How many degrees of separation??

When I bought the LA Master Chorale Messiah Sing Along tickets last year, there was a discount offered for buying tickets for 3 different performances.  I chose the the Brahms German Requiem - little knowing that it came with the West Coast premiere of Peter Lieberson's The World in Flower, a cantata for chorus, mezzo and baritone soloists, and orchestra.

It is a stunning musical performance - the soloists were both Irish, and Harry and I wondered if it gave them some kind of edge!!  (Peter Lieberson died last year at age 64 - truly a loss for the world of music.)

To add to our viewing and listening pleasure, we received a complimentary upgrade in seating - and ended up on the 5th row of the orchestra section.  A treat indeed!

The Brahms was lovely too - just more familiar - some parts are very familiar to me and I loved hearing it again.  The Chorale was outstanding - wonderful choirs are such a joy to listen to!  Grant Gershon, the conductor, is a masterful performer - he has great gusto and enthusiasm - it was delightful to sit so close and see the looks on his face and to hear him singing along with the Chorale!

All of this led to the re-telling of a story to me by Harry - one that I'd better write down before I forget it again.  The story involves Joseph Rosenstock - shown above.  He was a well-known conductor.  One year he was a guest conductor for the Utah Symphony Orchestra and loved Salt Lake City so much, he lived there for awhile after he retired from performing.

Enter our good friend Ronnie Horton - shown here in a goofy photo that is the only good photo I have of him!  Stories about Ronnie abound in our household, but we will not go into those now.  What we will go into is the story he told Harry.  

When Rosenstock was in Salt Lake, Ronnie was able to take lessons in conducting from him.  During one of these lessons they were working on a Brahms piece,  and Rosenstock told Ronnie about an experience he had in Vienna as a young, struggling music student.

He lived in Vienna and one day his mailman found out that he was a musician.  The mailman was older, but he told Rosenstock that when he was a young mailman in Vienna, he had delivered mail to an elderly Johannes Brahms!

So I guess any of you Terrills who ever shook Ronnie's hand can say that you shook the hand that shook the hand that shook the hand that shook the hand of Johannes Brahms!  (I think I have that right - one shook for Ronnie, one for Rosenstock, one for the mailman - you get my drift.)

 

Assuming that the old mailman shook Brahms hand of course!