Obituaries

[Eric the Green]

(10-03-2017, 02:45 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: On the other side, classical musicians (except for French horn players -- it's a beautiful instrument but brutal on lungs) can live very long lives. It may be hard to believe, but Itzhak Perlman, who must have had as punishing a schedule as any rock star at one time, seems very healthy -- at 72. And he had polio.

Classical conductors are famous for long lives. Sure, there are accidents (Guido Cantelli, air crash; Istvan Kertesz, drowning) .. but even Bernstein lived into his seventies despite being gay and a smoker. Neville Marriner recently died at age 93. Toscanini died just short of age 90.

Fritz Reiner, Colin Davis, Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Charles Mackerras, Thomas Beecham, Bruno Walter, Karl Boehm, and Herbert von Karajan reached their eighties. Bernard Haitink is 88, and Seijo Ozawa is in his 80s. Leopold Stokowski barely missed being a centenarian. Want to live a long life, and have the choice of any career? Be a symphony conductor. I am not saying that that is a choice for many people. Neither is being a rock star.  

Concert pianists, violinists, and cellists? We have plenty of examples of octogenarians and nonagenarians. Horowitz, Serkin, Rubinstein... that's pianists. Don't forget harpsichordists, among which I can count Wanda Landowska, Gustav Leonhart, and some Czech harpsichordist whose name you can easily recover.

Do classical musicians take better care of themselves? Maybe. Maybe being well rested before a concert is a necessity. Junk food may not be part of the tour (although most of these performers lived before junk food was common).

Excellent point. Maybe rock stars can learn a thing or two from those within the longer classical musical tradition. It is not a given that rock stars must take drugs, eat poorly, or not stop touring even when the pressure becomes too much.

Of course, comparing rock stars to conductors and performers may not be totally fair. Rock musicians are frequently the creators of music today (although the music is usually not as good, from a refined and educated point of view), whereas the most apt comparison might be to classical composers. Rock n roll and jazz artists apparently have a tradition of drugs and/or alcohol to release inhibitions and open themselves to inspiration as well as to relieve pressure.

In the old days classical composers tended to die young. And they are still the best composers in the tradition, although society was less healthy than today. One of the best composers of recent times, though, Alan Hovhannes, lived to be 89. Harold Shapero lived to be 93.