Customer Reviews

Student Conductor

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If this novel did not have a masterfully intricate plot, intriguingly human characters, and the liquid, powerful feel of absorbing a symphony in bed, I would read it for the language. The language is such that occasionally I was stopped in the middle of an established rhythm to find myself rereading a sentence, struck by how perfectly it expressed itself. My only warning to a potential reader would be to wait until you're willing to spend some time with it. With work piling up on both sides, I sat down for a break with this book and read it in its entirety within the span of an afternoon, evening, and night. Having finished, I wanted to sit down with the author - or any of his characters - over coffee. Well written, Mr. Ford.

I am particularly drawn to novels that have a background in the world of classical music. I loved Vikram Seth's 'An Equal Music,' for instance, with its main characters who are chamber music players. But I have to say that as much as I admired Seth's book, this one is better. It is not only startlingly apt in its insider's understanding of the world of classical musicians, but also for its complex, thought-provoking plot with its many subtly revealed secrets, and for its burnished language. Author Robert Ford was a flutist and received an MFA from Yale before becoming a writer and actor. He clearly knows from the inside about the insecurities, obsessiveness and search for transcendence so often seen in top-level musicians. He describes those qualities with spare lyricism and telling detail. (Here, for instance, is a passage about the protagonist, a violinist-turned-student-conductor now studying in Germany with a great if mysterious maestro. He has not played his violin in months but picks it up again for a day-long practice session: "Three months without playing had left his chin smooth and vulnerable. He'd been so intent on tuning intervals, one small correction after another, that he'd forgotten the need to work in a callus. He brushed a knuckle just behind the jaw bone and winced. When he looked, there was a mosquito's worth of blood on the back of his finger.")

The music of Brahms figures as a leitmotiv throughout this book and it is described in detail that only a musician - and a good writer - could provide. While reading 'The Student Conductor' I kept open my own score of Brahms's Second Symphony for frequent reference, and was astonished to realize how many insights Ford gave me about the work--not something you'd expect a novel to do, is it? I also found myself referring to a couple of books that I am sure Ford used in his preparation for writing the book: Jan Swafford's marvelous biography of Brahms, and Norman Lebrecht's gossipy 'The Maestro Myth.'

However the main theme of the book is not the music. It is a love story, of sorts, that takes place against the background of Germany in 1989 when the Wall fell. Not only are there ghosts from the divided Germany--primarily in the character of East German oboist Petra Vogel with whom student conductor Cooper Barrow falls in love--but from the era of Hitler's Germany whose shadow falls on Barrow's conducting teacher, Karlheinz Ziegler. Plot twists bearing on these things make the book compulsively readable.

I would recommend this book urgently to readers who have some background in music. But I would also recommend it as well to those who have no such background because Ford has an ability to describe the inner lives of classical musicians in a way that makes it understandable to anyone. Plus, it's a great story.

Scott Morrison

Having lived in Germany for nearly 30 years, having experienced the events in November 1989 at first hand and being a historian to boot, I feel I have some insight into modern German history and the German mindset. Robert Ford's book simply took my breath away. It seems as though he has lived in this country for 30 years - so clear and accurate are his insights. The novel is multi-layered, a poignant love story, a morality tale and a brilliant description of just what it is that a conductor does and how an orchestra works. In fact it had me running to a Brahms CD that had been gathering dust for quite some time on our shelf and listening over and over to the 1st symphony with Ford's book as my guide. His description of "ordinary" people living in "extraordinary" times and the moral dilemmas they faced mirrors life in Europe in the 20th century. Needn't we be thankful that we've never been tested in this way?
This is one of the best novels I have ever read - his language is spare and beautiful. I read the book twice in one week, handed it onto my daughter and checked in the internet to see whether it has been translated into German so that I can recommend it to German friends. It is being translated and will appear in German next spring. Gott sei dank!.

The Student Conductor is thoroughly engaging - emotionally and intellectually complex, but the prose is elegantly simple. I loved it as a window into a political culture and the world of classical music, both of which were unfamiliar terrain to me. And a wonderful love story, too. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to be totally immersed in a vivid landscape from page one onwards.

Identity and power characterize both the themes of The Student Conductor and the writing itself. Ford knows the world of classical music profoundly. Everything is depicted correctly. Astonishingly, he simultaneously captures the tremulous mindset of an American in 1989 Germany. This is a novel in the mold, curiously, of Faulkner. It is about a time and a place, but it is mostly about memory and love. Like Faulkner, Ford explores both individual and collective experiences of history as well as of life and music. While perhaps not quite on Faulkner's plane, Ford is a superb writer, though given to the occasional stiff turn of phrase. This is an extraordinary novel, and ranks with Frank Conroy's Body and Soul as one of the best fictional depictions of the world of classical music.

Ford's debue novel is an exciting and insightful story that would appeal to music lovers & history buffs alike. Told through the experiences and observations of one displaced and self-doubting American during the end of the East/West German seperation, Ford weaves politics, sociology, and musicianship into an exciting and unpredictable tale of discovery. Professional musicians will find themselves wrapped in his description and emotional pull for all things musical. Historians will drool over the struggles and social complexities brought to light by Ford's characters as they try to mend and rediscover thier own identities following the end of Communist Germany. I have never read such an accurate tale of what it means to connect with a piece of music, to fear and love one's mentor, or struggle to make an identity for one's self. The Student Conductor is a must read!!

