Title: Obligato
Description: Ira Hirschmann was a remarkable man of diverse interests and talents and outstanding accomplishments in every field he pursued. As a businessman, he was Vice President of Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale's, but he was also a diplomat, an anti-Nazi crusader, a pioneer in radio broadcasting, and a well-respected author. Music, however, was the underlying theme of his life, and his deepest passion.

As founder and president of the influential New Friends of Music, which opened the rich world of chamber music to the American public, Hirschmann worked with many of the musical luminaries of our century, some of whom became close personal friends. In Obligato we meet Arturo Toscanini, Artur Schnabel - with whom he studied the piano - Bruno Walter, Lotte Lehmann, Arnold Schonberg, Rudolph Serkin, Bela Bartok, and many others.

But Obligato is much more than just a collection of revealing episodes. For Hirschmann, music was a life-giving source which frequently played a decisive role in all his activities - whether he was fighting the Nazis and working for the release of concentration camp inmates, or was active in politics with his friend Fiorello LaGuardia, or was experimenting with new technologies.

Completed shortly before his death in 1989 at the age of 88, Obligato captures an important era of American music history with great charm and enthusiasm.
People: Ira Arthur Hirschmann (1901-)