Flirt With Me

The Mendelssohn Octet is one of the first pieces that every chamber musician falls in love with. Fun to play, fun to hear, fun to study. Every measure reflects the idealistic side of the 16-year-old composer. It’s also one of the most popular pieces to read whenever large groups of string players assemble. However, since it requires eight players, it’s seldom studied as thoroughly as it could be. It’s just hard to get that many people together for enough rehearsals to really get into the piece.

However, in 1998 I had the chance to study the piece at Curtis, with six other students and one faculty, cellist Peter Wiley. It was a happy group of people playing happy music, so spirits generally ran high. We had the chance to play the piece once for Mr. Galimir in Room IB, the Horszowski Room. He stopped us frequently to give comments, and sometimes these applied to only part of the group.

Once upon stopping us, Mr. Galimir addressed the lower voices. But he began fumbling for words, and when he did get going it appeared that his speech would take a while. Soovin Kim and Ning Kam, who were playing first and second violins, welcomed the moment out of the spotlight and began talking quietly. When Ning laughed silently at a joke from Soovin, she caught the attention of Galimir.

“Hey, hey, HEY!” he shouted. We all fell silent. “No flirting!” he commanded Ning. “If you flirt, you must flirt with me!”