Franz Welser-Möst’s “From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World”

I recently finished reading Franz Welser-Möst’s new book “From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World.”  The book is a curious mix of practical advice for maintaining the physical and mental health necessary for a career as a performing musician, sprinkled with a bit of musical analysis, liberally seasoned with Welser-Möst’s justifable concerns about how the social media age has led to a degradation of Classical performance.  

The book makes for interesting reading, not just for those considering a career in Classical music, but those for whom Classical music is an avocation.   That said, I wish Welser-Möst would not contribute to the myths that the Cleveland Orchestra is an anomalous gem within a social wasteland and that the orchestra was not noteworthy before George Szell took it over.