The Beauty, The Power of Music
January 4, 2024
My friend the pianist Mary Joe Pagano, founder and artistic director of The Chamber Music Center of New York, is always on the lookout for talented, young musicians. Recently she told me, excitedly, about the Galvin Cello Quartet, and sent me a link to their web site. The Quartet’s cellists, Sihao He, Sydney Lee, Haddon Kay, and Luis Fernando Venturelli, are brilliant instrumentalists and thoughtful musicians individually, but their renditions as a group, for example of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, are glorious. In the hands of an artist the cello has a seductively beautiful voice, but the richness, depth, and nuance produced by a cello ensemble is a sensory experience beyond description.
Listening to the evocative sound of the Galvins made me think of another cello ensemble and the remarkable experience they once had. The story was told to me by Raimund Trenkler, founder and director of the Kronberg Academy. I met Raimund, a cellist himself, while I was performing at his music festival.
Over lunch one day, Raimund and I began exchanging notes on traveling by air with our instruments and the special problems cellists encounter. Raimund’s cello ensemble had recently returned from a concert tour. He said the performances were met with great success and that travel arrangements, especially for the cellos, had gone off without a hitch—that is, until the final plane trip home. At the airport, luggage had been checked and boarding passes and seat assignments issued for the musicians and their instruments. But when they arrived at the gate, a flight attendant informed them that their cellos would not be allowed on board. And why? Because the pilot claimed the bulky instruments would somehow be an evacuation hazard in case of an emergency landing. No amount of pleading on Raimund’s part moved the flight attendant to reconsider, for, according to airline rules, it was the pilot’s ultimate decision, and his alone, regarding everything from taking off, landing, and, in this instance, allowing cellos on board.
Somehow Raimund managed to talk the flight attendant into letting him speak to the pilot directly. Within a matter of seconds he was face to face with a dour airline captain who refused all of Raimund’s entreaties: We’ve always been allowed on board with our cellos, airline rules permit it, cellos have never posed an evacuation problem. When Raimund finally realized that he was getting nowhere with this rigid and unfeeling man, he tried one last gambit. “Sir, although I disagree with your decision, I must accept that you have final say in the matter, but would you at least allow us to play for you at the gate?” To Raimund’s surprise, the captain shrugged his shoulders and said, “Why not.”
So the musicians took out their cellos, and before the assembled passengers waiting to go on board and the airline captain standing rather stiffly among them, they played with the rapturous sound that can only come from a fine cello ensemble. When they finished, Raimund told me, he looked up to see that the captain’s face had softened and that he seemed visibly moved by the performance. Then the captain turned to the musicians and said, “You can all come on board with your cellos.”
Best wishes for a happy and thriving new year, and one filled with all kinds of glorious music.
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Comments
Thanks ! I really enjoyed the music and the story. Bravo !!!
Beautiful story and such moving and exquisite playing. It actually sounds orchestral! I don’t know if I ever told you I studied cello with John Sessions at Smith, Roger’s son. Arguably his worst student!?? Hope you are well and enjoying life. Happy New Year to you and family!????
Beautiful story and such moving and exquisite playing. It actually sounds orchestral! I don’t know if I ever told you I studied cello with John Sessions at Smith, Roger’s son. Arguably his worst student!?? Hope you are well and enjoying life. Happy New Year to you and family!????
I love this story!! The power of music can soften even a Scrooge! Thank you for listening to the Galvins. They are terrific and hope if they ever have the same travel experience, that they, too, can warm the hearts of the doubters!
Thank you. I am uplifted and grateful for the gift of music. And for you, Arnold. Blessings on you and yours in this new year.
Best wishes to you as well. We sincerely appreciate your life in music, and all that you continue to share with us.
Could this work with politicians?
History is replete with warlords negotiating/trading singers and gambists, more than a few themselves——
As usual, wonderful vignette. Did the Captain move them to first class?
I love this story!! Thank you, Arnold! Proof that the power of music can even soften a Scrooge! If the fabulous Galvin Cello Quartet ever get in this situation, they will know what to do!
Wonderful story, thank you Arnold! It made my day!
May our lives be filled with all kinds of glorious music and excellent stories like this one.
I’m curious about your thoughts on small ensembles: do you think there’s a size that tends to work naturally? While any ensemble can work to make breathtaking music, is the number four somehow a combination that works organically?
I’m an amateur violinist and I adore playing string quartets. On the topic of small ensembles: do you think there’s something fundamentally organic about an ensemble size of four? Is it tge way Western music is structured, or is it something about how people relate? Certainly breathtaking music can come from any ensemble size, four seems done how different. Or, am I simply fooling myself?
Das ist eine wunderbare Geschichte, und man kann es auch verstehen. Musik hat auch mich oft bewegt. Warum soll sie meine Stimmung nicht beeinflussen? Wieder eine herrliche Geschichte von Arnold.
This story proves you can get more with honey than vinegar.
The power of music and the passion of the soul—-it lifted the plane right off the ground—–BRAVO!
the second section really
does sound like an orchestra
sandy
I honestly don’t remember how I stumbled upon your blog (I’m not even in the music industry) but it has always brought me joy and a smile to my face when a new story has hit my inbox. Not many emails evoke that kind of emotion nowadays. Thank you for sharing beauty, music and stories, Arnold! Looking forward to many more in 2024.
-Jane
I once flew NY-SF and noticed yo yo ma heading for a seat a couple of rows behind me, after leaving his cello strapped into a seat across from me. The flight attendant started fiddling around (not a pun) and rolled her eyes and asked me “What am I supposed to do with this?” I told her not to do anything to it, that it belonged to a world famous cellist a couple of rows back. She kept moving it around until I told her it was probably worth more than her house. So she harrumphed and went off to do something else. She had no clue. So stay well, we’re all in this together.
As a distant relative living in the UK l vividly recall Arnold’s UK concert many moons ago, where we briefly met.
Music unites us so deeply. What remarkable creativity emerged from the ghettoes in Poland where our Goldberg great grandparents lived! Since the time when Biblical David played his harp, each generation, to the present day, discovered the music in their soul. That’s a lot of music. What an immeasurably beautiful legacy to carry!
their bios at their home website are really quite breathtaking. and they don’t sound like
other quartets, my ear is telling me…sandy
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