Hume offers an overview of Eugene Ormandy's career, with special mention made of his skill as an accompanist, his memory, his repertoire, his approach to making music, and his programming. On the subject of music criticism Hume discusses the relationship between critic and musician, audiences' responses to new music, and his opinion that a critic also be a musician (and his background as a singer, organist, and conductor). Hume also offers opinions and anecdotes concerning other people, including Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Thomas Beecham, Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Horowitz, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, Sir Georg Solti, Arturo Toscanini, Serge Koussevitsky, Charles Munch, Pierre Monteux, Leonard Bernstein, Gretel Ormandy, Antal Dorati, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Rosa Ponselle, Fred Scott, David Del Tredici, Sir Hamilton Harty, Virgil Thomson, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.
