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Maurice Levy: We were talking about the friendship of Donald Steinfirst
and Isaac Stern. Were you at the symphony? Uh, the week that Donald
Steinfield died? You recall that? Well, just I'll just add a little
anecdote here. He came out on the stage and he played the Bach Air on the G
string in memory of Donald Steinfirst. So you remember that. You remember
that.
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Belle Rubenstein: That I remember, uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, uh, Donald
Steinfirst's wife was lovely, and she died. When they were in Europe. Um.
There's something. And, uh, just. Not long before Donald died. That was too
bad. We were. I used to be invited to their home, and they, uh. Oh, I
remember, uh. Um. For these names, I can't. Um. Who who! Wrote the
Hungarian.
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Levy: Liszt.
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Rubenstein: Dada. Dada.
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Levy: Now there's the Brahms Hungarian dances.
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Rubenstein: No, no.
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Levy: And, uh, other Hungarian would be Bartok.
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Rubenstein: No. No, um, the.
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Levy: The only other Hungarian I know are the Rosenblums. Because they
make Hungarian pastry.
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Rubenstein: They're not Hungarian.
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Levy: I Know, but they make they make Hungarian. They make some Hungarian
pastry. They they're not Hungarian. Well, okay.
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Rubenstein: Um. I can. I can hear the that, uh, that special.
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Levy: Janacek know he was Czech. He was Czech. Hungarian? No, theres the
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody. There's the Enesco Romanian Rhapsody. Enescu.
Well, that's Romanian.
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Rubenstein: Romanian. Pardon me, that's okay. That's the one. Enescu. Well
as they entertained him. Enescu. The composer was here.
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Levy: George Enescu was here in Pittsburgh, and they entertained him. And
you were there? Yeah. And you got to meet George Enescu? Yeah. Uh huh.
Isn't that exciting? That's something to read. Yeah. You recall much of
that evening?
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Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. Well, that evening was very nice. I don't know the
details, but, uh. Uh. All the Steinfirsts used to have the. Big affairs,
and I was lucky enough to be invited to some.
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Levy: I know you have. You have a very good memory of Rosalyn Tureck. The,
uh, the wonderful, uh, pianist who was such a master of.
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Rubenstein: I saw just saw her. Well, you know, yesterday, uh, her sister,
her sisters. Yeah, her. You met. You didn't meet her sister? Uh.
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Levy: Her sisters in Pittsburgh.
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Rubenstein: Well, she was there. She came to Pittsburgh. Well, she lives
in Florida.
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Levy: Whos that, her sister?
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Rubenstein: Her sister lives in Florida. And, uh, she came here for a for
some surgery. She had surgery and she's staying at. At this Independence
Court until she recuperates.
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Levy: Is that the one that was sitting on the couch? Yeah.
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Rubenstein: That's her sister.
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Levy: Uh huh. So what can you tell?
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Rubenstein: We were talking. Well, I met her. And the. Oh, Rosalyn.
Tureck. You want me to tell her about her? Sure. Oh. Well, um. Uh, I didn't
know her. And at that time, I was I think I was chairman, and, uh, I had,
uh, a, uh, my friend, a French friend who was on our our committee. And.
And we heard that she was coming. She was. She wouldn't fly. She was coming
by train. Rosalyn Tureck was coming by train. So, uh, her, uh, my friend's
name was my French friend's name was, uh. Uh. Um. Anyway, she's gone too by
this time. Anyway, we went down to the railroad station to meet her. And
watch it come off the train. And she looked like she was a very small, and
she was dressed in the height of fashion and she looked very, very
beautiful, very charming, very well dressed. And. And we, uh, we I took
her, we took her into the at the railroad station. We took her into the
restaurant to to get some coffee. And the. And I had a photographer from
the press. For publicity. And then she started to tell me, tell me that she
had just come from South Africa. She had been concertizing there, she said.
That when she got there, she she she learned about apartheid. And she
wasn't going to, and she decided she wasn't going to sing for them. Play
for them to sing.
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Levy: Rosalyn Tureck.
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Rubenstein: Tureck. She wasn't going to play. And, uh. And she refused.
She started to refuse to play because the blacks were not allowed to to,
uh, come to her concert. So she said she won't play unless she can, uh,
play for them too. So they arranged their group. The black group arranged
to, uh. Uh, they got a piano. And they arranged for her to to give a
concert on the outside. And, um, she did. She. Then she stayed and she
played. And. And when she was finished playing, they, they had a choral
group. They sang for her. Right. You know. And she said she was so thrilled
that they the way that that evening turned out and, um. And she vowed
never, never to sing, to go to sing there again. To play again. Uh, she
wouldn't have anything to do with them. You know, the South Africans. So
she's used to. She told us stories about that, and she was very liberal and
she was just lovely. And we had Rosalind and she was thrilling. And you've
heard her and we had her back several times. About about eight times. And.
