Re: Today's question


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Posted by Richard on February 24, 2001 at 16:13:00:

In Reply to: Today's question posted by Carl L on February 24, 2001 at 10:27:58:

This will date me, but. . .this was not my forst exposure to classical music, but the concert that "hooked" me was a CSO concert I attended in October 1955 with my mother and one of her friends. I was in high school (10th grade}. I conned her into taking me because Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra was on the program. She and her friend were drawn to the soloist, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, who sang Mozart and Strauss. They bought seats fairly close and to the side in order to see Schwarzkopf. Reiner was plainly visible in profile. The brass were out of sight, but NOT our of hearing. That year, I had just begun playing tuba in school. The program opened with Bartered Bride, with a brilliant clear brass chord such as I'd never imagined possible. I've never forgotten that. The tuba passages in the Bartok weren't lost on me either, but my "Jacobs conciousness" lay in the future, the following summer at Ravinia, when a friend introduced me, and I said, "Hi, Mr. Jacobs. I play the tuba." And he replied, "Young man, you have my sympathies."

After that I really began to pay attention, and it wasn't only Jacobs and the brass, there was an approach, a work ethic by the entire orchestra with regard to being on top of the job, and ahead of the ball. And no matter what they thought of a given conductor, respect for the music was paramount. Always. An orchestra of role models.


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