Classical Crossroads by Leonard Slatkin, Music Director

Classical Crossroads

by Leonard Slatkin, Music Director

Legendary maestro Leonard Slatkin provides personal insights and offers his ideas to solve the current dilemmas of classical music.

As the new millennium poses some of the greatest challenges to the relevance of the art form, Slatkin reflects on the modern evolution of classical music and presents ways for both music lovers and musicians alike to navigate these uncertain times. Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st-Century addresses a wide range of relevant and provocative topics such as performance in the era of COVID-19, shrinking audiences, the lack of classical music in public education, broken audition systems, technology replacing live concerts, and the lack of diversity in the classical music world. While the new millennium has provided great obstacles, Slatkin emphasizes that there are also new opportunities-if there was ever a time for change in classical music, that time is now.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Classical Crossroads is a well reasoned and informative exploration of the future of live performance by a guy who certainly knows what's what in that world. Due out 15th Sept 2021 from Rowman & Littlefield on their Amadeus imprint, it's 240 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This was such a fascinating look behind the scenes into the inner workings of an orchestra as a living breathing entity. Maestro Slatkin describes the machinations and effort involved in conducting (including some illuminating truths on the philosophy, personalities, venues, and trappings which go into making a polished concert performance).

He moves in concentric circles outward from the conductor, to the orchestra, to the agents, soloists and others who are involved, through the repertoire, musical selection and composers, outward to the media and finally to the recipients of this Brobdingnagian effort, the audiences. He examines how the audience itself has changed through the 21st century (for better or worse) and how (and if) performance should change to revitalize to face an uncertain future.

Some of the content written into the book arises from comments written on Slatkin's own website discussion threads. Most of the commentary is reasoned and interesting, some is slightly contentious. The book is well annotated throughout and the links and sources will provide keen readers with hours of further exploration and rumination.

All in all, I loved reading the personal anecdotes and recollections and I also enjoyed contemplating the issues the author discusses. I fear for the future of live performance, especially with the pandemic raging, and only hope that we can soon enjoy live concerts again and into the future.

Four stars. Well written and interesting.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 4 September, 2021: Finished reading
  • 4 September, 2021: Reviewed