And now it was Rachmaninoff.
The movies, the jukeboxes and the radio had taken first the works of Tchaikovsky, then of Chopin, strung puerile words to them, given them everything from a boogie beat to a lush 150-piece orchestral overcoating. What had been most melodic in Tchaikovsky's Fifth be came the most banal, and no steady listen er of radio could hear the Romeo and Juliet overture without trying to banish Our Love from his mind.
Last week few U.S. citizens got through the week without hearing the melody of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 at least once. Seven recordings of a...