Word: kaplan
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They had come to see whether the Flatbush branch of the Brooklyn Public Library ought to share in a $3 million grant that would wire it to the Internet. Donald Kaplan, who works for the library system, recalls that the emissaries from Redmond, Washington, were dubious: "One of them asked, 'Will this be like the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, where a Coke bottle falls out of the sky and no one knows what to do with it?'" Kaplan shrugged off the gibe, saying, "No, it'll be like the movie Field of Dreams--build it, and they will...
...took 15 years, however, for Mahler to grow into an obsession. In the meantime, Kaplan had founded the investment magazine that made his fortune, and thus had the financial underpinning for what seemed an impossible leap: from Mahler fan to Mahler interpreter. "At age 40, I woke up one morning and knew in my mind that I was going to conduct this piece," says Kaplan...
...telephoned the dean of the Juilliard School for advice and soon was taking lessons from Charles Bornstein, a recent graduate. At his summer house on Long Island, New York, Kaplan and Bornstein worked for a month, nine hours a day, on the first movement alone. Kaplan then booked the American Symphony for a private rehearsal. The results were good, so Kaplan kept at it, conducting the piece in public for the first time...
Musicians are not CDs; they await cues, tempos, phrasing instructions and a host of interpretative intangibles from the guy who's waving a baton at them. If Kaplan at Salzburg did not bring to mind a slick stick like Riccardo Muti or Valery Gergiev, his intense, attentive manner in front of the Philharmonia, the Vienna State Opera Chorus, mezzo-soprano Doris Soffel and soprano Rosa Mannion bespoke a firm grasp. Mahler's heaven-storming climaxes shook the Grossesfestspielhaus to its granite foundations, and anyone who did not feel a chill at the tremendous peroration must either have been dead...
...Although Kaplan is much in demand--he has made 10 appearances in the past year--he harbors no illusions about making conducting a second career. He donates his fees to charity and turns down invitations to lead other Mahler works, most recently a Das Lied von der Erde in Vienna. "I don't regard myself as a conductor," he says. "The driving force with me was always the music." In this day of bored, globe-trotting professionals, those are sentiments to be resurrected...