From music conductors to visiting artists to her own family ties, board member Clara Rankin thinks back on the people and performances that define The Cleveland Orchestra. (Interview conducted by André Gremillet, President & CEO of The Cleveland Orchestra.)
From music conductors to visiting artists to her own family ties, board member Clara Rankin thinks back on the people and performances that define The Cleveland Orchestra.
Interview conducted by André Gremillet, President & CEO of The Cleveland Orchestra.
Featured Music
MOZART – Symphony no. 41
1. Allegro vivace
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Welcome to The Cleveland Orchestra’s On a Personal Note, where we explore the many ways music shapes our lives. In difficult situations or moments of sheer joy, music connects us with our humanity.
This is Clara Rankin speaking, and this is really a story about my association with The Cleveland Orchestra over my life.
And my name is André Gremillet. I’m the President and CEO of The Cleveland Orchestra. Clara is a trustee of The Cleveland Orchestra, and is someone who truly, truly loves this orchestra.
Clara, it’s such a pleasure to be speaking with you today. Let me start by asking you what your earliest memory is of The Cleveland Orchestra.
My earliest memory is that it was a very formal occasion on Thursday night. We dressed up — tuxedos, evening gowns. It was quite an occasion to be able to go and hear the concert.
Clara, how old were you approximately when you first walked into Severance Hall — brand new Severance Hall? And what did it look like?
I was probably 19. I’ll have to tell you, the young man who took me gave me an orchid to wear that night, and perhaps that orchid and that young man were more interesting than the appearance of the walls and ceiling of the hall.
It was extraordinary, but I didn't know much about orchestral music at all. It was a time when we drove through the tunnel, and the tunnel was a passageway where the lower lobby now exists. There was a buzzer on the box level, and the usher would push the button to let the chauffeur know that it was time to come through. Can you imagine such a thing? The aftermath of that is that when the renovation took place, they preserved a little glass cover over the original pavement, which was underneath where now the lower lobby is.
Tell us about your relationship with music. You said you grew up in a musical family. I know that you trained as a singer at some point and really loved the human voice as an instrument. Tell us a little more about that personal relationship that you have with music.
Oh my goodness. It was all part of our family. The piano was just inside the door. My brother would go straight to the piano after school. We heard music all the time. My mother was a pianist herself. And my father just loved music, and his favorite, of course, was Caruso. I can remember the records we had of Caruso singing. I was singing from the time I was a little girl. I sang a lot in college, in the chorus, in the glee club, in the Smiffenpoofs.
So I had a rich background in music. And I did a lot of singing around here before 19, what was it 59, I think I kind of stopped. Had a lot of children, so the lessons were tucked in between times. I was never quite as prepared as I wanted to be, but I loved having my music. And my husband said, “Well, don't give that up if you’ve got too much to do. That’s your thing.” So that was encouraging for me.
Clara, what would you say has changed the most, in terms of your concert experience, from the early days when you used to go?
I can remember that people commented that the playing itself by the Orchestra was more, I wouldn’t say brittle, but less smooth perhaps. It was a little bit too, maybe academic. I don’t know how to say it. And of course, that was George Szell working with the Orchestra to make the ensemble really work and do their job well. It was just his style, because he was training the Orchestra to be a perfect ensemble.
What do you remember about George Szell? Tell us about your friendship with him a little bit, please.
Oh, I have to tell you, he got to know my brother Frank, who was very musical. So when I was seated next to him at a very formal dinner party at the Severance Millikins when they had that rather grand house where Severance Center now is, I remember sitting beside him. I just decided you couldn’t sit back and not say anything just because he was so scary. He listened to me, because I think he knew that my brother was musical, maybe I was all right. I don’t know. Anyway, that was the first time we ever got acquainted with each other.
And then, in those days there was a reception afterwards in the board room. To which it was very interesting to me, in those days the players in the Orchestra were very shy of social occasions. Many of them didn’t speak very easy English. They would ask one or two to come each time there was a reception. The change is extraordinary in the sophistication of these orchestra players today.
Tell us a little more about the other music directors that you’ve come to know over the years and become friends with. You spoke about George Szell . . .
And I remember that last trip to Japan when he was ill and came home. Did you ever hear the story about him in hospital? Because he came home and never conducted again. One of the nurses ran to the nurses’ station and said, “Oh, our patient is waving his hands in the air. Oh, my goodness, what’s wrong?” And of course, he was just conducting in his head. That was very interesting and amusing.
After him came Lorin Maazel. He was quite a philosophical thinker, but he also knew that he’d been a child prodigy, which he would never, he said, recommend to any musician or family to promote. He didn’t like having been a prodigy at Interlochen, where he was not much liked. When we had to go abroad and engage him, Al and I were on a trip, so we had to go London and Al had to talk to him. And he said to Lorin, “You know the musicians don’t like you.” And Lorin said, “Oh, that’s not a problem.” He said, “I always win them over.” So we had a lot of fun with him.
And then along came [Pierre] Boulez. Oh, what a marvelous man. Ah, I just respect him so much. He’s such an intellect. He really is a wonderfully marvelous thinker. We enjoyed each other a lot. Shall I tell you about a dinner party I had once? He came with his sidekick to have dinner with me, and I didn't want to ask anybody else except the Gratrys, because Jerome Gratry was French and could manage the wine, because I’m no good at wine. The Gratrys were here, and I asked Jerome if he would please go through my single bottles of wine that had been left over from Al’s time. So he did. The first one he poured out, said, “No good.” Second one he poured out, “Nope, not good enough.”
