Asians are to be seen on classical podiums across America, but, as the author notes in a profile of Marian Anderson, a contralto whom Arturo Toscanini called a once-in-a-century voice, blacks make up just 2% of orchestral players.
This is the first collection of his letters, and, ample though it is, it represents only a small proportion of the huge number of letters that Toscanini wrote in a long life.