Michael Henderson

Norman knows best

issue 17 March 2007

For a man whose appearances at London’s concert halls and opera houses are rarer than golden eagles above Highgate, Norman Lebrecht has a lot to say about the state of orchestral music. His first book on the subject, The Maestro Myth, had the merit of revealing certain facts (the huge salaries of conductors, for instance) that may have surprised the people who buy tickets. When the Music Stops, which considered the parlous state of the classical recording industry, was so-so. Now comes a third (and surely final) one, and very thin it is.

Lebrecht, rightly, has never regarded popularity as a badge of honour. This has advantages for a journalist; it offers a form of liberation. But when you show yourself to be a purveyor of tittle-tattle and factual inaccuracy it cannot but diminish your standing in the eyes of the world.

The latest book is in three parts.

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