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THE MUSIC GOES ROUND AND AROUND
By Basil Tschaikov
Musicweb International presents the complete book on-line
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.
