Sigma Alpha Iota

BOOK REVIEW A Continuous Conversation Between Geniuses A fter concert pianist Malcolm Frager passed on in June 1991, renowned maestro Max Rudolf wrote: "The world has lost an artist of enormous talent, noteworthy achievements, a man of integrity and unsurpassed devotion to his chosen profession." This description captures the essence of my older brother. Dear Max/Lieber Malcolm: The Rudolf/Frager Correspondence is a record of the letters these two geniuses wrote one another between 1982 and 1991. It is not unusual that each kept the other's letters, but extraordinary that Max also saved copies of his own letters. In the book's acknowledgement, Rudolf 's son William writes: "The exchange with Malcolm Frager had special significance for my father because it was not sporadic. It was an ongoing sharing of thoughts about music performance at the highest professional level." Quotes I've chosen for this article stand on their own merit, indicative of the inspiring and thought-provoking letters. In order to savor each one, I highly recommend reading the book at a leisurely pace. In the introduction, Peter Serkin writes of these two correspondents: "We could say that they were real musicians— eager to keep learning... And no detail would be too small to merit their consideration." I do not know for certain exactly why the correspondence began, but fueling it was a shared passion for musical research and performance. Covering a wide range of topics (including metronome markings, tempo, omitting da capo repeats, and free bowing by string players), these two dedicated scholarly musicians wrote from their unique perspectives, addressing each other more formally as Dear Dr. Rudolf and Dear Mr. Frager at first and later as Max and Malcolm. The letters have great appeal for pianists and conductors in particular and serious classical musicians in general. Malcolm and I come from a family of letter writers. Returning from long concert tours, he sometimes found about 100 letters to which he could respond quickly as he typed over 200 words per minute, a clerk-typist record he set in the United States Army. Many letters highlight a lack of attention (by performers and conductors) to composers' markings. Because he valued musicological research, Malcolm sent Rudolf 's scholarly articles to other conductors from time to time. He knew conductors sensitive about correction who refused to conduct the piece as written and often asked Rudolf for practical help. Once he responded: "To discuss [the] perverse tempo choices . . . would be a waste of time." 8 PAN PIPES WINTER 2011 sai-national.org Dear Max/Lieber Malcolm: The Rudolf/Frager Correspondence By Max Rudolf & Malcolm Frager; Published by Pendragon Press, 2010 258 pages My brother had no problem with tempo in playing Beethoven's first piano concerto under Maestro Ivan Fischer who was thrilled that Malcolm (unlike any other soloist) was willing to play the marking alla breve. Always particular about which edition of a score he learned, whenever possible Malcolm searched autographs and first editions instead of relying on current ones in print. He played the original 1875 version of Tschaikovsky's piano concerto with its lovely opening arpeggios and also found the original manuscript of the first movement of Schumann's piano concerto. Malcolm had strong feelings about playing divisi when the composers had not written it. Until I read this book, I had not thought about questioning this term penciled in cello music, although I have certainly not always followed fingering and bowing suggestions. A fluent linguist with an ear for languages, he sounded like a native speaker in seven or eight of them. Some letters in the book are written in German with English translations for the reader. During his career, my brother concertized in about eighty countries, yet singled out several special audiences in Eastern Europe. "The most beautiful audience I played to was the audience in Prague," he wrote to Rudolf. "I can scarcely describe what I felt." A voracious reader, Malcolm read not only for pleasure but also to gain insight about performing. He notes one book by Max Maria von Weber. "I must say I finished it with tears in my eyes, as it is very moving. I have never read a biography that has touched me so." Although Malcolm won the two most prestigious international piano competitions of the time (the Leventritt in 1959 and the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in 1960), he was not keen about serving on juries himself. Once when he was a judge in Lisbon, the prize went to the son and pupil of the jury chairman. This young man was not my brother's first choice. Malcolm recalls what happened there after a pianist's performance of a Beethoven sonata: ". . . one of the jurors came over to me and said scoldingly, 'He played a demisemiquaver at the beginning of the second movement,' to which I replied, 'My dear, it IS a demisemiquaver!" Rudolf argues that there is a difference between music reviewers who started out as performers, which he thinks essential, and theorists. Once he responded to a Zürich review in which he was accused of changing a Haydn score. "This, of course, was the way Haydn had written it, but the critic didn't know that, being unaware of the new Haydn edition." Rudolf continues: "Musicologists know a lot about –ology but nothing about music." In Chicago, after performing the Schumann Kinderszenenen with the original metronome markings, which other pianists do not follow, Malcolm commented: ". . . I think it is amusing that neither reviewer even noticed that I was playing quite unorthodox tempi. One vignette in the book brought back a special memory. When Malcolm mentions telephoning concert violinist Erica Morini, I recalled the wonderful afternoon I spent in New York in 1962 in her apartment listening to the piano trios she played with Lazlo Varga (principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic) and my brother. Unfortunately, in this first edition, there is no index that would help readers find references, and the proofreader missed quite a few minor mistakes. Even with this omission and these errors, however, I think classical musicians will enjoy this rare documentation of correspondence between two musical giants. Jayne I. Hanlin is an initiate of Alpha Omicron and current member of the St. Louis Alumnae chapter. Mrs. Hanlin, a sister of famed pianist Malcolm Frager, is the co-author of Learning Latin Through Mythology (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

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