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Reaching the Pinnacle. - Janos Starker

The verdict is a difficult one but certainly drives home the point that the pinnacle is definitely not a sharp point with room for only one or few but more likely to be broader with space for a few more but certainly not a village.

Just like caveats doled out by investment peddlers that ‘past performance is no guarantee of future performance’, the same sometime applies to talented musicians that fall flat when rewarded with a promotion to first chair, concert master or conductor only to be classed as a one hit record thereafter. Such outcomes are very costly to both the organization as well as the talent. Especially for the talent, it might be a regressive step career wise that he might not recover from. Janos was one such talent but he recovered well by retreating (or more appropriately switching as neither role supersedes the other) back to “SoloShip”.

We can draw valuable lessons from both Harvard Business School case study "When a New Manager Stumbles, Who’s at Fault?" by Gordon Adler as well as the life of great cellist Janos Starker that has left us in recent past.

In the world of classical music performance, the apex is occupied by soloists or conductors. Conducting mirrors management in business world as in getting things done THROUGH people. For the conductor to do likewise, he must maintain a macro view of the music and seduce the orchestra to do his bidding. His main instrument; the baton is more likely to produce more noise than music especially in a not so abiding orchestra. Off stage, he is responsible for maintaining good human capital hygiene and leadership for the orchestra. With strong anecdotal evidence that musicians in general are more eccentric does not make the task simpler. Add the idiosyncrasies of the conductor and multiplicity of viewpoints as music is more of an art than science and you have an enigmatic brew in the making. It is a great wonder that we have so much great music made under such circumstances.

The path to a conducting career is made after being good but not necessarily great or greatest in one or more instruments of which violin and piano are the most common. Generally they will work their way to first chair. For violinist, there is a promotion to concert master just a grade below a conductor but the differential is liken to heaven and hell. Most great conductors like Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado have never been featured as soloist or first chair and might not know ground zero that well. On the other hand, we have Vladimir Ashkenazy started life as pianist and profess he never aspired to be a conductor but got into it by 'accident'. Nikolaus Harnoncourt was bred from a rare specie; tympanist, to a conductor. Mstislav Rostropovich like Starker, started life as cellist for which the path to enlightenment is that of a celebrated soloist rather than a conductor.

I always have a soft spot for Rostropovich as he is such a warm and humble person to be around. On the other hand, I am less forgiving in the case of Starker for his smarty two pants persona. In addition, Rostropovich has stood up for political causes repeatedly with little or no private agendas except with very genuine and emotive tears of joy or sadness depending on the occasion. Unlike most Russian musicians of his era that seek political at the earliest opportunity, his was the reverse as the Russian government renounced his citizenship. I think his love for motherland Russia is deep as he returned to Russia once his citizenship was reinstated.

Starker is quite a departure from the norm in more ways than one with a mostly technical and stoic posturing on stage and sanguine and opinionated off stage. He openly said in one of the press interviews that "Conductors are the most over rated" of all musicians. I can see where this might have originated as there were a few occasions that the conductor walked out mid way through a performance forcing the concert master to take over for varied reasons. Some of which are the orchestra working against him or divergent views with the soloist. A conductor once made a public proclamation before the piece that he had very different view of the music from the soloist but allowed the soloist view to prevail. This actually happened to the famous but queer Canadian pianist Glenn Gould unsurprisingly. This view point does hold some truths in a limited sense in a corporate setting. Most companies will continue to function in the short to medium with the COO, CFO or a board member taking the role temporarily if the CEO takes leave suddenly.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Starker's conducting career was a bit 747 heavy and did not quite take off in aeronautic speak perhaps because of the much higher expectation placed on him as an already famous cellist. However, he got his just reward in winning a Grammy award for his highly stoic and technical recording of Bach cello suites. Winning a Grammy is a rare occasion for classical musician and some sour grapes attribute it to his friendly relations with the press.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
Safe HarborPlease note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Henryk Szeryng and Brahms Violin Concerto in D minor Opus 77

Henryk Szeryng (Photo credit:Wikipedia)

I bought Brahms symphonic works set by Decca with Bernard Haitink conducting Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) for the 4 symphonies and it was on sale. While browsing in the comfort of my home, (model customer buying without testing and much forethought) opus 77 caught my sight being one of my favorite pieces having written a review of it previously. Was pleasantly surprised by the very crisp tonality (not necessarily a plus point) of solo violinist Henryk Szeryng with Bernard Haitink conducting RCO.

