In Thursday’s (5/3) Detroit News, Lawrence B. Johnson writes, “No matter how you spell the name, it’s a brotherly bond that ties Detroit Symphony Orchestra music director Leonard Slatkin and the DSO’s soloist this weekend, cellist Frederick Zlotkin. And it’s a family matter that brings them together for these concerts at Orchestra Hall. Zlotkin will play Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Cello Concerto, written for the 1946 classical-music-with-murder film ‘Deception.’ The concerto—or more accurately a few minutes of it—was ‘played’ on screen by actor Paul Henreid, but the actual performance was by star cellist Eleanor Aller, mother of the Slatkin boys. Their father was violinist and conductor Felix Slatkin, and both parents enjoyed high-profile careers on the Hollywood film scene. … [Zlotkin] reverted to an older, Russian spelling of the family name to avoid confusion with his brother and has served for 40 years as principal cellist with the New York City Ballet. … The brothers have collaborated on the concerto twice, with the BBC Symphony and the National Symphony [in Washington, D.C.] during Slatkin’s directorship there. But Zlotkin says they’ve always taken great pleasure in working together, and in their youth—before Slatkin shifted from piano to conducting—often played duets.”
Posted May 4, 2012
