Symphonic Aspirations: German Music and Politics, 1900–1945. By Karen Painter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2007. Pp. vi+354. Cloth $49.95. ISBN 0-674-02661-6.

摘要

Although I learned a lot from this book, there is no denying its weaknesses.rnTo dispense with the problems at the outset: Symphonic Aspirations is a veryrntangled read, sometimes maddeningly so; the writing is murky; there is toornlittle background offered on the people and subjects Painter discusses; the differ-rnences and similarities between Austrian and German music cultures are not de-rnlineated; context and history enter into the discussion spasmodically; the wholernquestion of text and performance (what were critics reviewing in the newspa-rnpers?) is treated weakly. All these things make Symphonic Aspirations a prettyrntough slog—probably an impossible one for most undergraduates—but thernbook still warrants the effort that reading it requires.