Larry Ruttman asks interesting and interested questions to these musicians, all who have some connection to Boston. I grew up in Boston, and know a great deal about some of the people in the book, so it was quite an experience to encounter the more "unsung" musicians in this collection of "subjects."
The most surprising "subject" for me by far was Cecylia Arzewski. I knew her from her days in the first violin section of the Boston Symphony, and always admired her. I vividly remember the summer evening she came to my house to play quartets with my father, when we had a cottage near the Stockbridge Bowl, a mile and a half from Tanglewood. I remember her saying how tired she was after practicing for six hours that day. They played the Brahms A minor Quartet, and it was fantastic to hear.
Cecylia left her position as assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony to be the associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1987, and she later became the concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony, where she spent the rest of her career.
Imagine my surprise to read what she had to say about Seiji Ozawa, and the talk she had with him before she left the BSO.
Ozawa told her that he wanted to hold auditions in order to rearrange the first violin section. Larry Ruttman asked Arzewski if Ozawa demoted anyone. Arzewski didn't want to give the names of people, but Ruttman mentioned, of all people, my father.
Ruttman was under the impression that my father had left the orchestra at that point, but he was mistaken. My father was removed from his position as principal in 1993, and, in some ways just to spite Seiji Ozawa and his years of abuse, remained in the viola section while receiving, as I recall, principal pay. He retired in 2004.
Arzewski described my father as a great violist, a loner, a thinker, and a very bright man. She said that she saw what was happening to him before she left, and saw that Seiji Ozawa had "designs" on my father. She said that everybody knew it.
I am so grateful that Cecylia Arzewski said the quiet part out loud. It was extremely difficult for me and members of my family to process the decades-long abuse that my father hand to endure. Ozawa did little things, like tell my father that his bow made too much noise. My father used to say that Ozawa told him that his bow went "tick-tick-tick" when it should go "woo-woo-woo." This sent my father on a very expensive quest for a succession of bows that Ozawa might be able to tolerate. Ozawa criticized my father's leadership, while everybody in his section felt greatful to have him as a leader. When my father recorded Don Quixote by Richard Strauss (the solo viola plays the part of Sancho Panza to the the solo cellist's Don Quixote), his name was left off the record cover.
But I digress . . .
There is a lot that is worthwile in this book. I found the chapter about Joan Tower particularly interesting. I also enjoyed reading about Robert Levin's experiences as a student of Nadia Boulanger. I got a little annoyed in the chapter about Benjamin Zander, because the Ben Zander I knew when I was a teenager and as a young adult (I played flute in his New England Conservatory Youth Chamber Orchestra when I was in high school, and played in the Boston Philharmonic when I was in my very early twenties) seemed to have faded away at the time of the interview had with Larry Ruttman. I would have liked to have "seen" the person I once knew, but time does have a way of changing people (including me).
You can find the book, read an excerpt, and read some reviews of it on Amazon.
Ruttman was under the impression that my father had left the orchestra at that point, but he was mistaken. My father was removed from his position as principal in 1993, and, in some ways just to spite Seiji Ozawa and his years of abuse, remained in the viola section while receiving, as I recall, principal pay. He retired in 2004.
Arzewski described my father as a great violist, a loner, a thinker, and a very bright man. She said that she saw what was happening to him before she left, and saw that Seiji Ozawa had "designs" on my father. She said that everybody knew it.
I am so grateful that Cecylia Arzewski said the quiet part out loud. It was extremely difficult for me and members of my family to process the decades-long abuse that my father hand to endure. Ozawa did little things, like tell my father that his bow made too much noise. My father used to say that Ozawa told him that his bow went "tick-tick-tick" when it should go "woo-woo-woo." This sent my father on a very expensive quest for a succession of bows that Ozawa might be able to tolerate. Ozawa criticized my father's leadership, while everybody in his section felt greatful to have him as a leader. When my father recorded Don Quixote by Richard Strauss (the solo viola plays the part of Sancho Panza to the the solo cellist's Don Quixote), his name was left off the record cover.
But I digress . . .
There is a lot that is worthwile in this book. I found the chapter about Joan Tower particularly interesting. I also enjoyed reading about Robert Levin's experiences as a student of Nadia Boulanger. I got a little annoyed in the chapter about Benjamin Zander, because the Ben Zander I knew when I was a teenager and as a young adult (I played flute in his New England Conservatory Youth Chamber Orchestra when I was in high school, and played in the Boston Philharmonic when I was in my very early twenties) seemed to have faded away at the time of the interview had with Larry Ruttman. I would have liked to have "seen" the person I once knew, but time does have a way of changing people (including me).
You can find the book, read an excerpt, and read some reviews of it on Amazon.
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