Fiona Palmer provides a revealing perspective on the period in which British conductors gradually began to achieve comparable status with their Continental colleagues...a valuable contribution to our understanding of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century musical life in Britain.
ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW
A masterly survey of the 40-year evolution of the role of conductor from that of a 'time-beating' ... Read morepart-timer (often with his head in the score) to that of a specialist, able to conduct from memory and to 'interpret' the music for the benefit of the audience... one suspects that Palmer's years as a performer have contributed to the success of this warmly recommended book.
NINETEENTH CENTURY MUSIC REVIEW
A thoughtful and well-written book. A mix of social and economic history, it is a stellar example of what a study of conductors and conducting can achieve, when the various mix of emphasis is in the right hands. It is a distinctive addition to scholarship on British musical culture.
MUSIC & LETTERS
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