The Summer-long Birthday

Turning 40 has taken all summer . . . (& four decades.)

My friend Patrick Rucker, reviewer for Fanfare Magazine, gave me the scores to all the Mozart piano concertos for my birthday. We're playing a number of them this summer at the Mostly Mozart Festival. I missed my stop on the M104 because I was so engrossed in the score to number 27. When I finally looked up, I was at West 116th Street. Whoops!

It reminds me of a day back around 1996 when, in the back of the M7, I found Robert Mann, first violinist of The Juilliard Quartet, a manuscript score unfolded out over several seats. "Hello Mr. Mann, what are you studying today?" I asked. "Milton Babbitt's new Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet. We're premiering it with Charlie Neidich at The Library of Congress. It's a very complicated work." I didn't doubt it for one second!

Only in New York . . .