Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Schoenberg on Toscanini

Henry, thanks as ever for your comment. I’m afraid...

2006-11-11T07:58:00.000Z

Henry, thanks as ever for your comment. I’m afraid I don’t have any more information about the fracas, and that brief mention in John Amis’ book prompted my comment. The
online article from 1950 you refer to, with it’s excellent black and white photograph, is the best source on the Griller Quartet, but it predates their breakup.

Can any other readers supply any more information? The creative, and personal, tensions within string quartets are a fascinating subject which have produced some very interesting books including Married To the Amadeus and Indivisible By Four.

Norman Lebrecht is completely wrong to dismiss this kind of threads as unchecked trivia. As the contemporary Finnish composer Pehr Henrik Nordgren wrote:

I believe that music is more than just music. It is not an isolated phenomenon; it cannot escape from the perception of that which is occurring all around us in this world of war, suffering, and the demise of charity.

I was curious about the "homosexual fracas" in the...

2006-11-11T01:05:00.000Z

I was curious about the "homosexual fracas" in the Grillers and the first Google hit took me to an article about them written in 1950. It includes this delicious sentence:

Married men in the Quartet include Griller and Hampton, both of whom have two children. O'Brien and Burton are confirmed bachelors

Ah, those were the days! "Confirmed bachelor" being the polite way in those dangerous, pre-Wolfenden Report days to say "Gay gay gay gay gay GAY".

I couldn't find any info about said fracas, Pliable, do you know any details?

"it is not the recording technology that has gone ...

2006-11-10T15:20:00.000Z

"it is not the recording technology that has gone backwards (although some would argue that is also the case), but rather that string playing technique has evolved to a leaner, more analytical sound."

Your friend is quite right - it's not the technology. In fact, I’m beginning a recording project in London this weekend where we'll be using microphones built in the 1950's. Not the same type - but the very same mics, which remain highly sought-after and implausibly valuable. And without question, the mics have a greater impact on the sound quality than most other factors combined. The notable exceptions are of course the musicians; the acoustic, and the engineers’ skill in placing the microphones. The last 30 years bear witness to the fact that paucity of the latter allows any number of potentially silk purses to be unwittingly transformed into the ubiquitous pig's ear.