Dear Readers,
We lost another giant. Mo. Masur has passed on, at the age of 88, due to complications from Parkinson's disease. My reminiscences are not really important, though what I learned from him, especially during the summer of 1986 at Tanglewood, was unforgettable and invaluable. Parkinson's is a cruel affliction, among the world's most inexorable death sentences. Yet I will remember Mo. Masur not for that struggle, but for his performances, especially of Brahms, which moved me away from the Szell paradigm to a warmer, more generous approach, and his teaching, which was equally generous and ever insightful. Yet, I also remember him telling us how he wouldn't do Symphonie Fantastique, because he considered it dishonest. Then two days later, he conducted Liszt's Dante Symphony. Oh well, chacun à son gout. We will celebrate his memory with our Salome performance in January, the last German work we will perform this year. And I will do my best to pass on what he taught, to continue the chain, maintain the legacy, as we pursue the cause of art to which he dedicated his life. Requiescat in pace. - MG
We lost another giant. Mo. Masur has passed on, at the age of 88, due to complications from Parkinson's disease. My reminiscences are not really important, though what I learned from him, especially during the summer of 1986 at Tanglewood, was unforgettable and invaluable. Parkinson's is a cruel affliction, among the world's most inexorable death sentences. Yet I will remember Mo. Masur not for that struggle, but for his performances, especially of Brahms, which moved me away from the Szell paradigm to a warmer, more generous approach, and his teaching, which was equally generous and ever insightful. Yet, I also remember him telling us how he wouldn't do Symphonie Fantastique, because he considered it dishonest. Then two days later, he conducted Liszt's Dante Symphony. Oh well, chacun à son gout. We will celebrate his memory with our Salome performance in January, the last German work we will perform this year. And I will do my best to pass on what he taught, to continue the chain, maintain the legacy, as we pursue the cause of art to which he dedicated his life. Requiescat in pace. - MG
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