I, too, like stories that involve classical music. I wish there are a lot more stories about classical music.
The student conductor is written in a very simple format and very easy to read. It is more than just a story about musicians, or love story, for that matter. The two enigmatic characters that surround the protagonist, Cooper Barrow, are haunted by the guilt of sending their Jewish loved ones to death, and because of their past, they act erratically and Barrow gets thrown about. The mystery is slowly revealed, and the author successfully builds up the intensity.
The haunting memories and guilt themselves are complicated enough issues, but being highly esteemed musicians (a conductor is like a god), with rivalry, ambitions, admirations, and intense personalities, things become much more complicated and intricate.
To me, it was more of a story of people in Europe, especially in Germany, who are still struggling to heal from the wound that was caused by the Hitler's war and communism that followed. Barrow is an American, and he's repeatedly told he wouldn't understand their experience. Placing an American as a protagonist, the author tells the story from the point of view of the one who does not understand but wants to understand.
Highly political, racial, and personal, yet the author manages to drive the story without becoming stale or offensive.
One might need to get used to the dialogues, the way the characters converse. Ziegler is especially erratic and at times he seems irrational, and just as Barrow gets thrown off, the reader gets thrown off also. But eventually the reason for all this is revealed. The ending was particularly impressive.
A good read.

After finishing 'The Student Conductor' and replacing the dust jacket, I noticed that the front flap contained a blurb comparing its author, Robert Ford, to John Fowles. I hadn't thought of that but instantly agreed on seeing it. In fact, make it a blend of Fowles and Erich Ambler. Mr. Ford's writing exudes erudition and clever insights without even a hint of showing off or straining for effect. He effortlessly creates an authentically European ambiance and engages the reader with his characters' (and his own?) finely-tuned sentiments contrasting today's healthy Germany with its profoundly divided and dysfunctional predecessor during the cold war. In this setting Ford weaves an Ambler-like tale of intrigue involving a promising American apprentice conductor, a brilliant but unstable teacher who seems bent on surreptitiously destroying his best pupils, and a beautiful oboist with an enigmatic past.

But that's not all. Ford delivers much more than just an engaging yarn to anyone who might be curious about the trade secrets of conducting, the ambitions and anxieties of classical musicians, and the nuts and bolts of orchestra management. He has mastered the technique of using professional jargon and recondite references in such a way that the reader is gradually drawn into the psyche of the protagonist (Cooper Barrow, the student conductor) and begins to acquire an enhanced musical understanding that feels real. And in fiction, the feeling is what counts. I confess to a little thrill of edification on learning that the famous tuning note A-440 actually vibrates 443 times per second.

A trio of tiny glitches stands out only because the book is, overall, so perfectly crafted. On page 15 "lay" is used where "lie" belongs. On page 216 "lay" again appears where "laid" should be, and on page 231 "affect" incorrectly takes the place of "effect."

Mr. Ford's first novel is a treat on several levels and I am glad to recommend it with enthusiasm.

There is a bootcamp sort of relationship between our protagonist and his tough German professor who has been through the worst of Hitler's attrocities. Both wounded geniuses need a little bit of love and a chance to realize their true talents and role as real players in the world of concertmasters. A female oboeist from Eastern Germany plays a role in both of their lives while she deals with her own deamons escaping from the East. There is real passion in the romance that occurs, but the over-riding theme seems to be the affects of the pain and suffering that some of the Germans have lived through during the reign of communism and Hitler.

Sometimes, the story seemed a bit harsh and strained, although in the end, I think it was very realistic and the outcome certainly not a stretch. And for a non-musician, there is huge and interesting insight into the world of musicians and the huge effort and talent it takes to get to the top.

How on earth did I miss this book when it was first published? I have no idea, but I'm eternally grateful for having stumbled over it recently. It is a truly awesome novel--one I'll probably re-read over the next years on more than one occasion.

Making music is one of life's greatest mysteries. Making classical music - successfully - is even more mysterious, despite its form and the near-rigidity of having each note written on the paper in front of the musician at almost all times. Only soloists and conductors endeavor to produce musical beauty without having the music in front of them. Most of the time it all works wonderfully well. But yet, no matter how often the same group of musicians will play the same piece of music--over and over again--the results are never exactly the same. Amazing.

Although life is not a sonata, the context is a good one, whether the life is that of musician, conductor or listener. It takes time and patience to truly understand what is meant by all those dark little squiggles on the paper, but when done right (according to the score, that is) the result can be sublime.

There is music on every page of this remarkable book which mostly takes place during November, 1989, when the wall between East and West Germany was brought down in a bloodless revolution. Appropriately, the main protagonist of that event was a fabulous musician, the conductor Kurt Masur of Leipzig.

The main protagonist of this book, Cooper Barrow, (born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio!) is a young conductor, who expected too much of his youthful self, and subsequently walked off the podium, into private life. He then took a ten-year leave of absence to merely teach violin to youngsters in Fishkill, New York.

Now, nearing middle age, he embarks on lessons in Germany to see if he can reclaim his career. If there are no obstacles in front of him, he creates them, or encourages others to create them. So do we all sabotage our own careers. After the concertmaster, the next musician who has the most influence on a conductor is the principal oboe, who sounds the necessary A for tuning purposes. An out-of-tune A can very easily bring down a conductor and an orchestra.

Here, then, in Karlsruhe, said oboist of the student orchestra is a very attractive young woman, Petra Vogel, and nature takes its usual course. Barrow's teacher, the elderly Karlheinz Ziegler, is an enigmatic man with too-many memories of World War II. There are other well-crafted musicians in the book, all true to life, each of them heading in his or her own direction, regardless of the conductor.

Each recapitulation of the theme peels back another layer of Petra's or Cooper's background, leaving them bare of emotion or sometimes, even sense. They are usually saved by the protocol that surrounds any orchestra and it's musicians, especially the conductor.

This noteworthy novel is not just for musicians or music-lovers. It's for anyone who treasures lovely, lyrical writing, appreciates characters who breathe life into every page and espouses history and the lessons we can all learn from it. Recent or past, it has much to teach us, if we can only be receptive to its siren call.