This thesis on the corporate history of the Concertgebouworchestra reveals that the culture of regents of the Concertgebouw gave the chief conductor more leeway than the orchestra's director from the start, paving the way for a dominant position of the orchestra leader. Willem Mengelberg, a prominent man with a turbulent life, stipulated not only the artistic but also part of the corporate policy of the Concertgebouw orchestra, and was forceful in doing so. Thus 'model' regulary caused tension involving the talented conductor himself and, at a later stage, his successors. Given the fact that the board had few checks ans balances at its disposal to channel these tensions, conflicts could easily spin out of control. Although several aspects of these problems have been touched upon in literature before, they have never been interpreted and intergrated as in this thesis. This book clearly demonstrates that the Mengelberg model had a...
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This thesis on the corporate history of the Concertgebouworchestra reveals that the culture of regents of the Concertgebouw gave the chief conductor more leeway than the orchestra's director from the start, paving the way for a dominant position of the orchestra leader. Willem Mengelberg, a prominent man with a turbulent life, stipulated not only the artistic but also part of the corporate policy of the Concertgebouw orchestra, and was forceful in doing so. Thus 'model' regulary caused tension involving the talented conductor himself and, at a later stage, his successors. Given the fact that the board had few checks ans balances at its disposal to channel these tensions, conflicts could easily spin out of control. Although several aspects of these problems have been touched upon in literature before, they have never been interpreted and intergrated as in this thesis. This book clearly demonstrates that the Mengelberg model had a major impact on the way chief conductors were looked upon and on the mark they put on management. Thus, a fresh view emerged on a nineteenth-century institution searching its way into the twenty-first century. Within this quest, the entrepreneurial spirit of the Concertgebouw orchestra was slow to appear.
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