The Pleasure of Their Company: A Reminiscence

Taubman, chief music critic at the New York Times (except during WWII) from 1930 to 1960, and then the paper's chief drama critic for the next 12 years, has met a host of remarkable people and been in attendance at many noteworthy events. Unfortunately, these reminiscences are too disorganized and often desultory to make the most of his promising material. There are only fleeting sketches of such personages as Pablo Casals, Vladimir Horowitz, Arturo Toscanini, Dmitry Shostakovich, Marian Anderson and Ingrid Bergman, and some occasionally entertaining tales like those of his battles with fearsome Broadway producer David Merrick. But the heavy preponderance of conventional wartime recollections and warm tributes to colleagues simply do not belong in a book intended to be of general interest. Taubman's judicious Times reviews were better crafted than this rambling affair, in which the most interesting section, surprisingly, is his account of his later-life role as adviser to Exxon in its sponsorship of public television's Great Performances series. Illustrations. (Nov.)