And here I discover this is her sister. Wasn't that interesting? And? And
she tells me that she's still. She's in. Uh. Oh. And she has a home in
England. She doesn't live here. She lives in England. And, um, that, um.
She's still concertizing in a different way, though. She has a group. And
she lectures, too. And that's part of her program. And I was wondering, why
can't we have her anyway, you know, come back and give one of her unusual
programs. So I'm going to get in touch with her and see what. Get some
brochures on her and see what she's doing. But that was interesting.
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Levy: Here was an interesting. Quartet from 1959. Zeeman Goldberg. Violin.
Yeah. William Primrose viola. Yeah. Victor Babin piano. Oh, for heaven's
sake! And Nikolai Groven, that name, I don't know. But the other three were
such prominent people and they played. In a quartet at the Y.
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Rubenstein: Oh my goodness.
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Levy: And that was their Pittsburgh premiere. Wow. You recall that? I
recall.
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Rubenstein: I dont recall. I probably wasn't here. Oh my goodness. You
have so much.
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Levy: Uh, Annie Fisher. Remember. Annie Fisher.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yes, she comes from. She came from Newcastle. Um, yes. She
was good too.
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Levy: What do you mean? From Newcastle?
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Rubenstein: Wasn't her home in Newcastle.
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Levy: She's from. She's Hungarian. Annie Fisher. You must be thinking of
somebody else.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. There is a Fisher who was a pianist in Newcastle.
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Levy: Everywhere of course. The local people. Paul Winct. Oh, yeah.Who was
a young Violinist. Yeah, yeah. Hila Goldstein and Annabelle Joseph.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. Well, you know that those were the Passamaneck uh,
we call the.
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Levy: Audience award winners. Yeah, those are the local people.
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Rubenstein: We have auditions every year, you know.
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Levy: Dermot.
Levy: Uh, the, uh. Well, uh, how about, well, Byron Janis.
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Rubenstein: Oh, Janis, wait.
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Levy: You can tell us about him because he's local.
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Rubenstein: Oh my goodness. Yeah, well, uh, he was related to Horlicks.
Uh, you know, the the name Horlick.
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Levy: Mean malted milk. That's a different horror.
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Rubenstein: Horror?
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Levy: Yeah. No. Well, okay. Who? So when Byron was eight years old, um.
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Rubenstein: He was he played at our house. He came and played the piano
for us. We knew his relatives very well.
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Levy: His name was Yanks, wasn't it? Was Yanks. They were from
McKeesport.
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Rubenstein: Yeah. Yanks. Yeah. And so they decided that they better change
that name. It didn't sound so good. So, um, he was eight when he played for
us. And then here again. And then he went to study with somebody in Texas,
a very famous teacher in Texas. And when he was about 16, he played again
for us at home. And, um, he was a sort of a nervous kid. And, um, then, of
course, uh, uh, later on, he he married, um. Uh. Let's see. A. Somebody's
relative. Uh. He married, uh. Some famous. The daughter of some famous
actor. I can't think of his name. And, um. And he, uh, he was a nervous
and. And then he he concertized. Oh! And when he concertized at Syria
Mosque. I don't know how old. Oh, he was about 18, something like that.
And. And Lorin.
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Levy: Lorin Maazel.
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Rubenstein: Maazel Um. Let's see. What do you do? Oh, I think he, uh. Uh,
Lorine, uh, conducted. That was on Sunday afternoon. Oh, no, wait a
minute.
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Levy: Youre talking about when Lorin Maazel was younger.
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Rubenstein: They were about the same age. What did Lorin Maazel do?
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Levy: Well, Lorin Maazel conducted the symphony when he was about 10 or 11
years old in short pants.
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Rubenstein: Oh, well, wait a minute. I have to tell you about Lorin.
That's not true. Wait.
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Levy: Well, let's finish the Byron Janis.
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Rubenstein: Byron Janis. Uh, that that was on a Sunday afternoon. He was
soloing, and, uh. Yeah. I think Lorin was, uh, conducting. And. And
Saturday night, Horowitz was, uh, was playing, uh, who was the soloist with
the Pittsburgh Symphony. And Horowitz stayed over to listen to these two
youngsters. And the. And he came over to, uh, he, uh, came over to Byron
and he asked him if he would like to study with him. That was very unusual
because, uh, Horowitz wasn't teaching a great deal. And, uh, and sure
enough, Byron did study with him for a little while, and, uh, uh, he made a
remark. He said he must have liked my brown eyes. He intimated that, uh,
Horowitz was a little bit, um, you know, you know. And the. And that's what
he said about Horowitz at the time. And I don't know, I don't think he
stayed very long with him.
