Word: fiedler
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...Fiedler's widow, Ellen Bottomley Fielder, and her children attended the service, as did friends and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) staff. "People from all walks of life, the Boston Symphony, the Pops, the trustees, all the symphony's stage employees, his chauffeur, and ushers were there," Dickson, assistant conductor, said yesterday...
...Fiedler seemed destined to be a musician. His grandsires were musicians in Europe (Fiedler is German for fiddler), and his father, two uncles and a first cousin were all members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Fiedler joined the orchestra in 1915 as a violinist. Eager to conduct, the suave young maestro founded a series of free outdoor Esplanade concerts that are now a Boston tradition. In 1930 he was named conductor of the Boston Pops, the symphony's spring series, and proudly held that position for half a century...
Gradually the Fiedler formula evolved: lilting semiclassics, what he called gumdrops, or popular tunes, and some serious music: Stravinsky, Handel, concertos. The idea spread to other symphonies, but Fiedler's popularity was patented. Critics called his concerts "the classiest jukebox in the world." Retorted Fiedler: "A Strauss waltz is as good a thing of its kind as a Beethoven symphony. It's nice to eat a good hunk of beef but you want a light dessert too. That's what the Pops is." He had an uncanny ability to gauge the tastes of the times. He orchestrated...
...Fiedler would not tolerate substandard playing. Once, to punish his musicians for an unruly session, he made them rehearse a three-minute mambo for 70 minutes. Well into his 80s, even after several heart attacks, he continued to lead the orchestra. "If I retired, I'd just be hanging around waiting to go to the dentist or doctor or undertaker," he said. Toward the end, the proud old man would shuffle unsteadily to the podium. But then, invigorated by the music, he seemed to shed 20 years. When Fiedler died last week, Boston lost one of its best-known...
...cursed that wherever I'm engaged they want a program like the Pops," Fiedler once said. "But every clown wants to play Hamlet." He never did play Hamlet, but he was a peerless Puck...