National Review: A Maestro-Ambassador, Gerard Schwarz
Gerard Schwarz is an exemplary musician. He was a hotshot trumpeter — one of the best in the world. Then he became a leading conductor. For many years, he led the Seattle Symphony, and also the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. He has led other institutions too. Now he is going to the Palm Beach Symphony. I joke that this is a “hardship post.”
National Review
Jay Nordlinger
Gerard Schwarz is an exemplary musician. He was a hotshot trumpeter — one of the best in the world. Then he became a leading conductor. For many years, he led the Seattle Symphony, and also the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. He has led other institutions too. Now he is going to the Palm Beach Symphony. I joke that this is a “hardship post.”
In addition to being a superb player and conductor, he is an outstanding — really good — talker about music, and teacher of music. There is more than a little Bernstein in him. (He knew the late maestro and played under him in the New York Philharmonic.)
Listen to the Q&A session between Maestro Gerard Schwarz and Jay Nordlinger here.
National Review: The Harpsichordist, An Instrument of Their Own
Mahan Esfahani is a musician, and an unusual one. He’s not a pianist, violinist, cellist, or even a tuba player: He is a harpsichordist. Jay talks with him about his life and his instrument. William F. Buckley Jr., a devotee of the harpsichord his entire life, would have loved this.
National Review
Jay Nordlinger
William F. Buckley Jr. would have loved meeting Mahan Esfahani. I have done a Q&A with Esfahani, here. He is one of the leading harpsichordists in the world. He is also sort of an evangelist for his instrument — making the case for it as a going, living concern. WFB was devoted to the harpsichord, all his life. He owned several and played them regularly. He knew Wanda Landowska, and her student Ralph Kirkpatrick, and his student Fernando Valenti, and so on. He told many stories about them (a few of which I shared with Esfahani). He had harpsichordists give recitals in his home(s). He definitely would have loved having Esfahani over. I think the feeling would have been mutual.
Read more here.