From the New York Times’s former chief classical music critic, a tribute to one of the great singers of modern times and a national treasure who broke racial barriers
The night before Marian Anderson performed her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial, she called her manager with doubts. A crowd of 75,000 had flocked there to see her—many times more than the whites-only concert hall which rejected her weeks before—and she would be singing in front of the monument of freedom itself. This was a major triumph for racial justice, but Anderson worried it would overshadow the rest of her inimitable career.
In this rich new portrait, Anthony Tommasini brings his decades of musical expertise to bear upon Anderson’s artistry, the journey of her life, and conversations about her legacy. After her breakout early performances in Europe, she gripped international audiences with her masterful renditions of Russian folk songs, German lieder, and Negro spirituals: a combination that would stretch even today's cosmopolitan repertoires.
But recognition was harder to achieve at home. Though celebrated for her concerts, Anderson could not book hotel rooms across the country. She sat uneasily on Pullman trains. These tribulations brought forth memorable shows of goodwill—Eleanor Roosevelt fought the DAR in her honor; Einstein housed her in Princeton—but were representative of the fierce racism Anderson faced.
As Arturo Toscanini famously said of Anderson’s voice: one is privileged to hear it only “once in a hundred years.” Now, we get to enjoy it again, in the context of Anderson's dignified leadership, authenticity, and majestic presence.
Praise for THE INDISPENSABLE COMPOSERS:
“[Tommasini] defends the value of distinguishing the great from the merely good…Tommasini does a fine job of conveying the inner life of a piece, through his rhythmic sentences and sculpted paragraphs…One cannot help coming away from it with a more rounded understanding of classical music at its peak.” —Phillip Lopate, New York Times Book Review
“Every case [Tommasini] makes is convincingly argued, and his style is accessible without being patronizing, enthusiastic but never gushily so. It’s a superb read. Indispensable, even.” —Jeremy Pound, BBC Music Magazine
“Few critics in history have been as rigorously trained or deeply versed in music as Tony Tommasini. Page after page of this exuberant book show not only his comprehensive knowledge — he writes with the music under his fingers — but also his infectious love for the great classical repertory.” —Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise
Praise for VIRGIL THOMPSON:
"Tommasini. . . [e]vokes the composer's critical ear and describes his music with words that bring us right into the concert hall" —The New York Times Book Review
From the New York Times’s former chief classical music critic, a tribute to one of the great singers of modern times and a national treasure who broke racial barriers
The night before Marian Anderson performed her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial, she called her manager with doubts. A crowd of 75,000 had flocked there to see her—many times more than the whites-only concert hall which rejected her weeks before—and she would be singing in front of the monument of freedom itself. This was a major triumph for racial justice, but Anderson worried it would overshadow the rest of her inimitable career.
In this rich new portrait, Anthony Tommasini brings his decades of musical expertise to bear upon Anderson’s artistry, the journey of her life, and conversations about her legacy. After her breakout early performances in Europe, she gripped international audiences with her masterful renditions of Russian folk songs, German lieder, and Negro spirituals: a combination that would stretch even today's cosmopolitan repertoires.
But recognition was harder to achieve at home. Though celebrated for her concerts, Anderson could not book hotel rooms across the country. She sat uneasily on Pullman trains. These tribulations brought forth memorable shows of goodwill—Eleanor Roosevelt fought the DAR in her honor; Einstein housed her in Princeton—but were representative of the fierce racism Anderson faced.
As Arturo Toscanini famously said of Anderson’s voice: one is privileged to hear it only “once in a hundred years.” Now, we get to enjoy it again, in the context of Anderson's dignified leadership, authenticity, and majestic presence.
Praise
Praise for THE INDISPENSABLE COMPOSERS:
“[Tommasini] defends the value of distinguishing the great from the merely good…Tommasini does a fine job of conveying the inner life of a piece, through his rhythmic sentences and sculpted paragraphs…One cannot help coming away from it with a more rounded understanding of classical music at its peak.” —Phillip Lopate, New York Times Book Review
“Every case [Tommasini] makes is convincingly argued, and his style is accessible without being patronizing, enthusiastic but never gushily so. It’s a superb read. Indispensable, even.” —Jeremy Pound, BBC Music Magazine
“Few critics in history have been as rigorously trained or deeply versed in music as Tony Tommasini. Page after page of this exuberant book show not only his comprehensive knowledge — he writes with the music under his fingers — but also his infectious love for the great classical repertory.” —Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise
Praise for VIRGIL THOMPSON:
"Tommasini. . . [e]vokes the composer's critical ear and describes his music with words that bring us right into the concert hall" —The New York Times Book Review
