Serge Koussevitzky, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New American Music

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IT WOULD be hard to find a more singular contrast in critical approach to a contemporary subject than these two books on the distinguished conductor of the Boston Symphony. Dr. Leichtentritt, a musicologist of note, has written a eulogistic appraisal of the conductor’s achievement in a special field. Mr. Smith, a former music critic of the Boston American and later the Boston Evening Transcript, has attempted a candid and complete biography of Koussevitzky.

Mr. Smith’s book, though open to serious dissension is the more interesting because it is at least an effort to give a true picture of the man, an aim of which the earlier, friendly biography by Arthur Lourie fell conspicuously short. Dr. Leichtentritt’s volume is an earnest documentation of what the Boston Symphony has done in the way of presenting American music during Koussevitzky’s tenure (since 1924), and ends with an unctuous peroration on the conductor’s talents. The book is thus two parts dry-as-dust analysis and one part gush. Tributes to living artists, however deserved as in this case, are likely to be a bore; and Koussevitzky’s admirable record with regard to American composers is an open book fin the Boston Symphony programs) for all who wish to note. Hence Dr. Leichtentritt’s contribution is neither a special boon to the student nor a solace to the casual reader.

There is no doubt that Mr. Smith’s biography is a, much livelier work. It tells a great deal about Koussevitzky that, is not generally known, and revives a quantity of gossip and adverse criticism that, in most instances, might just as well be forgotten. The book has two serious shortcomings. Mr. Smith has been obliged to rely, especially for Koussevitzky’s early life through his first marriage, on verbal reports from other musicians, critical material from the Russian press, and even rumor and conjecture — all rather bad sources for definitive biography. The plain fact emerges that the author has been unable, for whatever reason, to obtain any frank account from Koussevitzky himself of these earlier years. This may not be Mr. Smith’s fault, but it is an obvious flaw in any biography of a living subject.

The second shortcoming may very well stem from Mr. Smith’s disappointment in not getting much of the information he needed. He has throughout diligently exercised his former profession of critic. But. he is an Indian giver as a biographer, for he no sooner praises the conductor in one paragraph than he takes this praise away with some bitter pill in the next. Anyone who would wager that Mr. Smith has overlooked in his researches a single piece of adverse criticism or hostile opinion of Koussevitzky would probably lose Ins bet. The book is thus vitiated by a mass of contradictory and inconsistent opinion.

The filial impression of these two books is that if Dr. Leichtentritt’s is too fulsome. Mr. Smith’s is too carping, too much on the alert for evidence of inimicality towards Koussevitzky. In the end it is easy to assume that Mr. Smith has been inspired too much by bitterness, rather than his original intent to be unbiased. Neither of these books, then, can be said to be the last or the fairest word on koussevitzky.

ALEXANDER WILLIAMS