From the New York Times’s former chief classical music critic, a tribute to one of the great singers of modern times and a national treasure who broke racial barriers
The night before Marian Anderson performed her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial, she called her manager with grave doubts. What had started as a plan to sing a recital in Washington’s largest concert hall had turned, she feared, into a protest rally after she was barred from appearing on the venue’s whites-only stage. The next day a crowd of seventy-five thousand flocked there to see her perform on Easter Sunday, 1939, before the monument of freedom itself. This was a major triumph for racial justice, but Anderson worried it would overshadow the rest of her inimitable career.
In this rich new portrait, Anthony Tommasini brings his decades of musical expertise to bear upon Anderson’s artistry, the journey of her life, and conversations about her legacy. After her breakout early performances in Europe, she gripped international audiences with her masterful renditions of Handel arias, German lieder, Scandinavian songs, and Negro spirituals: bold programming for her time. But recognition was harder to achieve at home. Though celebrated for her rich, lustrous voice and insightful artistry, Anderson had to contend with hotels and restaurants that turned her away in the very cities where she appeared in concert to acclaim. These tribulations brought forth memorable shows of goodwill—Eleanor Roosevelt fought the Daughters of the American Revolution in her honor; Albert Einstein housed her in Princeton—but were representative of the fierce racism Anderson faced. Still, she became one of the most respected and successful artists of her time and famously broke the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.
As Arturo Toscanini famously said of Anderson’s voice and artistry: One is privileged to hear it only “once in a hundred years.” Now, we get to enjoy it again, in the context of Anderson’s dignified leadership, authenticity, and majestic presence.
Praise for THE INDISPENSABLE COMPOSERS:
“[Tommasini] defends the value of distinguishing the great from the merely good…Tommasini does a fine job of conveying the inner life of a piece, through his rhythmic sentences and sculpted paragraphs…One cannot help coming away from it with a more rounded understanding of classical music at its peak.” —Phillip Lopate, New York Times Book Review
“Every case [Tommasini] makes is convincingly argued, and his style is accessible without being patronizing, enthusiastic but never gushily so. It’s a superb read. Indispensable, even.” —Jeremy Pound, BBC Music Magazine
“Few critics in history have been as rigorously trained or deeply versed in music as Tony Tommasini. Page after page of this exuberant book show not only his comprehensive knowledge — he writes with the music under his fingers — but also his infectious love for the great classical repertory.” —Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise
Praise for VIRGIL THOMPSON:
"Tommasini. . . [e]vokes the composer's critical ear and describes his music with words that bring us right into the concert hall" —The New York Times Book Review
Anthony Tommasini was the chief classical music critic for the New York Times from 2000-2021. He graduated from Yale University, and later earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University. He is the author of four books, including The Indispensable Composers, a guide to the greatest works of classical music in the canon. As a pianist, he made two recordings of Thomson's music on the Northeastern label which were supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
View titles by Anthony Tommasini
From the New York Times’s former chief classical music critic, a tribute to one of the great singers of modern times and a national treasure who broke racial barriers
The night before Marian Anderson performed her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial, she called her manager with grave doubts. What had started as a plan to sing a recital in Washington’s largest concert hall had turned, she feared, into a protest rally after she was barred from appearing on the venue’s whites-only stage. The next day a crowd of seventy-five thousand flocked there to see her perform on Easter Sunday, 1939, before the monument of freedom itself. This was a major triumph for racial justice, but Anderson worried it would overshadow the rest of her inimitable career.
In this rich new portrait, Anthony Tommasini brings his decades of musical expertise to bear upon Anderson’s artistry, the journey of her life, and conversations about her legacy. After her breakout early performances in Europe, she gripped international audiences with her masterful renditions of Handel arias, German lieder, Scandinavian songs, and Negro spirituals: bold programming for her time. But recognition was harder to achieve at home. Though celebrated for her rich, lustrous voice and insightful artistry, Anderson had to contend with hotels and restaurants that turned her away in the very cities where she appeared in concert to acclaim. These tribulations brought forth memorable shows of goodwill—Eleanor Roosevelt fought the Daughters of the American Revolution in her honor; Albert Einstein housed her in Princeton—but were representative of the fierce racism Anderson faced. Still, she became one of the most respected and successful artists of her time and famously broke the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.
As Arturo Toscanini famously said of Anderson’s voice and artistry: One is privileged to hear it only “once in a hundred years.” Now, we get to enjoy it again, in the context of Anderson’s dignified leadership, authenticity, and majestic presence.
Praise
Praise for THE INDISPENSABLE COMPOSERS:
“[Tommasini] defends the value of distinguishing the great from the merely good…Tommasini does a fine job of conveying the inner life of a piece, through his rhythmic sentences and sculpted paragraphs…One cannot help coming away from it with a more rounded understanding of classical music at its peak.” —Phillip Lopate, New York Times Book Review
“Every case [Tommasini] makes is convincingly argued, and his style is accessible without being patronizing, enthusiastic but never gushily so. It’s a superb read. Indispensable, even.” —Jeremy Pound, BBC Music Magazine
“Few critics in history have been as rigorously trained or deeply versed in music as Tony Tommasini. Page after page of this exuberant book show not only his comprehensive knowledge — he writes with the music under his fingers — but also his infectious love for the great classical repertory.” —Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise
Praise for VIRGIL THOMPSON:
"Tommasini. . . [e]vokes the composer's critical ear and describes his music with words that bring us right into the concert hall" —The New York Times Book Review
Anthony Tommasini was the chief classical music critic for the New York Times from 2000-2021. He graduated from Yale University, and later earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University. He is the author of four books, including The Indispensable Composers, a guide to the greatest works of classical music in the canon. As a pianist, he made two recordings of Thomson's music on the Northeastern label which were supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
View titles by Anthony Tommasini
