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Max Rudolf sprang from the same source that spawned Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwangler and George Szell, extraordinary musicians whose gifts, knowledge, training and discipline gave rise to what was undeniably a golden age of music making.
Max, as a performer and teacher, was an invaluable contributor to that time. In addition, he was a uniquely generous friend and colleague; a matchless repository and resource of experience. I remember indelibly the warmth and graciousness with which he received me in his aerie high above Rittenhouse Square, as I sought his advice after telling him of my serious desire to conduct. He presented me with copies of his personal scores of Beethoven, Mozart, Dvorak et al to study. To peruse a score annotated by Max Rudolf was to look upon a thing of wonder and beauty, the orchestral equivalent of the Schnabel edition of the Beethoven sonatas. Years of performance experience reduced to markings and squiggles of performance instructions and recommendations.
Malcolm Frager's bona fides are equally impressive. A student of Carl Friedberg, himself a student of Clara Schumann, Malcolm was a young man of enormous gifts. A winner of the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium prize at a time when such events were meaningful, a self-taught student of the Russian language, he was a person of endless curiosity and boundless enthusiasm, whose life was tragically cut short by virtually Byronesque circumstances. He was felled by an illness much too early.
Both Malcolm and I, in addition to being the only two American pianists to have ever won the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition, were multigenerational beneficiaries of one of the few positive aspects of World War II, namely the influx into America of composers, performers and people of ideas. Unfortunately our individual schedules conspired against our having the contact we could have wished for.
The youthful enthusiasm and inquisitiveness of a Frager together with a measured and wise response of a Rudolf, are inspiring examples of the Sisyphean quest for unification of the twin headed beast Apollo and Dionysus, the quest for spontaneity and inspiration based on knowledge and authenticity.
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