Sunday, April 01, 2018

What to believe

The other day a profile appeared in the New York Times about a boat builder named Saul Chandler who changed his name from Saul Lipshutz after he stopped playing the violin. Somehow he became known to Alex Vadukul, a writer in search of someone he felt had a human interest story that would resonate with readers (and it did). Vadukul put the words "redemption" and "lost prodigy" in the title, and illustrated the story with striking photographs. The words "excellent," "gift," and "genius" pop up all the time. Those are the words of Vadukul, who interprets Chandler's stories with the eye and ear of a writer who really wants to believe the stories he is told.

Michael and I both questioned how much of Chandler's story is true.
After a few beers, however, Mr. Chandler might tell a story that is not of the cheerful maritime sort:

“I played Carnegie Hall twice before I was 13.”

“I was known for my Bach.”

“They turned me into a trained monkey.”

“If I could forget about music I would.”

When asked to say more, he shrugs, and the stories fade into the barroom haze. But this mysterious specter follows him to his boat. When music is playing on the radio, if a certain violin concerto comes on, he may get up and switch the station off. “The violin upsets me,” he said. “It reminds me of terror.”

In the 1960s, Mr. Chandler was one of the most promising classical violin prodigies in New York.
Details in this article gnaw at my brain. If Chandler was one of the most promising violin prodigies in New York during the 1960s, with a career as a soloist in Europe as well, why are there no reviews of his concerts anywhere to be found in newspapers online? Vadukul mentions newspapers "that chronicled his talents."

(Michael only found one reference to Chandler--then Lipshutz--playing the solo part in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5 when he was a student at New Providence High School in New Jersey in 1963.)

I think that Chandler might, in the course of the past 50 years, augmented his accomplishments. I think that Vadukul, who knows about music from reading at least one book about musical prodigies, wanted to believe him.

I can't imagine how a violin that had been sitting in its unopened case for 50 years and gave off a musty odor could look like this:


I wonder how, after 50 years, the violin could have a bow with it that still had hair, a bridge and sound post that were both still standing, and strings that still looked new.

8 comments:

Lisa Hirsch said...

You would be entirely justified in writing a letter to the Times about this. I had some questions and vague unease about the story.

Elaine Fine said...

Michael wrote one earlier today!

Lisa Hirsch said...

YAY Michael!

YTT said...

I found a New York Times mention of a pair of recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1959 by a couple of dozen winners of a competition of the Music Education League. One of the violnists was Saul Robert Lipschutz (with the C that was not present in the article). I think this rather supports your view, while at the same proving that technically, he DID play Carnegie Hall.

Michael Leddy said...

Searching at the Times online and at the 1851-2007 Times archive (available from my university) shows no results for Saul Robert Lipschutz. Could you share the link to the article you’ve described?

Raphael Klayman said...

I passed the NYT article to a few people, including a former teacher who went to Julliard at the same time and never heard of him (in his original or any other name) with these comments:

Hi, have you seen this article? Did you know him? I thought it was interesting but a few things didn't add up for me:

1. I know that many people get burnt-out, even have complete nervous breakdowns but for someone who came to so repudiate the violin and its place in his life -
2. He remains very proud of the fact that he supposedly bested Perlman in one jury exam at Julliard decades ago...
3. He never sold his violin and it looks to be in suspiciously good condition in the photo, being taken out of its case for the 1st time in 50 years. When I recently went to reclaim a violin of mine that I had left at my mother's place in Florida about 8 months earlier, most of the strings had slipped quite a bit and it took a while to stabilize its tuning.
4. Even for the reporter's untutored ears, not even Heifetz, Nadien etc. could have not touched the violin for 50 years and then immeditately made impressive sounds on it.

Anyway...

Raphael Klayman
http://rkviolin.com

Michael Leddy said...

I found the NYT article with evidence of Lipschutz at Carnegie Hall:

https://www.nytimes.com/1959/05/10/archives/league-winners-heard-in-concert-two-programs-presented-by-music.html

He was one of forty-one soloists, divided between two concerts.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Wow, Michael!

Reading all of the comments, it seems pretty clear that he must have lied about not touching the violin in 50 years.