bk. 1. "Queen of the arts" : birth and growth. Introduction : a tale of two cities (1893)
pt. 1. Boston and the cult of Beethoven ; John Sullivan Dwight, Theodore Thomas, and the slaying of the monster concerts ; Henry Higginson and the birth of the Boston Symphony Orchestra ; Building a hall, choosing a conductor ; Composers and the Brahmin confinement
pt. 2. New York and beyond. Anton Seidl and the sacralization of opera ; Symphonic rivalry and growth ; Leopold Stokowski, Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, and the gossip of the foyer ; Antoniń Dvor?aḱ and Charles Ives in search of America ; Coda : music and the Gilded Age.
bk. 2. "Great performances" : decline and fall. Introduction : the great schism (1914)
pt. 1. The culture of performance. The big three ; More conductors ; The world's greatest soloists ; Opera for singers
pt. 2. Offstage participants. Serving the new audience ; Composers on the sidelines ; Leonard Bernstein and the classical music crisis ; Postlude : post-classical music.
