The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"In his rich discussion of concertgoing in Nazi Germany, Neil Gregor sets out a vision of culture in the German interwar years that is erudite and painstakingly balanced." * History: The Journal of the Historical Association * "A woman leans over to talk to her friend in the seat behind her. Orchestra musicians chat before the concert. A double bassist is called up for the draft, bringing a regional orchestra to a crisis. Concert times are changed because of air-raid alarms. Gregor's sharp eye and ear for such details opens a world of sights and sounds from the lived experience of audiences, musicians, and administrators during the Third Reich. Gregor offers a social and sensory history that draws from his unparalleled knowledge of the political, social, and cultural landscape of the Third Reich. This immensely erudite but highly readable study gives us a multisensory awareness of the contradictions and paradoxes of this brutal regime that revered culture." * Anne Shreffler, Harvard University * "This is a provocative, disturbing, and original book. Using unexplored sources-photographs, architecture, acoustics, newspaper coverage, local civic archives, governmental records, and private diaries-Gregor strips the veil of innocence from concert life and listening. He shows how the Nazis exploited an entrenched conceit that predated 1933: the belief that classical music exemplified German superiority and Germany's special sense of community. This book challenges the notion that Germany's public musical culture under Nazism was a protected space of individual subjectivity and aesthetic distance separate from the radical evil and inhumanity of Nazism." * Leon Botstein, music director of the American Symphony Orchestra and president of Bard College * "How did the concertgoing public and classical musicians align their aesthetic tastes with Nazism? All too easily, as Gregor shows us in this tour de force of a book. With immense knowledge and consummate finesse, he guides us into the world in which 'art music' was performed. This was Nazism in its upper-middle-class, educated register, virtually indistinguishable from the broader current of conservative nationalism. The classical concert, as Gregor shows brilliantly, was no safe refuge from the demands of the dictatorship. It was Nazi Germany." * Nicholas Stargardt, author of "The German War: A Nation under Arms, 1939-45" * "Gregor's book is an astonishing work of cultural history that strikes right at the heart of meaning-making, listening, and identity in twentieth-century Germany. In incisive, bold, and beautiful prose, Gregor guides us through how audiences, performers, and critics supported and maintained nationalist and racist ideologies in surprising ways. I am in awe of this deeply researched, gorgeously conceived, and profoundly thoughtful work of scholarship. May we sit with Gregor's words for a very long time." * Kira Thurman, author of "Singing like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms" * "This is a magnificent work, taking a novel and long-overdue approach to demystifying the concert experience by investigating its behind-the-scenes workings. Gregor not only breaks down misconceptions about the Nazis' micromanagement of cultural affairs but also draws on rich and varied resources that can deepen our understanding of the relationships between orchestras and their audiences then and now." * Pamela M. Potter, University of Wisconsin, Madison * "Much of a culture or society is revealed through the artistic lens. Therefore, the analysis of the orchestra immediately prior to and during National Socialist Germany provides a fresh analysis of cultural life in the era. . . . Here, readers are encouraged to view the broader orchestral experience through the viewpoint of the audience, as it happens at a historical flashpoint. Exactingly researched, the topic is musically dense. . . An intense scholarly analysis of orchestral attendance in Nazi Germany puts forth the audience's experience for context in a novel research approach." * Library Journal * "A fresh, more sociological look at orchestral music in the Third Reich. . . . This work is a treat for anyone interested in the subject. Gregor's gallery of details from the archives and his studied, unconventional analysis make for an absorbing read." * Open Letters Review *