We thought of Boulez wanting the best wine. The third one he said, “Well, I think this will do.” He was ready to pour a glass for Boulez, and Boulez said, “No, not tonight. I’ll be directing tomorrow, conducting.” So we asked his sidekick, and he said, “No, I won’t care for any.” So he asked his wife, and she said, “No, thank you.” And I don’t happen to drink wine, so he was left with the one bottle of wine. Oh, how we laughed over that whole episode. Boulez and I would talk from time to time and just have a really interesting conversation. Everybody, I gather, in the orchestra just loved him, really respected him a lot. He was a very good man.
So then along came Christoph [von Dohnányi]. And Christoph and I have become good, good friends. He came to Cleveland, and we wanted him to be happy with his young family. Of course, his wife was a character from the beginning. She had her own way of life, a very free spirit, and we all had a lot of fun with her. She made lots of friends of her age, but a really free spirit. Here she didn’t like it that Christoph was always studying. That wasn't her cup of tea at all.
He had to study, because he’d conducted opera all the time, so now he had to get the repertoire of a symphony orchestras — just orchestral compositions under his belt. So he spent a lot of time studying, and he wanted to know about the whole life of Schumann, he told me, because it was important in how he interpreted Schumann’s music. I thought that was interesting. We’ve stayed in touch. I’ve talked to him within the last two weeks, where he is in Austria, and we really keep a good friendship. So I’m happy about Christoph.
And then comes Franz [Welser-Möst]. He’s a live wire. We have a lot of fun with him, lots of fun.
What's your first recollection of meeting Franz?
It’s odd. I can’t remember the first time I met him. I’ve told him he looks a little bit like Schubert now that his hair is that way. He said, “And you're not the first one to tell me.” I just remember him being, and getting to know him as being broad-minded and not just focused on music, but on the importance of music in education. That’s a very big issue for him, I think. It’s just an interesting friendship to have, because you can talk about a lot of things with him. I’ve had a good time with him. He has a good sense of humor. We have a lot of fun. And I love Geli, his wife, and miss her when she’s not with him. But he thinks beyond just the podium, and I like that. We stay in touch. I talked to him within the last couple of weeks, too. I love having these friendships. It means so much to me.
Any soloist over the years that you felt especially moved by?
Oh, in the early days, Fischer-Dieskau came to sing. Oh my goodness, what a voice. I’ve just been given a recording of his when he was young. It’s remarkable, that voice. And I’ve heard Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. I loved that.
I do remember one time they played, and Benny Goodman was the soloist. Oh my goodness, that really touched me. I love Benny Goodman on that instrument, and of course, my brother loved jazz as well as classical music, so he was keen on that too. So I do remember Benny Goodman. I just loved the fact that he could play classical music too.
A more recent one than ones I’ve already mentioned in the distant past is Mitsuko Uchida, and because she thinks of herself as a member of The Cleveland Orchestra family, she also has come into my life through a connection to Marlboro, where my brother Frank was very active and knew her well. I just want to mention what really prompted our friendship, and it was the fact that when my brother Frank died, the family came to Cleveland for his burial, and she happened to be playing with The Cleveland Orchestra that weekend. She called me and asked if she could play in my house for the family. And of course, nothing was a more warm-hearted gesture from her, and the family appreciated it so much.
Ever since then, which includes a visit that I made to Marlboro, where I saw her again and got to know her a little better, when she comes to Cleveland we usually are in touch by telephone or together if it works out. So I really treasure that friendship.
Clara, on May 11, 2017, so about three years ago, a Thursday night, two days before your 100th birthday, you were sitting in your box as you always do on Thursday night, and before the end of the concert, I went to see you and asked whether you would come backstage with me. I brought you backstage as Franz Welser-Möst and the Orchestra were finishing the last piece on the program, which I think was Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Tell us a little bit what happened as you arrived backstage and as Franz walked upstage after the end of the Mendelssohn.
Needless to say, I didn’t know what was coming, but I just thought maybe it would just be a happy birthday, and I’d be just in the wings somehow. Not at all. They had a chair right there beside the podium, and there was Franz beaming away, and pretty soon the Orchestra played Happy Birthday. That was pretty exciting. That was one of the highlights of my big year, you might say. And then they played some other work. Was it Schumann or Schubert?
An die Musik by Schubert.
By Schubert, right. And of course, I think they knew I loved that. It has been in a song form, so I used to sing it. It was a wonderful occasion. I was so happy.
Clara, thank you for sharing your thoughts and your wonderful stories with me. As always, it was a privilege spending time with you. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your love of the Orchestra. And I can’t wait for our next Thursday night concert together.
That was André Gremillet, CEO of The Cleveland Orchestra, interviewing Clara Rankin, possibly its biggest fan. Clara chose Mozart’s Symphony No. 41. And you’ll get to hear the first movement, recorded live from Severance Hall in 1966, coming up next. So go ahead, put on your evening gown or your tuxedo, and let it transport you back. More mementos of a bygone era are available at clevelandorchestra.com/podcast.