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Levy: But he that comes across in the biography of Horowitz does it the
fact that Horowitz [?]. That's he did I could I may be wrong in that
recollection. Yeah. They do talk about the fact that. But Janis did the
study with Horowitz. And it wasn't a very successful, uh, teacher student
relationship.
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Rubenstein: Yeah, well, that's what I understood, too.
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Levy: But, uh, here's another name out of here. You recall Sidney Harman.
Oh, sure. You must have known him because he was. He was the head of the
violin department.
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Rubenstein: I do know him. And as a matter of fact, when I was in the
hospital with something and he came to see me. Really? Yeah, I know him. I
know his wife. Yeah. Uh. Terry. Uh huh. So. But where is he? He's around.
I. Well, he's around here. He, uh. Uh, he was with one of the colleges.
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Levy: Uh, well, he was he was the head of the at Carnegie Tech.
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Rubenstein: I know, but.
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Levy: In addition to that, in addition to.
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Rubenstein: That. But that.
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Levy: Here are a few more names. We'll have Robert Casadesus.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yes. Yeah.
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Levy: You must have met him.
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Rubenstein: Yeah. Very fine. Who else?
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Levy: Uh. Marilyn Horne.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yeah.
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Levy: Richard Goode.
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Rubenstein: Yeah.
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Levy: He went on to great things. And I remember his debut recital at the
Y. Mhm. We're going to I'm going to ask you about I know that you know, the
the Maazels very well. Yeah. What can you what do you recall? You knew, uh,
you know, Lincoln and Marie, the parents of Lorin. Yeah. Uh, and you were
telling me before that you remember when they came to Pittsburgh?
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Rubenstein: Well, yes. The reason they came was because, uh, Lorin was,
uh, at that time, Lorin was nine years old, eight years old. And, uh, he
was studying with Bakaleinikoff. He was studying conducting with
Bakaleinikoff in, in the California. And here Bakaleinikoff became the
associate conductor to Reiner. Reiner came to Pittsburgh, and Bak came at
the same time as his associate conductor. And then the whole group came in
from Cincinnati. Uh. Uh Stolerevski. Sure.
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Levy: That's where that's where Reiner came from. He came from the
Cincinnati Symphony.
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Rubenstein: They all came in from so. So they so Stolerevski. uh, came.
And Stolerevski.. And a girlfriend of his came Kay Uh. She followed him in
Stolerevski. was already a you know, he was a little older. He had a wife
and he had children. And he had divorced her. And Kay Stolerevski. and Kay
came in, uh, with, uh, Solerevski. And uh, and finally they got married
here in Pittsburgh, and I knew the whole gang right away. Uh, the Maazels
and Stolerevski. and and, uh, Bakaleinikoff. I met them all together, and
this was a whole gang here who came all from the different areas and the.
And whether Pittsburgh Symphony and the. And the and the Maazels. Didn't
have any way they they spent the we had them at our house very often. I'm
sure they were starving. They didn't have any income at the time. And they
came with their son, Lorin, to study with Bakaleinikoff. And that's how
they were. That's how they came to Pittsburgh. So. And then of course, we
all had a great time together. You know, we were all carrying we were all,
uh, uh. They used to come to our house. And we all became very good
friends. I was very fond of Misha Stolevski. And then, of course, Kay. They
were married. And the. Then there were some extra ones. Other ones that
the. Uh, we're teaching at, uh, one of the schools, the girls schools. Uh,
I knew. Anyway, that's how they came here to Pittsburgh.
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Levy: You know, you you knew Loran and as a as a boy.
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Rubenstein: So when? So of course. So when he was, uh, uh, eight years
old. Uh, I was told that, uh, Lorin was invited by, uh, by the New York
Philharmonic. It was around the World's Fair. You know, New York,
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Levy: Yeah. 1939 1940. That was when the World's Fair.
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Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah. Um, uh, he was, uh, Lorin was invited to conduct
the New York Philharmonic. Orchestra. Symphony. Uh, he was nine, nine years
old. And New York. That was Toscanini's uh, uh, orchestra. And he was
invited to conduct. He did. And and we all went. We all drove to New York.
With him. And I remember going to the rehearsal. Of the New York firm.
