- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHarold Charles Schonberg
- Harold C. Schonberg was born on November 29, 1915 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Bell Telephone Hour (1959). He was married to Helene Cornell and Rosalyn Krokover. He died on July 26, 2003 in New York City, New York, USA.
- SpousesHelene Cornell(May 10, 1975 - May 14, 2003) (her death)Rosalyn Krokover(November 28, 1942 - June 14, 1973) (her death)
- Music critic of the New York Times for twenty-five years
- His so-called "feud" with Leonard Bernstein is famous. During Bernstein's 11-year tenure as conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Schonberg would often find fault with his style of conducting and programming music. He once wrote a sharply critical piece about Bernstein's famous curtain speech to an audience, a speech in which he (Bernstein) stated that although he disagreed with pianist Glenn Gould's approach to Brahms's Second Piano Concerto, he found it fascinating and was going to go ahead and conduct it. Schonberg stated that Bernstein should have either refused to conduct, become "conveniently ill", or put his foot down and insist that Gould play the piece as Bernstein envisioned it.
- His damning review of the 1976 Houston Opera's production of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" was the only dissenting review and was highly controversial.
- Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his music criticism
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