Because he has done so much, both as conductor and publisher, for living composers (he is the high priest of the Sibelius cult), he has been called a modernist. The label infuriates him.
"Nonsense!" he snarls. "I'm not a modernist and I'm not a classicist. I'm a musician! The first movement of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven is the greatest music ever written and George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' is a masterpiece."
"There you are! Make the best of it!"
[Transcriber's Notes:
a. The spelling of names and places are noted as having changed
between the publication of this book and the year 2004:
Chapter I (Palestrina):
'Michael Angelo' vs. 'Michaelangelo' (also in Chapter VI)
Chapter II (Bach):
Leipsic vs. Leipzig (repeated in following chapters)
Lüneberg vs. Lüneburg
Chapter X (Mendelssohn):
'Dreifaltigkeit Kirch-hof' vs. 'Dreifaltigkeit Kirchhof'
Wiemar vs. Weimar
Chapter XIII (Berlioz):
Academié vs. Académie
Chapter XIV (Verdi):
'Sant' Agata' vs. 'Sant'Agata'
'Apeninnes' vs. 'Apennines'
'Corsia di Servi' vs. 'Corsia dei Servi'
Chpater XXI (McDowell):
Frankfort vs. Frankfurt (Germany)
Peterboro vs. Peterborough (New Hampshire)
* * * * *
b. Spelling errors found, not corrected:
beseiged (besieged);
Esterhazy (spelled unaccented twice) vs. Esterházy (spelled with accent 6 times)
Carreno vs. Carreño (Teresa; each spelling used once.)
Academié (Académie)
Scandanavia (Scandinavia)
* * * * *
c. Obvious spelling errors corrected:
Lüneberg (in 1 place) to Lüneburg (this spelling found in 3 places)
Febuary to February (One day in February ...);
obsorbed to absorbed (... soon became so absorbed ...);
polish to Polish (... a Polish emigre ...);
Intrumental to Instrumental (Instrumental music no longer satisfied ...);
Opportunties to opportunities (... greater opportunties for an
ambitious ...);
financée to fiancée (... assisted by his
financée ...);
turing to turning (... turing his hair ...)
* * * * *
d. Chapter numbers (Roman numerals) omitted
for start of chapters on Toscanini, Stokowski and Koussevitzky,
but were present in the Table of Contents;
so the proper numbers (XXIII, XXIV, XXV) were entered in the proper places.]