Word: cello
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...doctors' orchestra was organized in 1938, now numbers some 50 medical men, their relatives and a handful of professional musicians, including Conductor Maxim Waldo. There are no standard medical-musical tie-ups. Dentists play violins, cello, horn, bass. General practitioners play flutes and timpani, a dermatologist plays viola. The doctors prefer to remain anonymous to avoid publicity that might be contrary to medical ethics...
...also knows why he gets so few chances to prove it to the public. "Concert managers tell you the cello is a little-liked instrument," he says. Then he explains: "The cello is about a century behind the violin. Paganini [1782-1840] was the turning point in the violin, 100 years before Pablo Casals [born 1876] who was the turning point in the cello." Those 100 years. Starker points out, enclose most of the great composers. Since they wrote relatively little music for the cello virtuoso, he reasons, the cello is an unfamiliar solo instrument to the public...
Tense & Silken. Moreover. Starker thinks, the instrument is not entirely familiar to the men who play it. "In cello playing, the accepted standards are lower than with the violin. Basic under standing of the instrument is not developed. Players may know how to go from one place to another, but not why it is difficult to do so, or how to do it better." To improve this situation, Cellist Starker hopes to start a professional school for string players, teaches cello privately, and travels among U.S. community orchestras as string consultant. Meanwhile, he plays solo whenever he gets the chance...
Last week, with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, Janos Starker played a piece that might reduce many a strong man to sentimentality-Schumann's Cello Concerto. Under the pale lights, Starker's sunken cheeks looked drained of blood as he bent to the romantic work, but he never bowed to its maudlin potentialities. His tone was neither too plump nor too lean, but pure, tense and silken. He sculpted the long, melodic lines precisely, restraining himself where a lesser musician might have whipped up some phony passion, then letting his instrument sing passionately, when passion was called...
Linda Schein, viola, and Stephen McGhee, 'cello, joined the Quartet for the Brahms, which made fascinating listening indeed, although one of the violas was too weak in the opening movement. It was the chance to hear this rarity for which we should be most grateful...