Word: conductor
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Early Years. He grew up on his father's farm. At the university he rapidly became the biggest man on campus, earned money as a grocery clerk, bakery pan-greaser, sleeping-car conductor. He was an above-average student, president of the student body, senior orator, member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, captain of the rifle team (he once shot tassels off a fellow R.O.T.C. student's uniform in an exhibition...
...years, Bostonians had come to boast of their Russian-born conductor as their grandparents once boasted of Emerson or Dr. Holmes. He was a welcome autocrat at any Brahmin table, and when his concerts were over, Boston dowagers liked to flock backstage to kiss and be kissed on both cheeks...
...conductor had carefully planned his retirement. "When I was young," he explained afterwards, "I told myself I would retire at the highest point in my career. I feel that it is the time." His 75th birthday comes in July 1949. Koussevitzky will go on conducting until he has celebrated his 25th anniversary in Boston next year-marking a longer period as conductor of the Boston Symphony than any man before him. He was pleased with his timing: "It is very Koussevitzky. It is my style...
Bostonians will find some things about Charles Münch very Koussevitzky. As the elegant conductor of the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra ("the oldest and best orchestra in France," says Münch), "le beau Charles" was the idol of lady concertgoers. Like Koussevitzky himself (whose second wife was rich), Charles Münch is independently wealthy. His wife, the daughter of a Swiss condensed-milk millionaire, inherited a fortune said to be close...
Toward the end, before he killed himself, Van Gogh considered his painting a kind of therapy. Writing from an insane asylum to his brother Theo, he said: "I am struggling with all my energy to master my work . . . if I win that will be the best lightning conductor for my illness." That illness was possibly epilepsy, but it has also been defined as manic depression. Today, it might have been given electric shock treatment. As gallerygoers could see, Van Gogh's self-prescribed therapy was also a "shock treatment...