On Conductors, Composers, and Music Directors: Serge Koussevitzky in Retrospect

Abstract

This issue of MQ is dominated by a remarkable and closely annotated account of the relationship between Igor Stravinsky and Serge Koussevitzky. The rather repellent and two-faced nature of Stravinsky’s behavior revealed in this oddly empty and perfunctory epistolary collection comes as no surprise. This was truly a non-friendship. It reads rather like a one-sided display of kindness. No more startling is the extent of Koussevitzky’s generosity and his tireless advocacy, not only of Stravinsky but of composers in general (not to speak of young musicians). This is all familiar territory. But as the phrase “nice guys finish last” suggests, Stravinsky’s contempt for Koussevitzky as a musician, along with the sarcastic views of Nicolas Slonimsky and others like him, are what have ultimately influenced the historical view of Koussevitzky as a musician and conductor. The most unequivocal praise for his musical skills remains reserved for his prowess as a bass player. Rare recordings and eyewitness accounts attest to the unusual sound and virtuosity the young Koussevitzky possessed. When he played, the bass sounded more like a cello. Even his admittedly weak concerto for the instrument remains suspect as a sign of Koussevitzky’s musicianship; there are those who think that apart from the main theme, the work was written or at a minimum orchestrated by Reinhold Gliere. The notion that Koussevitzky was a “bad conductor” has been reinforced by the regular retelling of the fiasco of his 1921 performance of the Symphonies for Wind Instruments. It is further fuelled by the story of Koussevitzky’s rebarring of passages with complex meters in the Rite of Spring. Slonimsky contemptuously described how Koussevitzky needed rehearsal pianists to play the score for him in order to learn it. The overall impression of incompetence seems confirmed by the account in the Stravinsky correspondence of Koussevitzky’s handling of the Ode. Koussevitzky seems not to have picked up errors in transposition that presumably should have been audible. A negative view of Koussevitzky’s