I flew through this memoir, relishing the author’s stories about Leopold Stokowski, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Eugene Ormandy.

Nancy Shear first saw Stokowski perform in 1960 at the Robin Hood Dell in Philadelphia, an outdoor venue with free tickets available through the newspaper. The fourteen-year-old had first seen the Maestro in Fantasia when she was four. (Fantasia had been my introduction to classical music when I was about the same age!) She soon was sneaking into the Academy of Music’s Friday afternoon concerts, usually finding the patrial view seat behind a column empty. One day Eugene Ormandy, noting she was always at the stage door steps, took her inside and arranged for her to have a ticket.

Shear hung around backstage, getting autographs and talking to the players and soloists,. She came to know the librarian and as a teenager was hired as his assistant, leading to work personally with Stokowski and a career. In those days, changes in the scores were made by hand, and had to be erased before returning the music.

Behind Shear’s exciting life and love for classical music was a dysfunctional and traumatic home life.

Stokowski became her mentor and a father figure, their friendship deepening with love and mutual respect. She kept her personal life separate from her relationship with the Maestro, and while working for the Philadelphia Orchestra had to hide her work for Stokowski from the jealous Ormandy. She traveled to New York City to do personal work for Stokowski.

The orchestra staff protected her from conductors and musicians known to be womanizers. She did become especially attached to ‘Slava’ Rostropovich, even traveling to the Soviet Union to find him when he was in danger for his activism, not contacting him directly but exchanging glances after his concert.

I think he needed adulation more than love. on Leopold Stokowski from I Knew a Man who Knew Brahams by Nancy Shear

Stokowski wove an imagined biography, creating an exotic persona; even his three wives didn’t know his true origins. He practised yoga! Shear shares what she knows about his early life and family.

An interesting aspect of the memoir informs about Stokowski’s conducting style and his love of “music of the heart.” He would change what was written and add instruments to achieve the sound and emotion he desired in the music. “Music is not always beautiful!” he said; “Sometimes it is ugly!” He allowed free bowing of the string players to provide a legato sound–the famous ‘Philadelphia Sound’.

He was an early promoter of new music and he left the Philadelphia Orchestra after twenty years because he was not given the freedom to include it. He also supported hiring women and people of color in orchestras.

Shear’s stories brought back memories. We had been to the Dell a few times before it was replaced by a new outdoor amphitheater, which we frequented. We loved going to the Academy of Music, first under Eugene Ormandy and then Riccardo Muti. First, we bought ‘nosebleed gallery’ tickets; later we had bought season tickets. Shear graduated in 1972 from Temple University; I graduated from Temple in 1978. She worked at the Curtis Institute of Music; my husband worked across the street for a few years. Even her mentioning going to Brooks Brothers with Slava recalled our shopping trips there.

At once a gossipy page-turner and an informative memoir, classical music fans will love this book.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.