The dominant critics included Olin Downes, B. H. Haggin, Henry Pleasants and Alfred Frankenstein. But for Grant the Second Empire was the reign of Virgil Thomson, whom he nominates as America's greatest music critic. The composer may have catnapped during many concerts he reviewed, but he wrote about them with brilliant alertness during his remarkable 14-year stint at The Herald Tribune. He typifies the composer-critic of high standards, discerning taste and refreshing candor. Interwoven with Grant's engaging chronicle of writers is a speculative study on the nature and impact of criticism.
Several questions run through the book.
He offers some persuasive examples of the role of critics in fixing the classical canon. Most of the Old Guard, for example, were ardent Wagnerians. While their enthusiasm did not create Wagner's American vogue, their nearly religious zeal helped perpetuate the singular piety in which operagoers still hold the composer. Grant similarly documents Olin Downes's tireless advocacy of Sibelius, which established the Finnish composer as a major figure in American concert halls. But I was more often struck by how impotent even the most eminent critics were in shaping posterity.