Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Impeccably researched and written with a novelist's narrative mastery, this biography of the great conductor is a modern tragedy. Mitropoulos was a passionate advocate of difficult modern music and an early champion of Mahler; his emotionally charged performances brought the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra into the first rank of American orchestras. Generous and self-effacing, he was an innocent in the game of musical politics, unprepared for the intrigues and treachery in store when he became music director of the New York Philharmonic, "the orchestra that took no prisoners."

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface The Forgotten Giant (p. 9)
• Part 1 "I Am a Greek -- Good for Everything." (p. 15)
• Chapter 1 Origins (p. 17)
• Chapter 2 Adolescent Turning Points (p. 26)
• Chapter 3 The Young Composer (p. 34)
• Chapter 4 Berlin and Studies with Busoni (p. 41)
• Chapter 5 Athenian Challenges (p. 51)
• Chapter 6 Mountains to Climb (p. 65)
• Chapter 7 Triumph in Boston and a Fateful Encounter with Leonard Bernstein (p. 77)
• Part 2 A Mystic in Minnesota (p. 89)
• Chapter 8 Lightning Strikes in Minneapolis (p. 91)
• Chapter 9 Summer and Winter 1938: Greek Machinations, Feats of Memory, and a Christmas Visit from Lenny B (p. 106)
• Chapter 10 War Clouds Gathering (p. 119)
• Chapter 11 The War Years in Minneapolis (p. 138)
• Chapter 12 The War Years: Guest Engagements (p. 150)
• Chapter 13 There Were Giants. . (p. 165)
• Chapter 14 American Friends, American Ways (p. 177)
• Chapter 15 Mitropoulos and Contemporary Composers (p. 192)
• Chapter 16 The Postwar Years: Awaiting the Summons (p. 210)
• Chapter 17 Boston Denied (p. 236)
• Chapter 18 Farewell to Minneapolis (p. 242)
• Intermezzo New York, New York, It's a Helluva Town! (p. 253)
• Part 3 Summit and Fall (p. 279)
• Chapter 19 Mitropoulosm In, Stokowski Out (p. 281)
• Chapter 20 The View from the Great Northern (p. 288)
• Chapter 21 L'Affaire Roxy and the Triumph of Wozzeck (p. 304)
• Chapter 22 The Sinking of Christophe Colomb (p. 322)
• Chapter 23 Recuperation: "Paradise is Not for Me." (p. 336)
• Chapter 24 The Honeymoon Ends (p. 346)
• Chapter 25 Operas and Recordings (p. 358)
• Chapter 26 Return to Athens (p. 370)
• Chapter 27 A Time of Troubles (p. 380)
• Chapter 28 The Taubman Attack (p. 401)
• Chapter 29 Declining Fortunes (p. 414)
• Chapter 30 Vanessa Hot and Cold (p. 423)
• Chapter 31 To Fall from a Mountaintop (p. 430)
• A Brief Recessional (p. 441)
• Notes (p. 445)
• Selected Bibliography (p. 465)
• Building a Mitropoulos Record Collection (p. 473)
• General Index (p. 481)
• Index of Musical Compositions (p. 489)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Greek-born Mitropoulos (1896-1960) was one of the great American conductors of the midcentury, and it is astonishing how little his memory is regarded in his adopted land. Perhaps this obscurity is attributable partly to his self-effacing personality. His extraordinary musical gifts included an almost supernatural memory, a degree of involvement that transfigured players and audiences alike and a sense of duty to contemporary composers that made his concerts challenging and, to orchestra boards and old-time symphony subscribers, frequently daunting. His happiest years were spent in Minneapolis, but lack of careerist guile made him easy pickings in New York City: the critics were bewildered by him, the New York Philharmonic players were disrespectful of him and even his record company treated him badly. It did not help that he was homosexual and chose not to enter a cosmetic marriage. Music critic and novelist Trotter, who had access to the late Oliver Daniel's considerable research on Mitropoulos, has presented a compassionate, judicious and moving portrait of the conductor. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Trotter's well-written and flowing account of Mitropoulos is one of the few available books on the esteemed conductor. Much of the credit is due to the late Oliver Daniel (Stokowski, CH, May'83), who did the painstaking and meticulous research before his death in 1990. There is a detailed bibliography, a list of recommended recordings, and remarkable photos. In addition to its significance, the book offers a window into American cultural history for the period 1936-56. The only problem is one of focus. Immensely sympathetic to Mitropoulos, Trotter sidesteps the scholar's or musicologist's approach, sacrificing original or penetrating insights into Mitropoulos as a musician and conductor in favor of bringing alive all of Daniel's research and fleshing out Mitropoulos the man. The work echoes accepted ideas: first, morality and mission moved Mitropoulos; second, he was unfairly treated and is now neglected. Because of its uniqueness and excellent documentation, this book is recommended for all general and undergraduate libraries. M. N.-H. Cheng; Colgate University

Booklist Review

In this long-anticipated biography of Greek American conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, Trotter delivers a veritable paean to a musician who is still revered today in Europe, although he is virtually forgotten in America. Trotter situates Mitropoulos' life story against the often harried artistic American climate of the forties and fifties, which alternately courted and crucified him. A monastic man of passionate, spiritual vitality, Mitropoulos was magnanimous in his treatment of musicians, calling each one by name and coaxing them with fatherly emotional and financial aid. For this behavior, he was vilified as being "too nice." After 20 years as a conductor, at the Minneapolis Symphony and then with the New York Philharmonic, Mitropoulos found himself in a vortex of political, artistic, and social ferment that wanted him gone. A homophobic orchestra, heart problems, and scathing reviews combined to exile the maestro in 1956 and to replace him with his protege, Leonard Bernstein. An inspirational portrait of a champion of modern music who dedicated himself to serving God through his work. --Patricia Hassler

Kirkus Book Review

A first-rate biographical study of one of the century's more important conductors, Dimitri Mitropoulos (18961960). Based on the research of late musicologist Oliver Daniel, music critic Trotter has created a comprehensive and neatly written portrait of Mitropoulos, whom he correctly calls the ``Forgotten Giant.'' Tracing his life from student days in Greece to his mature artistic career spent primarily in America (a decade in Minneapolis, where he created an ensemble competitive with the top US orchestras, followed in the 1950s by the music directorship of the New York Philharmonic), Trotter emphasizes that Mitropoulos approached music-making with the self-denying religious fervor that almost had led him as a young man to take a monk's vows. This otherworldly attitude may explain the genuinely tragic circumstances of Mitropoulos's later years: his relative lack of pretense about his own homosexuality at a time when other gay conductors advanced their careers (sometimes at Mitropoulos's expense) by remaining in the closet; his remaining in America instead of returning to Europe, where he was idolized, on the grounds that he could fulfill his missionary service to serious music better in the New World; his carelessness about his health, which led to his premature death of a massive coronary while rehearsing the La Scala Philharmonic in Mahler's Third Symphony. None of this is simple, and with the notable exception of Trotter's overemphasis on the effects of Howard Taubman's New York Times criticismreminiscent of the ``critics killed John Keats'' school of biographyhe avoids many of the potholes of oversimplification. Since Mitropoulos is an elusive conductor on disc, good hints toward a basic discography are included. Humanizing, a valuable panorama of US classical music culture, and an irresistible inducement to seek out the Mitropoulos performances left to us on records. (66 b&w photos, not seen)