Violin

Edith H. Bergmann, a German army radio operator during World War II who eventually became a wholesaler of violins in Baltimore, died of kidney failure Sunday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Towson resident was 74.Born in Wurzburg, Germany, Ms. Bergmann received her higher education in Munich, where she became fluent in French and English. During World War II, she volunteered in the women's army corps as a radio operator in Berlin. She fled that city in advance of the Russian army but was captured by American troops near the Alps in 1945.

Editor's note: Among the thousands of personal stories circulating via the Internet since the tragedies of Sept. 11 is this one, which came our way via e-mail. It's from William R. Harvey, a freshman violin major at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Harvey originally sent this to friends and family, including his parents, Jay Harvey and Susan Raccoli of Indianapolis, and they agreed to let us reprint it here. Monday, Sept. 17 Yesterday I had probably the most incredible and moving experience of my life.

I sashay my bow across the violin strings the way a mosquito skims a summer pond. When the back door slams and metal cleats stomp onto the kitchen floor, I know Papa is home. "Is-Reginald-at-it-again?" he shouts between notes. "Hush up," Mama says, "I just love this one." "Cooped up inside all the time, it's a wonder that boy don't sprout mushrooms." I try to play louder than Papa's voice by sawing the music hard. He sometimes comes home in a bad mood because he's the manager of the Dukes -- the worst team in the Negro National League.

One newcomer to the Peabody Institute this semester has a great figure, with a particularly attractive backside, and a very pleasing voice, too. Not bad for a 390-year-old. This buzz-generating addition to the music conservatory is a violin made by Giovanni Paolo Maggini, one of the finest Italian instrument makers from Brescia and a major influence on Antonio Stradivari and other legendary craftsmen who came later. Genuine Maggini violins don't turn up too often. They aren't donated to music schools every day, either.

Like the gentlemanly rockers they are, the David Rose Band is coming back to the county to say, "Thanks for all your help."The 4-year-old band, led by former CBS and RCA recording artist David Rose on the violin, will be at Deze's Restaurant in Edgewater tomorrow from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.There they plan to celebrate the release of their newly completed second album, "Harbortown," with the fans whom Rose credits as being a big part of the album's development.The...

Isidor Saslav, a former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concertmaster and Peabody Institute violin teacher, died of complications from cancer Jan. 26 at a hospital in Tyler, Texas. The former Mount Washington resident was 74. Born in Jerusalem, he moved with his family to Detroit as a young boy and studied violin under Detroit Symphony concertmaster Mischa Mischakoff. Family members said at 17 he became one of the youngest members of the Detroit Symphony. He earned a bachelor's degree in music at Wayne State University and a doctorate from Indiana University, where he wrote his thesis on the string quartets of Franz Josef Haydn.

He had just completed an aching rendition of Sibelius' dramatic Violin Concerto, and as a sold-out Meyerhoff Hall audience gave him a third standing ovation, guest instrumentalist Gidon Kremer returned to the stage, bowing deeply. He seemed to gaze toward a box above the stage, where two men sat who, in the eyes of many onlookers, shared star billing last night. The acclaimed violinist dedicated his encore "to all those wonderful people who reunited me with my violin." Mike Famiglietti of Abingdon and Joseph Butler of Washington, career Amtrak employees, had teamed up on Wednesday to reclaim an item left behind on a train.

Virtuosos are a dollar a dozen these days; true musical artists remain as rare as ever. Put violinist Vadim Repin in the latter category. He epitomizes the marriage of virtuosity and artistry, as he reaffirmed in a recital Sunday afternoon for the Shriver Hall Concert Series. Barely into his 30s, the Siberian-born fiddler possesses a disarming command of the instrument. Consistency of pitch and precision of articulation can be taken for granted, whatever the speed or dynamic level. From the wispy slithering up and down the scale that haunts Prokofiev's F minor Sonata to the full-force, hyper-animation of Ravel's Tzigane, everything was perfectly under control here.

The devil, in various guises, cavorted through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Summer MusicFest program Wednesday evening at Meyerhoff Hall, providing a helluva good time. There was Mephistopheles, stirring up hormones in Liszt's Mephisto Waltz. And Paganini, the violinist/composer whose ability to zip through fiendishly difficult music had people convinced he had sold his soul to Beelzebub. And Till Eulenspiegel, the devilish prankster from the Middle Ages immortalized in a Richard Strauss tone poem.

Guitarists are the corporate raiders of classical music. Unlike pianists, they don't have a nearly inexhaustible supply of repertoire composed specifically for their instrument, so they're always on the lookout for something to pounce on and transform into fresh material. Franco Platino, an Italian-born, Baltimore-based classical guitarist, demonstrated this specialized art of borrowing during his exceptional recital Saturday evening at Catonsville Community College's Fine Arts Theatre.