QuoteJanos Starker died today, Sunday, April 28, at age 88 at his home in Bloomington, Indiana.
http://www.examiner.com/article/famed-cellist-janos-starker-died-today
http://www.youtube.com/v/4MEUIGjfHNw&playnext=1&list=PL222AA5B700847A86
Very sad news. A magnificent cellist he was.
A great musician. He was a remarkable interpreter of Kodaly's Sonata, and no one will forget his presence in the legendary recording of Brahms Trios with Suk and Katchen (including also a beautiful version of the Second Cello Sonata with Katchen).
The
Wall Street Journal carried an article today about
Janos Starker:
See:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324266904578461103567260348.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_3 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324266904578461103567260348.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_3)
Some excerpts:
QuoteAt 14, he substituted for another musician, on six hours' notice, in the Dvořák Cello Concerto. He had only one request at the time: "May I use the music?" A year later, he was performing the purportedly unplayable Cello Sonata by Zoltán Kodály, a work for which Starker eventually won France's prestigious Grand Prix du Disque in 1957. The composer described Starker's performance of his composition to Mr. Pressler as "'the bible.' And Kodály was not easy," Mr. Pressler added.
Starker had a less auspicious account of Kodály's initial reaction to his interpretation of the sonata. "After [my] concert, while I was still responding to the ovation," he wrote, "Kodály was the first to speak to me. 'First movement, too fast. Second, OK. Third, don't separate too much the variations.' I hadn't noticed as yet that they were variations," he admitted.
QuoteOnce, during his tenure at the Met, Eugene Ormandy was conducting and, wrote Mr. Starker, "His well known habit of expecting maximum body gyration from his players became evident. For a lifetime I have been known to use minimal body motions. My section and I played fortississimo [very loudly] but with no swaying, and Ormandy kept gesturing toward me for more and more. Finally I asked him if there was anything wrong. 'Oh,' he said, 'I am so accustomed to my great Philadelphia cello section.' That rubbed me the wrong way. I said, 'Mr. Ormandy, you don't have a better section than us. However, we sit to your left while Philly sits on your right.' He was at a loss for words. . . . The next day he wrote a letter complaining about lack of cooperation." Ormandy carried a dislike for the cellist to his last days.
Here's another cute Starker story involving Reiner:
Quote"Playing with Reiner," he once said, "you learn something new at every rehearsal." He still wears as a souvenir of Chicago days a tiepin given to him by the members of his section to commemorate an event of the last season. Reiner, who had been as close to Starker as he ever permits himself to be with an employee, had paid public tribute to his retiring first cellist shorly before a performance of the Verdi Requiem. At the final rehearsal, however, Starker forgot to count during a passage for unaccompanied sopranos, and came in, loudly, a bar too soon. Reiner gave him an infuriated look and threw his baton violently to the ground, where it snapped. Some time passed before the two men made it up, and in the interim the section bought Starker a gold tiepin in the shape of a broken baton.
I just stumbled across a live recording of Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello with Starker. It's been uploaded to youtube and I'm trying to see if 1) It's ever been issued on CD and/or 2) If it's available as a decent quality download. The recording was made in Hungary by Budapest Radio. There are some references to Naxos of America and Delos. Does anyone hear know anything about this recording? If not, I might shoot off an email to those two labels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GvmwNP0iYg
PD
From his book:
"In the spring of 1948 Zoltan Kodaly, on his way back from giving a lecture in the U.S., stopped in Paris. He was honored by the Hungarian ambassador, the Hungarian Institute, and many other groups, and wherever he went I was asked to be there and play at least part of the sonata. My acquaintance with Kodaly was minimal. As a student I had twice attended his folklore class at the Academy. In 1939, when I started learning the sonata, my teacher asked Kodaly to hear me. I played the first movement. Kodaly asked if I planned to perform it, and my teacher said it was scheduled for June 1 concert. After the concert, while I was still responding to the ovation, Kodaly was the first to speak to me. 'First movement, too fast. Second, O.K. Third, don't separate too much the variations. Good night.' I hadn't noticed as yet that they were variations. Now in Paris he basked in the usual celebrations, and the fact that a recording of his work, which until then had been obscure, received the prize was an extra bonus."
Note: Janos Starker had earlier received the Grand Prix du Disque (first prize) for the Kodaly work.
I see (looking back) that Cato had posted an abbreviated version regarding this story. ;D
PD