And something completely different

I went out of town this weekend, and something is wrong with the my New Yorker delivery. I finally got the most recent issue today. Normally I would have turned to the political articles. However, what particularly thrilled me about this week was the fact that my favorite writer (not to be confused with my favorite article found here) Alex Ross wrote an article. Sadly you need to subscribe to read the article. However, a link to his blog here points you to a greater explanation and to some of the additional web features that accompany the article.

The article discusses the chamber music festival in Vermont started by Rudolf Serkin in Ross's wonderful and lyrical prose. Today Michiko Uhida and Richard Goode run the retreat. Since the article is inaccessible, there are two quotes I take out of it that I find particularly moving.

"And I reflected on the fact that even the most exalted music-making comes from an accumulation of everyday labor, inseparable from human relationships."

"In a wider sense, Marlboro represents the migration of tradition across centuries and continents: a Japanese-born woman passing along her understanding of Mozart and Schoenberg to new generations of American kids. Marlboro is an enchanting place, but in the end, there is nothing especially remarkable about it. The remarkable thing is the power of music to put down roots wherever it goes."

If you can, get your hands on the article.