The last time I saw Christoph von Dohnányi was at a lovely dinner at his apartment in Munich this last June. We were celebrating a positive health report his wife Barbara had just received and the mood was easy, relaxed, and convivial. The conversation with CvD covered enormous ground, as it always did—he spoke with great interest and erudition about politics, curious trends in pop culture, literature, and of course our shared connection with different orchestras. In the last days, many who had the privilege to be close to CvD have written about his wicked sense of humor and acerbic wit, but to those who only knew him from afar, I can imagine that it must be strange to believe that this side even existed.
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