--- On Wed, 1/25/12, Don Tait  ([log in to unmask]) <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Thanks to Karl for his message in
> reply to my comments about Henry  
> Hadley's Ginn 78s. 
>  
>   I didn't intend what I wrote to denigrate Hadley in
> any way, and I  am 
> sorry if it seemed to do so. I can understand how it might
> have seemed to. In  
> fact I agree with Karl about Hadley's significance in
> American music. I was 
>  referring only to my reaction to the Ginn recordings I
> have heard. In fact 
> I  have great regard for Hadley's musical
> achievements, despite my awkward  
> comments. I should revisit the Ginn records and give them
> better 
> consideration,  I think. 

Don,

I agree that he was not one of the "great" conductors. And certainly the work he did for Ginn was not, to my ears, his best. As I type, I am listening to one of his Okeh recordings, the Largo of the Dvorak, New World. It is, to my ears, beautifully paced and quite expressive. 

He also had some limitations as to the composers he promoted. He tended to avoid the "younger" generation of his time and did not feature them in his programming. 

Yet, for me, by today's standards, from what little I have heard of his conducting, I rather find him to be as good as many who now oversee some of the major orchestras. The critical reaction to his work was quite favorable at the time, with some writers suggesting that he become music director, on a regular basis, of the New York Philharmonic, and indeed he was conductor of the Seattle and San Francisco Symphony for a time. 

Karl