Lorin Maazel, December 30 1998
For the second time this year the Keyboard Trust is mourning the loss of a great conductor who exercised a substantial influence over the Trust’s development. An association over a relatively few short years with Lorin Maazel has left a profound effect on the fortunes of the Trust and many of its young artists. The gentle giant of the podium, supported by his dedicated wife Dietlinde Turban Maazel, lost few opportunities to listen to them and, when impressed by their talent, enthusiastically cried, ‘We must make music together!’ The genuineness of that is attested by Alessandro Taverna, who had the honour of playing two of what were to be the Maestro’s last concerts in Munich and Vienna for him.
Maazel
This concern with the successor generation was multiplied literally hundredfold every year during the Maazels’ Castleton Festival on their extensive Virginia property, where each summer they hosted some 200 musicians, technicians, scene designers, costume makers and other paraphernalia for the presentation of at least two major operas, orchestral concerts, masterclasses and workshops. Many are the fresh new voices that have been cradled to stardom there, and legion the youngsters from surrounding Rapahannock County schools inducted into the delights of classical music.
Gentleness, hiding an iron tenacity in the face of challenges and adversity, is the hallmark of the Maazels’ establishment. For some sixteen seasons, Keyboard Trust artists have had the opportunity to shine in those idyllic surroundings. They and all those associated with the Trust remain deeply grateful for that gift, carved out of the intensity of the Maestro’s extraordinary career. The New York Times puts at 132 the number of orchestras he conducted in his 84 years, bringing to bear what seemed his boundless energy. Small wonder that it has now proved finite – but by no means lost, for his legacy is strong and durable. We are profoundly grateful that the Trust lives on as part of it.