Eugene Fodor, 1950-2011

[falconridge]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/03/03/nyregion/03fodor/03fodor-articleInline.jpg


What I long feared would happen has come to pass. Eugene Fodor, whose prodigious technique might have brought him international acclaim and, much more important, artistic and spiritual fulfillment, fell woefully short of any of these. The engaging, photogenic young musician who studied with Jascha Heifetz, won top prize at the International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition in Moscow, and schmoozed with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, died Saturday, just a week short of what would have been his 61st birthday.

Sadly, there was never much doubt as to how the story of Eugene Fodor would end. Rather than give him time to grow up, to ripen personally and musically, avaricious impresarios and record executives pandered to the proudly pedestrian sensibilities of what they imagined would be his “public”—the pop music-plied, rubbish-engorged rabble of Middle America (where the “middle” sags lower than the belly of a hog on its way to the abattoir), hoi polloi with ears more attuned to Oscar Mayer Weiner Whistles than to Wieniawski’s Légende. The young fiddler was promoted as a hunk of heartland-bred beefcake, whose prepossessing handsomeness and aw-shucks charm might appeal to Shaun Cassidy-smitten teenyboppers. RCA, with whom he inked a long-term contract, even billed him as [r-e-t-c-h!] “the Mick Jagger of the classical violin.”

You don’t need the late Paul Harvey to relate “the rest of the story”: a dissolute life of drugs, alcohol, artistic stasis followed by decline, disappointment, disillusion, early death. Not since the meteoric rise and rapid demise of Michael Rabin (1936-1972), a violinist who simply had it all (ravishing tone, technique to burn, phrasing that never seemed other than ideal, and supernal musical sensibility and taste), has such preternatural violinistic talent come to so little.

Fodor performs Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D (listen for the exquisite left-hand pizzicati at about 4:25):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=723kg8RQGw8&feature

Rabin plays Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhyzk6Ty-Ms

[falconridge]

Not to minimize the tragedy of unrealized heights of virtuosity, or the eloquence of your eulogy, but 60 (almost 61) is not exactly the bloom of youth. I would regard Rabin's demise as clearly the greater loss, especially since its root cause was a condition that Rabin did not bring on himself, or have the opportunity/time to emerge from.
No argument, of course, that threescore years places one well beyond the "bloom of youth." Still, it's hard (especially for mine host, as he nears the age of the recently deceased violinist) to think of a man whose artistic development was arrested in his early twenties as other than the callow youth pictured in The New York Times obituary.

I agree that Rabin's demise was clearly the greater loss; after all, his was, by any measure, the superior talent--no, make that genius; Fodor had talent, what Rabin had was far greater. Even so, evidence remains equivocal as to whether the "root cause" of Fodor's underachievement was something for which he alone was responsible, or for which, even given a quarter-century more than Rabin, he had the time and psychological (or spiritual) wherewithal to overcome. For that matter, Rabin, like Fodor, might not have been the most prudent or scrupulous custodian of his gift. (I trust you'll understand why I prefer not to speculate on the circumstances of Rabin's death, decades-old questions about which still lack definitive answers.)

[bigmack]

Speaking of Fodor and pizzicato, I just ran into his appearance of our mutually beloved, SCTV a couple weeks ago as I believe I have secured the entire series on DVD.

Sorry to hear of his passing.

EF had a real gift as shown in his performace of Bazzini's  - Round of the Goblins shot in November 1981 in a parody of the Joan Crawford movie Humoresque called New York Rhapsody.

Pizz's aplenty.

Pw0W1xB7myk

[toetoe]

No argument, of course, that threescore years places one well beyond the "bloom of youth." Still, it's hard (especially for mine host, as he nears the age of the recently deceased violinist) to think of a man whose artistic development was arrested in his early twenties as other than the callow youth pictured in The New York Times obituary.

I agree that Rabin's demise was clearly the greater loss; after all, his was, by any measure, the superior talent--no, make that genius; Fodor had talent, what Rabin had was far greater. Even so, evidence remains equivocal as to whether the "root cause" of Fodor's underachievement was something for which he alone was responsible, or for which, even given a quarter-century more than Rabin, he had the time and psychological (or spiritual) wherewithal to overcome. For that matter, Rabin, like Fodor, might not have been the most prudent or scrupulous custodian of his gift. (I trust you'll understand why I prefer not to speculate on the circumstances of Rabin's death, decades-old questions about which still lack definitive answers.)



Wonderful thread well woven, Widgie. :ThmbUp: .

One question: How did you manage to quote a post from Jeopardy Joe, which thread does not appear herein ? :confused:

[Overlay]

Wonderful thread well woven, Widgie. :ThmbUp: .

One question: How did you manage to quote a post from Jeopardy Joe, which thread does not appear herein ? :confused:

I posted a response to F'ridge's thread-starter and then deleted it, thinking that I needed to do some additional research on the circumstances surrounding Rabin's untimely demise. However, the Sage of Rancho Cucamonga beat me to the punch and was already replying to my post when I deep-sixed it. (Alternatively, you can believe that our forty-year acquaintance has given us the ability to channel each other's thoughts without even having to post them. :D )