Steve ARLOFF
Steve Arloff is now beyond his 70th birthday
and was born in Blackpool. With a Russian born father and English
mother he came under interesting musical influences and has been
listening to classical music all his life. Regrettably he never
learned to play an instrument though his mother owned a Steinway
at home and had a former school pupil of hers (Gordon Langford
the great light music composer and arranger) try to teach him
to play but Steve aged 10 was too lazy saying that he wanted to
play like Beethoven but without practising to which Gordon wisely
replied "So do we all Stephen, so do we all!" A former
teacher of French then buyer of industrial spare parts for an
import/export company that sold them to Eastern Europe, where
he has both lived and worked, Steve loves all music from Hildegard
of Bingen to Arvo Part. He has particular favourite composers
such as Shostakovich and Martinu and despite all his searching
for new musical experiences he is always drawn back to Beethoven
who he considers the ultimate musician. He is thrilled to come
upon composers who are "new" to him and this year considers
himself particularly fortunate to have discovered more works by
Miecyzslaw Weinberg, Alexander Tcherepnin and Hans Gal, all thanks
to MusicWeb. Reviewing for them is one of the things that keep
him sane in our mad world and makes sure his brain does not become
totally ossified. Steve tries to travel as much as finances allow
spending 5 weeks each winter on the Costa del Sol and, with his
motor home, visits other parts of Europe each year too so during
this time he doesn't review which he then misses a lot.