These sophisticated men, you know. Um, in New York men. Uh, and I look at,
uh, he was a beautiful, the most beautiful kid you ever saw. He was
gorgeous. Lorin. And the there they are at rehearsal and they see this kid
and they thought, huh? They're going to show him. Anyway, they start to
play. And the. Lorin stops him and he says. Clarinet. Don't you have your
music there? And of course, he was the guy who was shamefaced. And he said.
And so they continued. And I was there. I heard him eight years old. Eight
years old. So he, uh. Um. So they start again and he stops. He says, um,
oboe. You played C instead of C sharp. He has a perfect ear. Absolute
perfect ear.
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Levy: Perfect pitch, perfect pitch.
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Rubenstein: So they start again. And, um. What was it? Another instrument.
He stopped again. And he told them that he was playing the wrong note. And
after a while they had more respect for him. And of course, then they
played as they should play, and he conducted that, uh, uh, that orchestra
that evening and was uh oh, they made a sensation, you know, eight years
old he was. And the most beautiful boy you ever saw. He was gorgeous. And.
But the Maazels didn't push him or anything like that. He went to school.
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Levy: He went to public high school and went to Peabody.
00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:19.000
Rubenstein: Peabody High School. And, uh, he, uh, studied languages and
has a photographic mind. Uh, that kid is a genius, there's no doubt about
it. And
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Levy: He ended up playing in the orchestra for a while. Uh.
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Rubenstein: He played in the orchestra. That's right.
00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.000
Levy: Pittsburgh Symphony. Yes. And then he went to Pitt.
00:24:26.000 --> 00:26:03.000
Rubenstein: Yeah, he went for Pitt. Yeah, he studied languages and, uh.
He. He speaks to several languages very well. And the. He he he's a genius.
Absolutely. And he's. At that. And there were times when he wasn't so, so
wonderful either as a person. He was a. He was. That he wasnt even nice
to his parents at, uh, at certain times. And now. My goodness. What he's
doing. Well, of course he's making an awful lot of money. Uh, he bought
them this, uh, expensive condominium in the in the, um. On Dithridge, the
Dithridge House. A beautiful apartment. And the Cadillac. And. Of course,
now they're way, way up in years. His parents. He said. Good. Oh. He was
married three times. He has six children. Uh, two of each wife. Uh, one of
them was, uh, uh, Margot, like, uh, Israela Margalit. Obviously, he had two
children with her.
00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:04.000
Levy: She was a concert pianist.
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:27.000
Rubenstein: She. Yeah, she had, and of course. But, uh, he takes care of
all the children. Uh. One of them, the oldest of. Oh, and when he was 23
years old. You know, I knew them. I used to talk to Marie practically every
day.
00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:28.000
Levy: There he is, his.
00:26:28.000 --> 00:29:06.000
Rubenstein: Mother, Marie Maazel. And, uh, I used to talk with her
practically every day. And when. When I lived on Plainfield Street, that's
when we had all the fun there. Anyway, one day, uh. I was in my den, and,
uh, she calls up, she says, what do you know? Lorin is engaged. Lorin is
going to get married and he was 23 years old at the time. Uh, he was 23.
And I said, oh, and it so happens that my daughter Bonnie happened to be,
uh, in the in the room. I said, oh, Bonnie, you know, Lorin is going to get
married. She burst out crying. See, she was 15 when he was 23. He's eight
years older than my daughter. And she burst out. She says, oh, I thought he
would wait for me. I'll never forget that. And she when she was, uh, uh,
when he was eight years old. Wait a minute. When he was, uh, when she was
two. And he was ten or something like that. She used to he were they were
at our house all the time. She used to follow him. She was a beautiful
little thing. My daughter, she was gorgeous. And she used to follow him all
over the place. And she would she just adored him. She'd follow him. And
one day she says, mommy, he won't let me in the bathroom. She followed him
all over everywhere anyway, she. She just so when she when she heard that
he was going to get married, she said, I thought he would wait for me
anyway. That's. I'll never forget that. So that's how. And of course, we've
been friends since. And of course, Lorin has been all over the world,
everywhere and. And he's made a great success. He's. Making about $1
million a year or something like that. And they make a big fuss over him,
don't they? They make a god of him here. Well, they do.
00:29:06.000 --> 00:30:06.000
Levy: People do. Because he had achieved at one time he was the director
of the Vienna State Opera, which was, oh, the Berlin. Well no, of the
Vienna State Opera because he, uh, that that was considered many, uh, one
of the most prestigious conducting posts in the world. Uh huh. Yeah, yeah,
yeah.
