Introduction

Although the Schlesinger/Brandus catalogue contained eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century works, the publishing house's profits derived primarily from sales of new music – in particular for the expanding markets in piano music and arrangements from popular operas. Because of their importance to the health of the business, living composers almost inevitably took their place on one of two lists: the ‘sacred-cow list’ or the ‘son-of-a-bitch list’. In the Gazette, the nature of many reviews (particularly in the lucrative world of opera) is explicable by reference to the commercial interests involved: Verdi, an Escudier composer, was to be denounced; Meyerbeer, a Schlesinger/Brandus composer, to be supported. Partisanship in the journal was not, however, entirely market-driven; it frequently reflected the higher artistic ideals which Schlesinger and (to a lesser exent) the Brandus brothers sought to uphold, and which they kept in uneasy equilibrium with the baser need for commercial success. Close inspection of the evidence reveals a more sophisticated structure of reception policy than Loesser implies, with some collaborators given more licence than others to express an opinion which might conflict with the publishing house's interests. Schlesinger, in particular, was adept at judging to what extent dissent among his collaborators assisted the journal's image as a forum for debate, and at what point bad publicity ceased to be beneficial. By contrast, after 1846, certain areas of reviewing were increasingly assigned exclusively to specific collaborators.