What Should We Play?

My last conversation with Felix Galimir took place at Marlboro, in the summer of 1999. Lunch had just ended, and musicians were meandering out of the dining hall. A voice caught my ear: “Nathan...” I turned to see him shaking a crooked finger at me. “What should we play together?” I was incredibly moved, since we had never played anything together, and I knew how special music-making at Marlboro was to him. We had only a few weeks left in the summer, so instead of performing together we would be reading, rehearsing and learning. With Marlboro in general, and Mr. Galimir in particular, that was exactly the point.

I still had to address his question, however, and I was at a loss. What could I suggest that he would find interesting? “I don’t know...what have you always wanted to play here?”

“What?” he asked, squinting at me.

“I mean, what have you not played that you’ve always wanted to work on?”

“You know,” he started laughing, “in my long life, I have played just about everything.”

I never got to play with Mr. Galimir, though I am one of the few who studied violin with him in addition to chamber music. A few days later, Mr. Galimir left a Marlboro concert in an ambulance. After recovering at a hospital in Vermont, he returned to his home in New York. Plans to play for him in September and October never materialized, and he died in early November while I was on tour with the Curtis Orchestra in Vienna.