Kemp Smith's translation - I've lugged this one around for almost 30 years
Ouspensky's Tertium Organum [definitely, or possibly, a book you would not like
- yet one can read it as a critical thinker, i.e. take out what is perceived to be of value and toss away the remainder]
a K.J.V. Bible that belonged to one of my grandfathers [here again, one can take the critical thinker approach; i.g., "take no thought for the morrow" could be a form of carpe diem and immediacy in living; I know that if I want to do something, I do it with no exception as there isn't necessarily going to be a repeat opportunity; and, in fact, I am so busy with carpe diem that I only find time to eat once per day and with reluctance!]
But I don't read much anymore. I think it is possible to get to the point where one has done "enough" reading. I don't need to be like Harold [not Allan] Bloom and read every letter, poem, essay, diary entry, et c., by every author from the past 2000 years or so. Eventually one, I think, acquires the gist of it all.
I hope that we can bring our discussion in this thread to a close on a jovial and friendly note.
The next likely recording to be posted here - which would be of
In Memoriam Mr. Rusty (2015) - won't, I hope, have any association likely to incite extended debate or discussion.
Mvh,
Michael
Topic: VIDEO: Prelude in E-flat Major BWV 852 by J.S. Bach