Thread by @Mark_Stryker

1. Thread.

Before there was "Mozart in the Jungle," there was, apparently, "Philharmonic," a 1971 novel I stumbled over at John F. King Books in Detroit yesterday. This is completely new to me. The authors are a husband-and-wife team, Herbert Russcol and Margalit Banai.

2. Russcol is described as a former French horn player who had worked with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Boston Pops and the author of a guide to classical records. The cover copy promises: "A great symphony orchestra -- its men, its women, it's passions."

3. Here's the extended flap description:
The violent clash of temper, the discord of conflicting passions, the subtle variations of romance in counterpoint to the fiery sexual encounters resound through the pages of this stunning, multifaceted novel of a great symphony orchestra

4. and the men and women whose lives are bound to its fortunes. Ascending the podium for a two-year reign as guest conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, Paul Klange attempts to bend the members of the ensemble to his tyrannical will.

5. A genius striving toward the fulfillment of an artistic vision that has obsessed him through his long and tumultuous career, Klange unleashes a storm of emotions within the orchestra leaves no one who belongs to that special world untouched:

6. *To Danny Lourand, versatile and gifted assistant conductor, Klange is an object of both love and hate. Contemptuous of Danny’s flamboyant style – of th very charisma that could enkindle his career – he is at once the spur to Danny’s ambition and its galling check ...

7. *To Dorothea Long, beautiful and brilliant young cellist, Klange is a fever in the blood – a compulsion that drives her form a tender relationship with Danny into a consuming affair that threatens her position in the orchestra and, finally, sanity itself ...

8. *To Livia Landon, member of the Board of Trustees Klange is a continual affront to dignity and a barrier to Danny’s career – a career Livia has resolved for highly personal reasons to promote ...

9. *To Victor Roberts, the symphony’s general manager, he is a nagging thorn in the side whose arrogance has turned the already complex problems of administration into an unending nightmare.

10. *To Gloria Brodie, music critic, his aloofness is an irresistible challenge, and,
*To Ferdinand Roget, the symphony’s renowned oboist, Paul Klange is a monster, the destroyer of his marriage and a direct provocation to murder ...

11. Following the symphony two tempestuous seasons – through fierce infighting and protest strikes, an attempted onstage assassination, love affairs and betrayals and a spectacular European triumph, “Philharmonic” is a magnificently told story that recreates an entire world

12. rarely glimpsed by outsiders – that microcosm in which gifted and temperamental musicians, their harassed management, their demanding affiliates in the recording industry,

13. and their Board of Directors who must somehow produce the vast sums of money needed to maintain the company, are engaged in a elemental struggle for survival.

14. Coda: Coda: The dedication reads: "To the memory of two of the greatest symphony conductors of this century -- Fritz Reiner, Sergei Koussevitsky"

cc: @alexrossmusic @classicalbeat @zwoolfe @seatedovation @ronmark @JoshuaKosman @TerryTeachout1