... at About Last Night: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, R.I.P.
Schwarzkopf was no saint, and maybe wasn't even a nice person, but regarding her Nazi affiliation, I think it worth noting that, unlike Colette and Cortot, she was only in her 20s when she joined the party. Michael Kennedy, the senior classical musical critic of the Daily Telegraph, makes a point worth pondering in Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma. "I lived through the whole of the Nazi period," he writes. "I have vivid recollections of [those] years . . . and know how different attitudes to the Nazis were. . . . I find insufferable the smug holier-than-thou attitude of people who know with such certainty how honorably and courageously they would have behaved. "
On the other hand Terry's point about beautiful art being made by ugly souls is worth pondering, too.
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