Interview with Steven Honiberg, author of “Leonard Rose: America’s Golden Age and Its First Cellist”

By admin, on September 9th, 2010

About Steven Honigberg

As author and professional cellist, Steven Honigberg, complements his biography’s subject with a musician’s ear for language and the highest technical expertise. He currently plays on a 1732 Stradivarius (the “Stuart”), holds degrees from The Juilliard School, and combined with experience writing about legendary cellists, has produced a comprehensive first biography of America’s “first cellist.”

In 1984, the author was handpicked by cellist-conductor Msistlav Rostropovich to join the National Symphony Orchestra, a position he holds to this day. Within months, he graduated from college, presented his New York recital debut, appeared as soloist in Alice Tully Hall, and accepted the Washington job. And Leonard Rose died.

The author’s writing career began shortly after he settled in Washington, D.C. Most of his published work has focused on short biographies of renowned cellists. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, for a professional music trade publication, he wrote a series of columns under the heading “Remembering the Legends.” A few subjects were Leonard Rose, Pierre Fournier, and Frank Miller (who was Rose’s cousin and during Rose’s teenage years, a mentor).

His latest book is Leonard Rose: America’s Golden Age and Its First Cellist.

You can visit his author page at http://leonardrose.beckhamhouse.com/.
Could you please tell us a little about your book?
My biography is about America’s most famous cellist, Leonard Rose. He was born in our Nation’s Capital to Russian immigrants in 1918. At a very young age the family moved to Florida where he began both piano and cello lessons. His rise was swift as his enormous talent was noticed first by the local teacher of Miami then by the professor at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he sat principal of the orchestra and then in 1936 performed Brahms’s “Double” Concerto with the renowned conductor Fritz Reiner and the Curtis Orchestra, which was broadcast on radio. After his graduation he performed in Toscanini’s newly formed NBC Symphony. Leonard Rose’s eventually became the leading cello soloist of his day. All the while giving back in the form of teaching. In the book students remember him fondly and some perhaps not so fondly. He was strict, earnest, paranoid, and insecure but a very great artist. That he suffered with his fame and continuous limelight is discussed in great detail.

Did something specific happen to prompt you to write this book?
I was a great admirer of the piano trio in which Leonard Rose played in. The other players were the world famous violinist who helped save Carnegie Hall from demolition, Isaac Stern and pianist, Eugene Istomin. From 1961 until Leonard Rose’s early death at 66 in 1984, they toured and recorded. As a child, I listened to all of their recordings and realize they sparked my love for the literature. The members of the trio have all passed now and when the pianist, whom I saw frequently backstage at the Kennedy Center (I would ask him a question about Rose from time to time) passed in October 2003 I felt the need to write about Mr. Rose. So I began my research in early 2004.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?
Leonard Rose was my idol as youth. To have studied with him at the Juilliard School from 1979-1984 was a dream come true. Did I dream? Sometimes I feel as though I did. 3 months into my job as cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra, a job in which his recommendation was key, he died. After a somewhat caustic remark in the hallway on the 5th floor of the Lincoln Center stone building, “Good. Stay only one year,” I never did get the chance to ask him what he meant. The book is an exploration of who he was, what and who inspired him, and whom he inspired. The list is full of the era’s most famous musicians.

In the last year have you learned or improved on any skills?
I think it is important to follow your instinct. If we conform to what others want us to be, all of the time, we don’t grow. There is simply no room to explore. Music is evolution. For example, I have performed Dvorak’s Cello Concerto practically all of my life. My latest traversal is nowhere near what it sounded like when I played it for Mr. Rose 30 years ago. I like to think he would be proud of my music-making today. I am as driven and as earnest about the cello as he was in his life. That is what he asked of his students: To strive for perfection knowing that perfection is almost impossible to attain.

What is the most important thing in your life right now?
Stability. I want to minimize the sharpness of curves that inevitably come our way. I am a work in progress and can honestly say that, as I approach 50, I feel great. I’m playing the cello better than ever, and I love my wife and two children more than ever. In fact, we just dropped off our 14-year-old budding violinist at Interlochen’s Arts Academy. I love her so much. Not so much when she is being contrary but you know when she picks up her violin and plays – it is such a beautiful sight and sound for me. I am also looking forward to the National Symphony’s upcoming era with its newly appointed music director, Christoph Eschenbach, who is a very great artist.

What are you currently working on?
On the tales, stories and life of the great violin-maker Antonio Stradivari. I have a trip planned to Cremona, Italy in the summer of 2011 to see his home, where he worked, to talk with other luthiers about him, to walk the forests of Tyrol and to dip my toes into the Po River where he found some of his wood. I can’t wait.

What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?
That is a good question. I have read many biographies in my life. Some have captivated my attentions from beginning to end others have not. I wanted to make this book interesting to musicians and non-musicians alike. I think my portrayal of Leonard Rose, the human being, is real. He was a perfectionist and on top of the solo world, yet he suffered. He was away from home touring – away from his wife and two children. After his wife died from leukemia (1964), which darted in and out of remission for 10 years devastating Rose, he quickly married a woman almost 20 years his junior. His children resented it. The glue which held the family together was gone and Rose did not have some of the basic coping skills to love his new wife and his children. Head on, I felt this dysfunction when talking with his two surviving children, who are quoted throughout the book. Their thoughts about their famous father are both revealing and chilling.

About Leonard Rose: America’s Golden Age and Its First Cellist

Leonard Rose (1918 – 1984) the great American cellist, was considered one of the most important teachers and musicians of the twentieth century.

Author Steven Honigberg, who studied at The Juilliard School from 1979 to 1984 in Leonard Rose’s final class, examines the multifaceted American artist and the classical music context dominating Rose’s twentieth century.

This eagerly awaited biography portrays a complex individual during a period of tremendous individualism. Honigberg explores his sympathetic nature, his unyielding devotion to the cello, and, inevitably, his failings. Throughout, the reader sees Rose among the countless musical figures he affected as well as those who affected him