This recording is a recent remastering by Decca of the original by Philips and expected a darker background but there is still evidence of tape hiss which disappeared once the beautiful music lure you away from it. The remastering engineer could have decided to sacrifice a bit of the tape hiss for a more full bodied sound as I have heard some remastering that are clinical but lacked energy.

For more background on this composition, refer to my previous review so there is no need to repeat it.

This piece most probably have a special place in Szeryng heart being his coming of age first public performance in 1933 with his motherland orchestra; Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Like most Polish, Szeryng is a Jew but was spared the horror of 2nd world war holocaust. During the war, he made over 300 appearances to cheer the Allied Forces on top of helping about 4,000 Jewish refugee in their passage to Mexico in 1941.

Specific to this interpretation, I particularly like the grand entrance by Szeryng that is controlled without maximum volume. It is beyond words and you should listen it yourself. The cadenza might not have the technical mastery of Heifetz but is waxed lyrical with the beautifully executed phrasing. As this is an audio, I can only try to imagine what Szeryng did during the famously long break for the soloist while the wood winds take centre stage in the second movement. Wonder if any soloist has ever missed the timely return? It is also for this reason why some violinist stay away from this piece.

Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Janos Starker-Highly Complex Muscian

Hugarian Jewish cellist Janos Starker. (photo credit: courtesy)

Of late, I seems to be writing tributes to public figures like Margaret Thatcher. When news of famous cellist Janos Starker death on 28 April 2013 reached me, writing a tribute to this great musician has been on must do list.

Thanks to marketing hype, Yo-Yo Ma rings most bells and some might ask who is Starker. Ma is sort of a crossover performing both popular and classical music that reaches a larger audience.It includes performances in key events like the inauguration of president Barack Obama which was inflamed by voice over tactics having criticized China of the same during the Beijing Olympics.

In China's case, it was a straight forward case as both the recorded voice talent and the live performer were two different persons; Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke respectively. The USA presidential staff defended their move ferociously stating categorically that it was not voice over as the artist and performers were the same person and the 'mixing' of the two was due to strong wind conditions that could decapitate the microphones. The first few rows of audience clearly heard the dissonance and it quickly became news. Whether it was a lame excuse to ensure near perfect performance or otherwise, only God knows.

My knowledge of Starker is gleaned from his recordings as well as second hand accounts from the media. Cellists are most probably a distant second only to violinists in terms of works to show case them on the pedestal. These works can be classed as solos, sonatas and concertos. Some of the famous cellists both past and present includes Rostropovich, Piatigorsky, Maisky,DuPre and Casals that popularize Bach Cello Suites which the general public might hear excerpts of as background music. Starker won a Grammy award for his recording of this much recorded piece which says volumes of his skills.

Starker's parentage were both of Jewish stock with father of Hungarian and mother of Ukrainian descent. During the Second World War, he cheated death although he was interned in a Nazi prison that deeply affected him as he made much reference to it thereafter. Without being racist, even Adolf Hilter listens to records by Jewish musicians when they found records of them in his personal bunker.

He was a child prodigy and much sought after during his life time. It saddens me that such a great musician spent his final days in a hospice in Bloomington, Indiana USA instead of his home according to New York Times corrigendum who thought he died in his home instead at a ripe old age of 88. Plus he is survived by many close ones like his two daughters, three grand children and his second wife. His first marriage ended in divorce like most talented musician perhaps due to their idiosyncrasies.

Starker's persona seems like polar opposites to his musical style. He was well known for his technical mastery sometimes edging on being a stoic. He recounted in an interview with Internet Cello Society in 1996 that he is a musician, not an actor and criticizing some musicians for acting like making love to themselves on stage. To add leanness to this, he was judicious in the use of vibrato which only gain fade in recent past. Excessive vibrato is like women smearing lipstick on their face according to him. This was an interesting conjecture as he lost the top place to his student Ivan Janzer in a Geneva Cello Competition in 1946 on account of technical accuracy. This did not dampen the teaching aspect of his career as he himself remarked that he cannot perform without teaching and cannot teach without performing.

