Tonight I needed music.
I spent much of Thursday commenting on various threads about Israel and Palestine, linguistically and historically. Nobody forced me to, I did it because I wanted to. Then this afternoon I played a Mozart violin sonata with a friend. Tonight I needed music, and went to youtube to see what I could find. I listened to an Ave Maria, Jacqueline Du Pre playing Bloch's Kol Nidre - I suppose it neutralized the Ave Maria - and then looked for the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante. What I found was a video of David and Igor Oistrakh playing the first movement. Thus began a journey back in time.
When I was in high school in New York in the 1960's, Saturday afternoons were spent in the Village with a few friends, and we all had our violin lessons with our teacher, Nathalie Ghent. Often she made lunch for us; on Saturday mornings, we were at Brooklyn Tech with the All-City Orchestra. (Did I mention we all lived in the Bronx?)
One Saturday we arrived at her apartment and she told us to put our instruments down, we were going out. She took us in a cab to the studio of a composer - I keep wanting to say it was Ralph Shapey; was he in New York at that time? She was getting some signed music from him to take to the people at our ultimate destination which was Carnegie Hall.
This was the time of the beginning of cultural exchange with the Soviet Union, and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra was in this country for the first time, with David and Igor Oistrakh. Mrs. Ghent was acting as a translator for them, and had gotten permission to bring us to a rehearsal. They were rehearsing the Sinfonia Concertante that afternoon. We sat in the third row; she wanted us to be able to see some technical points of their playing - I remember one thing was the use of different kinds of vibrato - so we didn't sit where the accoustics were best. The orchestra sat in a semi-circle. Igor was playing violin and David was on viola. What I remember most vividly is that they often were facing away from each other, and often with their eyes closed, yet we were close enough to see that they were breathing together. It was incredible to see, and of course, to hear.
So tonight I listened to the first movement. It was not the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, but when I moved on to the two of them playing the Bach Double Concerto, it was their first appearance on American TV, with the Moscow Orchestra, at the end of that first tour. Here is a sample - the last movement.
On a sober note, I googled Mrs. Ghent afterwards, and learned that she died in June of 2006. I have so much to thank her for in my life, and this wonderful experience is part of it.