Julian Rachlin: "When there is a personal friendship, it is special to work together
arts & entertainment
and transfer it musically," says the violinist about his upcoming concerts under
With a talent
nurtured
by many
musicians
— including
Leonard
Slatkin
Julian Rachlin
will perform
with the DSO.
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
V
iolinist Julian Rachlin will con-
clude performances with the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
in Tel Aviv and fly directly to Michigan for
appearances with the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra.
Rachlin, who has worked with the DSO,
will be playing Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin
Concerto No. 1. The program, scheduled
Feb. 9-11, also will include orchestral pre-
sentations of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic
Dances and Cindy McTee's Einstein's Dream.
"The piece Fm playing is one of my
favorite violin concertos by one of the
greatest composers of all time,' says
Rachlin in a phone conversation from his
home in Austria.
"I have a very special connection to
Shostakovich because of my Russian
roots through my father and studies
of Shostakovich's music with Mstislav
Rostropovich, a great cellist, conductor and
close friend of the composer."
_ h.,
Rachlin also has a special connection
with Leonard Slatkin, DSO music director.
The two have appeared together in many
other venues.
"I have worked with Leonard Slatkin
multiple times with various orchestras in
Europe and America and at my music fes-
tival (Julian Rachlin & Friends) in Croatia,
where we celebrated his 60th birthday:'
Rachlin says.
"During a time Leonard and I were with
the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, he became
one of the first people to give me private
conducting lessons. When there is a person-
al friendship, it is special to work together
and transfer it musically."
The Detroit program continues Slatkin's
Rachmaninoff survey. Cindy McTee's
Einstein's Dream was commissioned as
part of the 2005 World Year of Physics, cel-
ebrating the 100th anniversary of the year
Einstein exploded onto the scientific scene.
"I don't see myself as a violinist, violist or
conductor but as a musician',' says Rachlin,
37 and single. "I just try to grow, and the
instrument is secondary.
the baton of DSO Music Director Leonard Slatkin.
"It just happens to be that I express
myself through the violin most of the time.
The violin (a 1704 "ex Liebig" Stradivari
on loan) is just a tool, and the language is
music:'
The language of music started speaking
to Rachlin when he was 2 years old and
gravitating to the sounds of the cello heard
on recordings and played by his father, a
professional instrumentalist in Lithuania.
The young Rachlin pretended to play the
cello using an umbrella and a stick and was
watched by his grandparents, who gave him
a violin. The gift instrument claimed the
attention of the emerging violinist at age 4,
when his family moved to Austria to restart
their lives.
"My parents did not take me seriously in
the beginning, and I'm grateful to them','
explains Rachlin, whose mother is a pianist.
"Because my parents were and are profes-
sional musicians, they didn't want to force
[that lifestyle] on their child."
Rachlin kept practicing violin and con-
necting with teachers. He studied with
Boris Kuschnir at the Vienna Conservatory
and took private lessons from Pinchas
Zukerman in New York.
"I would say, 'One day I will play the cello.
But that became more and more of a joke
he recalls. "If you don't start an instrument
like that at a really young age, you don't
have a realistic chance with it."
Rachlin gained international acclaim in
1988 by winning the Young Musician of the
Year Award at the Eurovision Competition
in Amsterdam. He then became the
youngest soloist to play with the Vienna
Philharmonic.
While building an international career
that includes recordings, he has been on
the faculty of the Konservatorium Wien
University in Vienna.
"My profession has taken me to Vietnam,
Cambodia, India, Brazil and other coun-
tries where I've seen a lot of poverty and
a shocking number of children in need of
help and support," says Rachlin, a goodwill
ambassador for UNICEF at the invitation of
actor Roger Moore (best known for playing
James Bond).
"Roger was at a concert I was doing with
the Israel Philharmonic in France, where
we met and soon became friends. As I got
involved with UNICEF, I began raising
funds as much as possible by organizing
benefit concerts and galas featuring famous
musicians playing for free.
"I've been very lucky, born on the sunny
side of life with the opportunity to go to
school. I think it's very important to help
young people without much hope for
decent lives with education."
Rachlin's sunny side of life means hav-
ing time to cook, go to movies and watch
soccer and tennis. Experiencing the lands
where he travels to perform has made Israel
an important destination.
"I feel very special with Jewish people
around me says Rachlin, who remembers
his grandmother's gefilte fish as a favorite
dish and difficult to prepare. "I am very
proud to be Jewish.
"My parents never celebrated any holi-
days so I'm completely missing the tradi-
tional part of Judaism. In terms of the his-
tory and what the religion means, I think I
am a good Jew." ❑
Julian Rachlin performs with the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra Feb.
9-11 at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.
Concerts begin 7:30 p.m. Thursday,
10:45 a.m. Friday and 8 p.m.
Saturday. $15-$53.50. (313) 576-5111;
www.detroitsymphony.com .
Jews
1410
I Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
elm
s
New Flicks
The following films open on Friday,
Feb. 3:
Based on a true story, Big Miracle
is about an unlikely coalition that
comes together to rescue a family of
grey whales trapped by Arctic Circle
ice. Tim Blake Nelson, 47, has a sup-
porting role as a wildlife expert with
a character name that sounds Inuit/
Eskimo.
By the way, there really was a
Jewish Eskimo actor, Ray Wise (1906-
52), who later billed
himself as "Ray
Mala." The son of a
Jewish father and
an Eskimo mother,
he had a fabu-
lous physique and
played Eskimos and
Polynesians in more
Wise
34
February 2 2012
than 25 films.
In Chronicle, three high school stu-
dents stumble on something that gives
them superpowers. However, they're
unable to cope with these powers,
and their lives spin out of control. The
original screenplay is by Max Landis,
26, the son of famous
director John Landis,
(Blues Brothers), 61,
and his wife, Deborah
Nadoolman Landis, 60,
an Oscar-nominated
costume designer. Max
Landis has written sev-
eral short films; in its
December 2011 issue,
Forbes magazine named him one of
"30 under 30" young people to watch
in the entertainment industry.
Daniel Radcliffe, 22, of Harry Potter
fame, stars in the supernatural thriller
The Woman in Black as a widowed
lawyer who goes to a remote English
village to sort out the estate of a
deceased eccen-
tric. The screen-
play, adapted
from Susan Hill's
novel, is by Brit
Jane Goldman,
41, a very famous
author, model and
Ross & Goldman
TV personality in
the U.K. who has
been married since 1988 to Jonathan
Ross, 51, an even more famous British
TV personality. Goldman is a co-writer
on the films Kick-Ass, The Debt, X-Men:
First Class and, upcoming, Kick-Ass 2.
TV Notes
Debuting Monday, Feb. 6, at 10 p.m. is
the NBC series Smash, which revolves
around a group of people who come
together to put on a Broadway musical
based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.
The personal and professional lives of
these theater folk and their significant
others form the backdrop of the series,
which is very lavishly produced.
Smash is produced by Steven
Spielberg, 65, and he opened his wal-
let to recruit high-class talent: The top
Broadway composing team of Marc
Shaiman, 52, and Scott Wittman are
writing original songs, and the show's
stars include Angelica
Huston, former
American Idol finalist
Katherine McPhee
and Debra Messing
(Will and Grace), 42.
Messing plays Julia
Houston, the Marilyn
musical's songwriter.
Messing
Ben Stiller, 46,
has signed to star,
direct and produce an HBO comedy
pilot, All Talk, about a Jewish family
in Washington, D.C. The script is by
Jonathan Safran Foer, 34.
Alan Alda, whose wife is Jewish
(they raised their kids Jewish), is in
negotiations to star.
❑