Just as well that this humiliating episode happened early in this life as humility wass certainly not in his dictionary. Fellow peer Rostropovich shared this about Starker “What I’d like to see is a little more humility and dignity displayed towards our art, and less self-aggrandizement,” in a 1980 interview with People Magazine.On one occasion reported by The Telegraph, he remarked that Rostropovich is more famous but he is a greater cellist. For Jacqueline DuPre whose life was cut short by multiple sclerosis, his view being that she gave too much of her life to music until there was not much left.

This off stage behavior was not only limited to his peers but also to conductors.He was quoted by New York Times reporters that "conductors are the most overrated musician" having cross swords with giants like Herbert von Karajan and Eugene Ormandy. In the case of Ormandy, the feud lasted 30 years after a joint performance of Die Fledermaus on account that Ormandy did not know the score according to Starker. The verdict on who rules the stage; conductor or soloist will never cast in stone. My own opinion is more about harmony as well as seducing rather than forcing each other into their agendas.

Cigarettes and Scotch were his other habits or rather addictions as he keeps them close with him always. It was rumored that he once cancelled a concert as the hall imposed a strict no smoking rule.

Which was his real character? As expressed by his music or his off stage character? You be the judge.

Social Media-The Next Paradigm

Managing Social Media in the Work Place

Peter Lye

Social media is becoming so pervasive that to ignore it is tantamount to subscribing to the ostrich syndrome. As senior leaders of your companies, it is best to examine how to leverage social media by harvesting the upsides and addressing the down sides.

Technologies

Two other partnering technologies also served to make social marketing more pervasive. The first is the advent of smart phones like Apple's proprietary iPhones and Google's open source Android software married with Samsung and HTC hardware primarily. I have left out Microsoft and BlackBerry as they have sort of lost the mind share of their customers.

The second is the introduction of high speed wireless technologies like 3G and LTE to carry the heavier traffic that these smartphones consume at more reasonable rates. Being digital it can make more efficient use of finite radio frequency spectrum translating to lower cost for the consumers.

Software

We shall examine FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Goggle+. From a usage perspective, we can group FaceBook, LinkedIn and Goggle+ as an information sharing platform. It basically dishes out information to pre-determined sets of customized groups called friends, links and circles respectively. The latent power is its ability to go viral very quickly as information gets relayed down further vertically like a tree spreading out from the tree trunks. These content can be a text, picture or even movies.

Of late, LinkedIn also provides services to HR functions by using their automated résumé profiler. Job seekers, wise up om this.

Twitter also functions like wise but is limited to 140 characters. It is very useful and potent. Recently, A twitter account was hacked to send out wrong material information of a company and her share price tanked for a couple of minutes. Double check the information from an alternate source unless you have no choice.

Right Angle Turn

Before the advent of cellphones or in its initial phase, the functions were restricted to phone calls. It was also a sort of status symbol as both cost of handsets and usage were pretty hefty. The first few smartphones were primarily made by Nokia with Symbian software but the take up rate was patchy. Microsoft and RIM also introduced their line-up and RIM was most probably the most successful in the enterprise space primarily because of their stable and more secure email platform. For once, executives could read and reply to emails outside their offices.

The right angle turn most probably happened with the introduction of iPhone and competitive data plans to ignite the spark of this paradigm. It was fashionable to have an iPhone. It displaced the existing market leaders like Nokia and Ericsson in a space of less than a year. Apple maintained market leadership for a number of years without much peer to challenge them until Samsung decided to discard her image of selling phones based on lower price points to a premium player to challenge Apple. The relationship between Apple and Samsung was very complex as Samsung was also a supplier to Apple. It is like sleeping with your enemies initially. It went so bad that legal eagles got involved in suits and counter suits for patent infringements claims in the courts of many countries.

Work and Play

The Y and Z generations basically harvested the framework done mostly by the generation X. Being born into this phase, their viewpoints of technology and out look of life integrates both work and play. They considered the concept where work were only done within the confines of office as dated as work can be done at any place save for some professions. However for such professions, they can or are working part of the time in cyberspace. The upside being able to cut down on travel time. The other social implication is the blurring between work and play time.On the same note that they believe work can be done anywhere, they also believe in having adequate private space and time to go onto their social media. What then do we do in such situations? A smart manage/supervisor will keep enough straight jacket on to ensure work is done and allow time for the private space and time.

