Free Republic

Gilbert Kaplan, who has died aged 74, was an American economist, journalist and businessman who came to wider attention through his determination to be an orchestral conductor and in particular his obsession with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 2 (the Resurrection), a work that he conducted on more than 100 occasions. Some saw him as a charlatan, a Wall Street millionaire who had "bought" his way on to the podium with his lavish donations to impecunious orchestras. Others felt that he offered a fresh insight into the music, unsullied by a traditional approach to interpretation and the institutionalised training of the...