Josef Stránský

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Josef Stransky (1872- March 6, 1936)^[1] was a Czech conductor and composer. Born in Bohemia, he worked as a conductor in Prague^[2] and Berlin^[3] before being selected by the New York Philharmonic to replace Gustav Mahler on Mahler's death in 1911. Some commentators did not see Stransky as a worthy successor to Mahler: the periodical Musical America wrote:

“

After much upheaval, search and negotiation, the New York Philharmonic Society ... has engaged Josef Stransky... Without disrespect to Mr. Stransky, there are reasons which cause this circumstance to remind one of Aesop's fable of the mountain in labor which finally brought forth a mouse^[4]

”

An article in the New York Times about the appointment began, "The financial backers of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra will be interested to learn that the German artistic world is filled with astonishment over the engagement of Josef Stransky of Berlin as the successor to the late Gustav Mahler.", before going on to allege that Stransky was chosen over other candidates such as Oskar Fried and Bruno Walter because of his low financial demands.^[3]

During his tenure with the Phiharmonic, Stransky received praise for his interpretations of Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss.^[5] However, Daniel Gregory Mason expressed his dissatisfaction with what he referred to as "the Wagnerian, Lisztian and Tschaikowskian pap ladled out to us by ... Stransky of the Phihamonic Society", and even went as far as to call the conductor "a total musical incompetent".^[6] In an even more biting critique published in H. L. Mencken's American Mercury Magazine, critic D. W. Sinclair wrote

“

Succeeding one of the greatest figures in modern music, the late Gustav Mahler, Stransky maintained himself for so long, not so much by his musical abilities as by his social charm and personal cleverness.^[7]

”

Mahler scholar Henry-Louis de la Grange has characterized Stransky as a "conscientious but uninspiring" leader, who allowed the high performing levels achieved by Mahler to fall.^[8]

From his installation in 1911 until the end of the 1919-1920 season, Stransky conducted every single Philharmonic concert.^[9] In 1921 the Philharmonic merged with the National Symphony, conducted by Willem Mengelberg. For the 1922-1923 season, Stransky conducted the first half of the season and Mengelberg the second: it turned out to be his last season at the Philharmonic.

Stransky ultimately left the musical profession to become an art dealer,^[4] specializing in Picasso's Rose Period.^[10]

[edit] References

^ Rottenberg, Dan (1986). Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co, p. 350. ISBN 0806311517.
^ Huneker, James (1921). Variations. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, p. 196. OCLC 397819.
^ ^a ^b "JOSEF STRANSKY ATTACKED.; German Review Criticises New Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor." (1911-07-04). New York Times.
^ ^a ^b Horowitz (2005), p. 195
^ Finck, Henry Theophilus (1917). Richard Strauss, the Man and His Works. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., p 130. OCLC 645950. “With Joseph Stransky, the Philharmonic acquired a leader who is the greatest Liszt specialist since Seidl, and who also performs the tone poems of Strauss more glowingly, brilliantly, and convincingly than any one else except Strauss himself”
^ Toff, Nancy (2005). Monarch of the Flute: The Life of Georges Barrere. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 237. ISBN 0195170164.
^ Sinclair, D. W. (March 1924). "Six Orchestral Conductors". The American Mercury 1 (3): p. 285.
^ de la Grange, Henry-Louis (1995), “Mahler and the New York Philharmonic, the Truth Behind the Legend”, in Reed, Philip & Mitchell, Donald, On Mahler and Britten: Essays in Honour of Donald Mitchell on his Seventieth Birthday, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Boydell Press, pp. p. 77, ISBN 0851156142
^ Horowitz (2005), p. 278
^ FitzGerald, Michael C (1996). Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth Century Art'. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, p. 224. ISBN 0520206533.