Said the startled cellist to the conductor: "Are those your metronome marks in the score?" Replied the conductor adamantly: "Yes." And at that point, reports the Boston Symphony's First Cellist Sammy Mayes, Russia's Dmitry Kabalevsky simply "took off." Composer Kabalevsky was conducting his own cello concerto in Boston, and "he wanted it a lot faster than we usually play it. You start flying around like a young gazelle."
Kabalevsky's conducting stint last week was the high point for a touring musical contingent from Russia, including Composers Dmitry Shostakovich, Konstantin Dankevich, Tikhon Khrennikov, Fikret Amirov, and Music Critic Boris Yarustovsky. As they were...
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