Former Utah Symphony Associate Concertmaster, Gerald Elias’ new Daniel Jacobus mystery novel “Death and Transfiguration” takes place at the Tanglewood Music Festival. The villain of the story is Vaclav Herza, the last of a dying breed of great and tyrannical conductors, who has a knack for humiliating talented artists.
His latest target is skilled concertmaster Scheherezade O’Brien, who turns to the cantankerous blind violinist and amateur sleuth Jacobus for help. We’ll spend the hour with Gerald Elias talking about his latest mystery and about the world of classical music, the role of the conductor, and what it’s really like to an orchestral musician. We’ll also hear music from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherezade” and Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration.”