Collaboration tools like multiple parties conference can also reduce the need to travel.

Internet materials can range from peer reviewed materials down to outright cheating and it is not advisable to treat it as the gospel truth without verification, Lastly, social marketing could also bring your products,services and image to a new level or down the chute with the same velocity.

Walk into any cafes, restaurant or shopping centers, it is common to see groups or couples armed with their smart phones either doing work, playing games or watching their shows with headphones of course. Sometimes they start talking or listening only to eat or when their movies have ended. In my mind, these are hardly gathering as they spend more time with their smart phones than with each other. This phenomenon is also very common at home robbing the family of quality time together.

Where do we draw the line on acceptable use policy at workplace? Social media access is also a necessary tool for many employees. There is no right or wrong answers but either extremes is ill advisable. However for pornography, it is an absolute no-no in most companies. Knee jerk reactions just because of a few out layers is also not advisable.

On a concluding note, social media looks like rock and a hard place but being aware of the factors might provide you the right level of light for you to take the next step but not to see light at the end of the tunnel. It might not be a root problem and simply a symptom of issues such as motivation, home front issues, unreasonable supervisor etc.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe HarborPlease note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Tributes to Margaret Thatcher

Photo Credit : Wikipedia

How often do you have an opponent arranging a more honourable final send off? This was exactly what Tony Blair from Labour Party did to honour the late Margaret Thatcher of Conservative Party with a military funeral procession which is one level short of a state funeral. The Economist also noted that she was most probably the two most notable prime ministers in UK with Winston Churchill being the other. Churchill was remembered for Normandy that ended World War II. Thatcher most probably out ranked him with a smaller but more controversial Falklands Wars and creating an economic school of thought known as Thatcherism. President Ronald Regan is the other head of state that managed to postulate an economic school of thought called Reganomics.

Her ascent to 10 Downing Street was significant for 2 reasons. Firstly, she had to unseat the then leader of the Conservative Party Edward Heath who was bitter about this to the end before she lead the Conservative Party to victory in 1979 General Election. Secondly, her downfall was started by her own party colleague Michael Heseltine. Her premiership spanned from 1979 to 1980 making her the longest occupant of 10 Downing Street in 20^th century.

Thatcherism was a bitter pill for UK with the Labour Party deeply rooted Keynesian welfarism over a period of 44 hours. She was very convicted that UK needed to be weaned off Keynesian welfare state mindset. Many believed that Thatcherism was primarily an off-shoot of Chicago School of Economics championed by Milton Friedman who won a Nobel Prize. There were strong evidence to suggest that it was influenced much closer to home by Friedrich von Hayek from Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) who went on to share the Nobel Prize for his work on theory of money. Thatcher was widely reported to have many meetings with von Hayek than with Friedman perhaps due to geographical reasons. Neither von Hayek nor Friedman was officially appointed as her economic advisor. The trade unions and the Labour Party though defeated were her largest headache in steering UK to Thatcherism and perhaps won her the “Iron Lady” infamy. There was also joke that Thatcherism equals her domestic home economics.

The Falklands war in 1982 was a gamble that won Thatcher domestic support and was a key reason for her re-election 1983. With the bi-polar distribution of influence between US and USSR then, this war had the potential to escalate further up-stream between US and USSR. Good diplomatic posturing and the UN helped to keep the war between the two countries largely isolated. France had sold Exocet missiles to Argentina way before the war and officially went on record that they would stop selling and supporting the these to ease the historically difficult cultural Anglo French relations. UK for once proofed that military wise, it was not tail coating US and can stand on its own two feet. In hindsight, the wisdom of this war though short and causalities below a thousand each with Argentina suffering larger loses is questionable

Looking at the state of the Euro, perhaps UK should be thankful that Thatcher either had great foresight or simple common sense in limiting UK participation without the Euro. Given the current situation with the Euro, UK is spared some of collateral damage from the problems facing countries using the Euro.

