Synopsis

This book is the first to examine the brilliant gathering of composers, conductors, and other musicians who fled Nazi Germany and arrived in the Los Angeles area. Musicologist Dorothy Lamb Crawford looks closely at the lives, creative work, and influence of sixteen performers, fourteen composers, and one opera stage director, who joined this immense migration beginning in the 1930s. Some in this group were famous when they fled Europe, others would gain recognition in the young musical culture of Los Angeles, and still others struggled to establish themselves in an environment often resistant to musical innovation.

Emphasizing individual voices, Crawford presents short portraits of Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and the other musicians while also considering their influence as a group—in the film industry, in music institutions in and around Los Angeles, and as teachers who trained the next generation. The book reveals a uniquely vibrant era when Southern California became a hub of unprecedented musical talent.

Biography

Dorothy Lamb Crawford has lived and worked in music throughout her career, teaching and lecturing, performing as a singer, directing opera, and hosting broadcast interviews with musicians. She is author of Evenings On and Off the Roof: Pioneering Concerts in Los Angeles, 1939–1971 and (with John C. Crawford) of Expressionism in Twentieth-Century Music. She lives in Cambridge, MA.

Table of Contents

Main Characters
Ch. 1 Europe 1
Ch. 2 Paradise? 23
Ch. 3 Otto Klemperer and the Los Angeles Philharmonic 39
Ch. 4 Performers, and Klemperer's Return 55
Ch. 5 Innovative Teachers in the Performing Arts 79
Ch. 6 Arnold Schoenberg 102
Ch. 7 Ernst Toch 134
Ch. 8 European Composers in the "Picture Business" 162
Ch. 9 Issues of Identity: Ernst Krenek, Eric Zeisl, and Ingolf Dahl 198
Ch. 10 Stravinsky in Hollywood 222
Epilogue 243
List of Archives and Notes 245
Index 293