The World of Music According to Starker - Hardcover

Starker, Janos

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253344522 ISBN 13: 9780253344526

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2004

Synopsis

"Few cello players currently before the public have enjoyed the kind of international success in all conceivable musical career roles as Janos Starker. In his lifetime, Starker has gained renown as teacher, soloist and orchestra player." ―Chicago Tribune

"Starker . . .remains one of the wonders of the musical world, an artist who finds innumerable ways to shape and color lines." ―Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Starker is not just a cellist. He is widely recognized as one of the finest of the last 50 years." ―Indianapolis Star

"Starker emerges here as the rare artist who respects the past but lives enthusiastically in the present. . . Essential. All readers; all levels." ―Choice

Janos Starker is universally acknowledged as one of the world's great musicians. Known for a flawless technique paired with expressive playing and interpretation, the Hungarian-born cellist is arguably also the premier teacher of his instrument in our time. String players flock to his masterclasses from all over the world, and cellists compete vigorously to study under him at the Indiana University School of Music. More than the consummate musician, however, Starker is also a raconteur and writer, occasionally quirky and droll, always witty and with a pointed opinion to share.

The World of Music According to Starker is a colorful autobiography spanning the author's fascinating life. From his early musical education during World War II in Hungary, to his world tours, educational philosophy, and recording and pedagogical legacy, Starker takes the reader on a riveting, entertaining, and informative journey. Included in the book are several of Starker's short stories and commentaries on world events, academia, and―of course―music that have appeared in newspapers, music periodicals, and trade magazines.

Also includes a bonus CD recording of Starker's last public recital, which is unavailable commercially and includes his only recording of the Strauss Sonata in F, Opus 6.

Included on the CD:
Richard Strauss, Sonata in F, Opus 6
Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata in C major, Opus 102 no. 1
Johannes Brahms, Sonata in E minor, Opus 38
Franz Schubert, Sonatina in D, Opus 137 no. 1 (Starker edition)

About this title

About the Author

Janos Starker (1924-2013) was Distinguished Professor of Cello in the School of Music at Indiana University. He held five honorary doctorates, and was a former principal cellist with the Metropolitan Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He made more than 100 commercial recordings and gave world premiere performances of countless recital works by important composers. Among his many awards and honors is the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Recording by a Soloist without Accompaniment for his recording of Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello.

Reviews

Starker, one of the most technically pristine cellists of the past half century, has had a dramatic life. In wartime Budapest, his Jewish family struggled to avoid displacement and imprisonment; two brothers were almost certainly shot, and Starker himself worked in a labor camp. After the war, he formed part of an extraordinary diaspora of musicians leaving Hungary—he recalls that many of them participated in a 1946 competition in Geneva because it got one a visa—and, arriving in America, slotted his early solo career around stints as an orchestral musician. (In the pit at the Met, he would work forty-eight-hour weeks, and the conductor moved his seat to stop him ogling the women onstage.) Starker includes stories about such apparently unpromising subjects as the cellos and bows he has used through his career and improvements he designed for the instrument's bridge, which demonstrate the cellist's obsessive love of his craft.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Master cellist Starker was born in Budapest in 1924. His mother supported his early musical training, and in 1938 he made his debut with orchestra. His Jewish heritage, however, marked him as an alien. When the Russians came to Hungary, he went to Romania and Austria to play, returning to be principal cellist of the Budapest Philharmonic. In 1948, he came to the U.S. as the Dallas Symphony's principal cellist. He subsequently spent four years with the Metropolitan Opera and followed its musical director, Fritz Reiner, to Chicago. Five years after that, he joined the Indiana University faculty, EMI began to record him, and he began a worldwide solo career in earnest. Between narrative sections, Starker comments on music, world cultures, and the future; in sidebars he discusses the cellos he owns, traveling in Spain, and Bobby Knight's motivational capabilities. Starker presents his life and comments concisely in what must be reckoned the self-portrait of a great musician and a lover of his fellow people whose life constitutes an example worthy of emulation. Alan Hirsch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253344522
• ISBN 13: 9780253344526
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352