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Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations (review)

half-century later, the make-believe involved in resuscitating music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in the midst of the largest and most modern city in the United States seems to bear a certain resemblance to the folk revival of the same period, both being imaginative recreations by uprooted Jewish intellectuals of cultures essentially alien to modernity. One could say that Bob Dylan (though twenty years younger) and Greenberg were essentially responding to the same cultural imperative, although the New York folk scene was drawing on a still existent native culture and the early music scene on a European culture of centuries before. Gollin’s narrative is focused on the personalities that came together to make the New York Pro Musica, the impact the group had on audiences in New York, the forces that fragmented it, and finally on Greenberg himself, who must have been a compelling personality. At least in this telling, the music seems to serve the expression of Greenberg’s vitality, rather than vice versa; thus the qualities of the music itself, and any tradition of performance, are secondary. Contemporary events in the performance of early music outside New York, whether in the United States or Europe, are beyond the scope of Gollin’s tightly focused examination. What may remain of Greenberg’s legacy with the New York Pro Musica is his influence on the performance of early music in the United States, and the many recordings the group made. Neither of these is examined critically here, giving the volume a hagiographical tone. It is clear that Greenberg was important to his contemporaries, but not so clear why he should be important to us in 2002. His effect on the subsequent history of early music in this country is almost nil in contrast to the far reaching influence of Frans Brüggen and Gustav Leonhardt, to name but two. The New York Pro Musica’s recordings are virtually unavailable, perhaps because the performances they preserve sound so different from modern interpretations as to be almost unlistenable; they are mere historic documents showing the state of the art at the time, and now unlikely to be considered aesthetically valid experiences. Gollin sympathetically presents a life in music, but the life of the music itself is less present here. This is nevertheless an important document for those interested in the history of musical performance in the United States.