Culture in NEO: Beginning of a blog

Culture in NEO: Beginning of a blog: OK, the weather can be a pest, and downhill skiing is not an option. But when it comes to theater, music or other arts (think museums!), we ...

Tale of two Franklins

I already mentioned the Franklin fiasco. For those who don't know about it, check the hyperlinks in my previous blog. To make things clear, this is the David Franklin, former CMA director and villain in chief after being run out of Cleveland by a justly hostile environment made of people who don't like what he did to one of our angels. But enough of this, there are pages of ink leaked from our pens elsewhere. 

I noted another Franklin story that has not hit the web yet, but I think I will. I attended the pretty good Shostakovich-Beethoven mini-festival at Severance to note a new pattern: when Franz W-M is conducting, the first clarinet of the orchestra, Frank Cohen, is not playing. I noticed that he plays whenever our conductor in chief is out of town or indisposed. 

Several interpretations come to mind. In a normal city with a normal musical environment and music critics, I would assume that the two have poorly matched schedules or a virus that infects one country at a time. The pendulum of sneezing and coughing may first hit Salzburg and Vienna, take a United flight to Cleveland, infect the woodwind player while the conductor is recuperating, and repeat the cycle at almost metronomic intervals. Why is this unlikely? Do your math....