JAVS Spring 2017

recordings (especially the Brahms Sonatas), and in my opinion these are right up there with the best of them and quite possibly should be at the top of the list. When Bernie wrote me that he didn’t have long to live, I happened to be working on writing an album of string quartet music (parts of which are fairly humorous and violacentric) to be recorded by a new quartet in Massachusetts, the Wistaria String Quartet. I wrote him right back to tell him that I’d be dedicating the album to him. It seemed such an obvious dedication to someone with his sense of humor and career in so many string quartets. Bernie and Naomi’s duo partnership (they were married for nearly 70 years!) was something that I especially admired. My wife Tanya and I also perform together regularly, and what Bernie and Naomi achieved both as musicians and as human beings is an inspiration to us.

As Bernie often ended his correspondence to me, so I will end this In Memoriam for Bernie to you: Play Loud!

(Now go get his book!)

A more recent image of Bernie Zaslav, provided courtesy of Dwight Pounds.

Scott Slapin is a violacentric composer and performer based in western Massachusetts and one half of the Slapin Solomon Viola Duo. In addition to having written seven albums of original compositions, he is the soloist for many premiere recordings including the first recording produced by the American Viola Society (Premieres) and the first complete recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas on viola. For more information, visit scottslapin.com and violaduo.com.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 2017