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  • George Szell's Reign: Behind the Scenes with the Cleveland Orchestra by Marcia Hansen Kraus
  • Robert Adelson
George Szell's Reign: Behind the Scenes with the Cleveland Orchestra. By Marcia Hansen Kraus. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017. [x, 233 pp. ISBN 9780252041310 (cloth), $34.95; ISBN 97802520999-5 (e-book), $30.] 33 black-and-white photographs, one music example, bibliography, index.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of the tenure of George Szell (1897–1970) as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1946 until his death in 1970. Having inherited an ensemble honed by his predecessors Nikolai Sokoloff (1886–1965), Artur Rodzinski (1892–1958) and Erich Leins dorf (1912–1993), the Hungarian conductor became the quintessential [End Page 500] authoritarian orchestra builder, firing sixteen musicians in his first year alone. Szell went on to recruit many players who are now recognized as some of the outstanding orchestral musicians of the twentieth century, including concertmaster Josef Gingold (1909–1995), principal cellist Lynn Harrell (b. 1944), flutist Maurice Sharp (1908–1986), oboists Marc Lifschey (1926–2000) and John W. Mack (1927–2006), clarinetist Robert Marcellus (1928–1996), bassoonist George Goslee (1916–2006), and horn player Myron Bloom (b. 1926). By the early 1950s, his orchestra had taken on a unique sound and an interpretive personality, blending the brilliance and precision characteristic of the best American ensembles with the warmth and refinement of central European orchestras.

The two principal accounts of Szell's tenure in Cleveland remain Michael Charry's George Szell: A Life of Music (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011) and Donald Rosenberg's The Cleveland Orchestra Story: Second to None (Cleveland: Gray, 2000). Both authors had first-hand knowledge of Szell and his musicians: Charry was one of Szell's conducting assistants, and Rosenberg was a Cleveland music critic. Charry's biography also treats Szell's life prior to coming to Cleveland, while Rosenberg's book is a history of an orchestra, of which the Szell years are only a part, albeit the central one.

Marcia Hansen Kraus's George Szell's Reign does not duplicate the work of Charry or Rosenberg, although it frequently cites these texts. Her opening chapter summarizes Szell's early years in Europe, and the second chapter retraces the first thirty years of the Cleveland Orchestra's existence, but the book is neither a biography nor an archival history of an institution. Kraus's focus is instead on the relationship that developed between Szell and his musicians, which also happens to be the subject of yet another recent book, the equally gossipy Tales from the Locker Room: An Anecdotal Portrayal of George Szell and His Cleveland Orchestra (Cleveland: ATBOSH Media, 2015) by Lawrence Angell (a bassist who played for fifteen years under Szell) and Bernette Jaffe.

Inevitably, these books often recount many of the same anecdotes, but there are also numerous differences that reflect the perspectives of the authors. Charry is more concerned with Szell's conducting technique and Rosenberg with the orchestra's concerts at Severance Hall and its recorded legacy. Kraus's principal source of information was her late husband Felix Kraus (1930–2006), oboist in the Cleveland Orchestra for seven years during Szell's tenure. As a result, she gives great attention to the role of woodwind players during Szell's reign. Most notable is her analysis of the contributions made by Lifschey, who played principal oboe under Szell from 1950 until 1965, with the exception of the 1959–60 season, when he was temporarily lured away by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra following a bitter dispute with Szell. Kraus argues that Szell built the Cleveland sound around Lifschey's beautiful tone and expressive phrasing and that Lifschey's resignation left Szell utterly forlorn. Given the space she allots to Lifschey, it is curious that Kraus never mentions one of the curious features of his playing (discussed by Rosenberg): the snorting and sniffing sounds that are audible on countless Cleveland Orchestra recordings. Kraus creates an unnecessary aura of mystery surrounding another oboist hired by Szell as acting coprincipal to succeed Lifschey in 1965 but who did not remain in the orchestra for very long. Kraus recounts numerous anecdotes...

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