As Margaret Thatcher is put to rest in peace, some has rightfully remarked that UK without Thatcher is like Cuba without the Sun.

Privileged Communications. Doctors v Lawyers.

Photo Credit : Internet

I have always wondered why thousand dollar a plate charity benefit dinners are always held in the best hotels in town. Food so gastronomic that it is normally served with silver spoons that most of these guests are born with. Dressing wise, it is the standard tuxedo for men but for the fairer sex, it is a horrendous issue of God knows why? I am lucky not being a woman. Needless to say, those that would benefit from such proceeds will most probably not get to eat at or dressed in such fashion in the near future. To me, why not cut these cost and donate everything to charity instead. This is sort of like wolves in sheep clothing aka hard core meritocracy dressed in charitable egalitarianism.

The social norm is to have alternating seating arrangements for couples. By the way, if you do not have a partner, you would normally have to go find one of acceptable social standing to accompany you. The intern in the public relations company responsible for this event made a mistake of arranging the wives of a doctor and lawyer to be seated beside each other with their husband to buffer. Their disdain for each other via stiff and acidic upper lip sarcasm was common knowledge in high society. What do you expect leaving arrangements to interns unsupervised! Their doctor and lawyer husbands were made aware of it during the pre dinner cocktail. Both agreed that it would serve their purpose and those in the table for the two gentlemen to be seated beside each other to minimize their feuding wives spoiling the occasion. The lawyer told the public relation staff to make the change and she was very apologetic to him for the fiasco.

After the cocktail, the guests were gracefully directed to their tables and seats personally. Both wives were surprised that they were in the table and threw a dirty look at their fellow spouse but the lawyer was quick to save the day by giving the excuse that he has some matters to discuss with the doctor and has arranged for both of them to be seated beside each other and it was their shout. The situation went extremely well with their wives finding like minded guests seated beside them and there was no sign that a tsunami was within sight between their wives. However, signs of an erupting volcano were showing at the table between the doctor and lawyer to everyone.

Photo Credit: Internet

Between the starter and soup, both gentlemen were engaged in a very plastic social butterfly conversation on which profession is more privileged. Women gossips about people but greater men discuss ideologies. Apparently both gentlemen were highly regarded in their profession and the comparison went on various planes. Just before the main course was served, they exchanged verbal torrent on which profession is older and therefore more respectable. A tolerant and introverted district judge that happened to be seated across the same table spoke louder than normal "prostitution as the oldest profession does not make it more respectable" to everyone surprise. The increasing loudness of their verbal exchange was annoying him. It startled everyone in the table but the judge looked around the table with a stoic and unapologetic manner and ask if anyone disagree speak up or forever hold their peace.

Seizing the opportunity, the lawyer asked the judge if he would referee on which profession is more privileged or honorable. The judge replied that on the count of honor, his answer was neither and it was for this reason he is addressed as honorable in formal occasions.

Photo Credit : Internet

As for which profession is more privileged when in comes to information as he understand it, it is most probably neither as well. He qualified that it could be a biased opinion being a lawyer before becoming a judge. Doctors are last within the narrow pecking order as it is not difficult for judges to over ride doctor patient confidentiality and demand their testimonial. For lawyers, it is almost next to impossible to direct a lawyer to testify on privileged communication between him and his client but there are exceptions in some countries although in a very narrow manner.

Photo Credit : Internet

Lastly, the judge opined in his personal capacity that the most robust privileged communication is mostly probably spousal in a defining and conclusive manner and carried on working on his main course. In between the marbled cuts, he asked if there are any objections for the two couples to change seats so that everyone in the table can have a peaceful meal and everyone in the table clapped gently in unison and the change was made gracefully without further incidents.

Abe 2 Able?

Prime Minister of Japan Abe has made a rare come back in the same seat that he occupied previously. The question on everybody’s mind is the difference and similarity between Abe then and now. Having just started his tenure, he has made some surprising changes in a short space of time. Not only were they made domestically but also on internationally. This is quite surprising firstly because he belongs to the more conservative LDP party. Secondly, in Japanese political culture, behind the façade of a democracy imposed on them after world war two, Japan has been a monarchy for hundreds of years.

