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Basil Tschaikov’s unusually diverse
life in music has spanned more than
60 years as a performer, writer, educator and
administrator. Between 1943 and 1979
he was a member of three of the world’s
finest orchestras - the London Philharmonic,
Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia
– playing with conductors such as Sir
Thomas Beecham, Bruno Walter, Victor
de Sabata, Herbert von Karajan, Otto
Klemperer, Carlo Maria Giulini and Sir
Simon Rattle. During that time and subsequently
he was also increasingly active in a
very wide sphere of activities as a
music educator, negotiator, writer and,
in due course, an administrative director
when he conceived, initiated and ran
the National Centre for Orchestral Studies
attached to Goldsmiths’ College, University
of London, from 1979 to 1989. This was
a radical operation enabling music college
graduates to become familiar with the
conditions of playing in a high quality
orchestra of professional standard and
to gain experience by working with outstanding
international conductors and performers
before taking up their careers. Additionally,
he was the prime force in the creation
of a unique archive, the Music Performance
Research Centre, now Music Preserved.
This archive of non-commercial recordings
of public concert and opera performances
enables many thousands of valuable performances
to be preserved and made available,
free, for enjoyment and study.
During this unusually
wide-ranging career, Basil Tschaikov
has experienced from many different
perspectives the vast changes and developments
that have affected the music profession,
music industry, and audiences during
his lifetime. The Music Goes Round and
Around is a chronicle of these changing
elements as seen from the inside by
a musical maverick who has recorded
his observations in the way that a location
photographer would aim to capture the
diverse elements of life around him
or her. The author points out that although
he starts out from an autobiographical
basis with personal recollections of
what it was like to play in great orchestras
such as Sir Thomas Beecham's Royal Philharmonic
and Walter Legge's Philharmonia, that
is nevertheless the springboard for
a wide-ranging look at the striking
changes in musical approach and public
taste that have occurred in the last
100 years, especially the massive changes
technology has brought about. The historical
perspective in fact extends back to
the end of the 19th Century,
as Basil Tschaikov includes recollections
heard from his father, a distinguished
clarinettist, and both his grandfathers,
who were professional musicians in Europe
before coming to England. Furthermore,
not just classical music is covered
- the classical music "scene" and public
response to music is viewed in the perspective
of the more recent developments of many
kinds of popular and world music.
This rare panoramic
view of an immensely complex vista is
made immediately accessible and alive
by the author’s first hand recollections
of experiences involving not only great
musicians but also fascinating personalities
in the world of music. They have been
some of the most vital driving forces
that have indeed made the music go round
and around.
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