His recent visit to the Yasakuni Shinto Shrine that worships some of the worst second world war heroes/criminals trial by the international court of justice in The Hague. This has created much controversy on domestic and international front although he said that his visit is on a private basis and not as PM of Japan. On the international front, this visit tantamount to a certain extend that Japan isn’t totally repentant about the atrocities it has done during the second world war. It sort of endorses or justify that the war was not totally the fault of Japan. The Germans have surrendered totally and there is no monument to worship Hitler of the Third Reich as heroes. It could also be an overture to the international community that Japan is sovereign to do what it likes within reasonable global sand box.

On the domestic front, the visit is still highly regarded as a heroic act as a man of guts knowing full well the international implications. Secondly, it endorses his personal religious practice of Shintoism. This would likely win him more popular ground support but not all Japanese are like minded about it. Japan is still practicing revisionary history books about their second world war criminality or the lack of it much to the consternation of the international community especially China. Germany has come to terms and condemn their actions openly in their history books to remind future generations never to repeat it.

As if this is not enough to create controversy, he wanted the history text book to change references of ‘sex slave’ to ‘comfort women’ . There seems to be little differential between the two but the interpretation in Japanese is vast. The former implies that the women were forced into sex slavery against their own will. The latter seems to imply that it is not much different between the comfort women and present day prostitute. After all prostitution is the oldest trade by some quarters of society.

There has been long standing sovereignty dispute of old over what China calls Diayu Island and Senkaku by the Japanese. Abe decided to up the ante by first having the island bought over from private ownership to state land and instructing its self defence force to safe guard their claim strongly and there had been a recent near miss between Japanese and Chinese fighter jets over the island with no weaponry exchange. These islands are mere land is in vast sea between Japan and China and have very little economic value unlike some of those in the South China Sea with minerals or oil or much sea or airspace implications.

These two issues have placed the newly elected Chinese XiPing in a tight corner as he cannot be too conferential or lax. So far, he has left the people of China to do the job for him by encouraging or putting minimal steps in stopping the riots against Japanese interest in China. China is totally able to quash the riots like it did in Tiananmen Square but XiPing is letting it go to appease the masses. Heads he wins tail you lose.

On the international front, this has also created a problem for USA who has viewed the Asia Pacific arena as being trilateral between China and its other communist allies as one. On the religion front with Malaysia and Indonesia especially after 911 and Japan with the rest of the countries as the third camp especially The Philippines, South Korea and Japan where USA has defence bases in. Suddenly the alliance has become more complex over night. China has been spending double digit percentage of their GDP on defence and now there is loud outcry for Japan to up its single digit self defence budget to match. After world war two Japan has enshrined into their constitution that they will not go to war and their defence force for self protection. To a certain extent, I would say this part of the constitution could have been placed on them under duress. The culture of violence is very in grained in them evidenced by their comics and computer games for adults. North Korea is on close watch but not on the radar as the largest threat is their ability to launch ICBMs tipped with nuclear head into USA; selfish to a certain extend.

On the economic front, Abe seems determined to get the economy out of the lost decade. He has ‘told’ not ‘advise’ the central bank to achieve a 2% inflation after the long deflation. In recent past, currency traders were also stunted by the dollar yen overnight exchange rate hitting a 4 year low and zig sawing between technical rebounds. This is caused by the Japanese central bank soaking up liquidity by buying back their bonds. Exchange rate is crucial in making Japanese exports competitive and this has ignited a small trade war with USA. The newly elected president Obama has not taken any action or met Abe face to face yet and is likely to leave it to the new incoming vice president. Democrats being less libertarian is likely to have their central bank intervene soon. Normally central banks do not like being told by the government as they view themselves as being independent. Perhaps he is sounding the my way or no way to the rest who intend to stand in his way.

It seems that he has done little to deserved a memorial place in history during his first term and his current agenda is to be a historical change agent for better or for worse so help us God. Japan and Japanese are walkovers although she was decimated after world war two. Unknowing to the world, second world war has not ended but has change facade from a combative to an economic front.

Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 Opus 107-A long wait

Good things are worth the wait cannot be more true than in the case of Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 composed in 1959 and dedicated to Rostropovich. Rostropovich had been yearning for Shostakovich to write him a cello concerto but had to harbor it secretly on advisement of Shostakovich's first wife Nina. When asked by Rostropovich how to ask Shostakovich to write him a cello concerto, her advice was not to mention or even hint anything about it. It must have been a long wait as Nina passed away in 1954 and the composition was only realized in 1959; at least a good 5 years. Many did not realize that it was such a long wait until we put the time-line together. When the composition arrived, Rostropovich received it with such enthusiasm by committing it to memory in a matter of 4 days.

Shostakovich was teacher to Rostropovich I believe for orchestration in the 1940s and he certainly held a deep respect for his teacher. When interviewed by The Strad in their May 1959 issue by M.B.Stanfield, his account of the Shostakovich and Prokofiev cello concertos as "They are supreme masterpieces and one cannot expect all music to come up to their standard" says it all.

Both Shostakovich and Rostropovich share a common trait in having a heavy dose of Russian politics intertwined into their musical career. Shostakovich did it mainly through his composition and Rostropovich his stellar cello performance. Shostakovich had many brushes with Stalin having been publicly denounced by Stalin and thereafter living in paranoia fear of death as people who cross path with Stalin have a habit of disappearing from the face of the earth. Although he outlived Stalin who died in 1953, the mental torture has left a debilitating mark on his psychological landscape as evident in many mysterious and unexplainable passages in his compositions. It was mentioned in passing that the fear of death might have been a greater torture than death itself.

As for Rostropovich, it could have been a soul born in the wrong country so to speak as he was very much a libertarian at heart living in communist Russia. In-spite of this, he had great love for motherland Russia choosing to return once his revoked Russian citizenship was restored and was laid to rest in Russia. Some of his landmark political highlights including performing in London in 1968 on the day when Russian tanks rolled into Poland. There was widespread protest at the concert but Rostropovich continued playing Polish composer Dvorak piece with tears in his eyes. The second significant event this time of his choosing was an impromptu basking in front of the Berlin wall in 1989 when the wall came down.

As with most Shostakovich composition, there is little explanation or narration giving the performer and audience almost total free play in interpreting the music with little or no point of reference save for the historical canvas against which it was written in. My main aim in the review of this cello concerto is to provide that backdrop so that you can enjoy the music more deeply in whichever way you heart bring you as there are enough exposition on the music itself.

Briefly, the piece has the signature Shostakovich motif DSCH written all over the piece. Mainstream opinion that it is only a translation of his name could be too simplistic for this four note motif. I think this queasy four note motif that pervades most of his work has a very deep meaning of a man that has gone through much psychological torture and the equation to his name could be a mere coincidence.

This four movement piece also has a unique feature of having the third movement almost exclusively a cadenza. The possible raison detre is to hall mark the piece as a virtuoso to allow Rostropovich latitude to display his prowess. In reviewing the piece with Shostakovich, Rostropovich has told him not to worry about the outer limits of the cello and just let his soul lead the way. This also explain why this piece is one of the more technically challenging piece amongst the limited cello concerto repertoire.

In the last movement, there lies a distorted version of Suliko song which is a favorite of the now dead Stalin. Perhaps it is meant as a mockery of Stalin than a respectful acknowledgement. Unfortunately, he has brought it to the grave without mentioning anything about it.

Lastly Shostakovich has mentioned personally that he drew much inspiration of this piece from Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante but perhaps my limited understanding of Prokofiev music has me finding it hard to see the relationship between the two. Maybe my love for Shostakovich music as this juncture has to do with the circumstances I am embroiled in.

Some of the recordings I have listened to while writing this article are as follows and it is not in any particular order of preference or merit.

1. Mstislav Rostropovich, Seiji Ozawa, London Symphony Orchestra
2. Mstislav Rostropovich, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, USSR State Symphony Orchestra

3. Mstislav Rostropovich, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
4. Yo-Yo Ma, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
5. Heinrich Schiff, Maxim Shostakovich, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
6. Jiri Barta, Maxim Shostakovich, Prague Symphony Orchestra
7. Alexander Ivashkin, Valeri Polyansky, Moscow Symphony Orchestra

8. Frans Helmerson, Valeri Polyansky, Moscow Symphony Orchestra

9. Mischa Maisky, Tilson Thomas, London Symphony Orchestra