From her earliest memories in Detroit, Diana said that the busts on either side of the mirror over the mantle of Mozart and Beethoven were “always there.” Their presence might have predated her birth, but, alas, i don’t recall her stating that to have been the case.
These past four decades, Diana used to tell the tale of a fight she and Tav had as toddlers when their parents went to a Detroit Symphony concert and left them home to play. Among other things, they threw the statues at each other and, in the scuffle, Mozart’s nose broke off.
This unexpected event caused immediate cessation of hostilities and panicky collaboration on a “nose job” with a black crayon at the kitchen stove.
Ma didn’t notice until ~15 years later, long after the family had relocated to Rochester, NY. One of the symphony wives was over for coffee and exclaimed, “Hey, I thought Mozart had a big honker!” By that time OV was flying B-17s over Germany so Diana let him accept half blame in absentia but also credited him with the cosmetic work as exculpatory offset.
Dénouement
In the October 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the statues fell off a high shelf in our apartment in Sunnyvale and, this time, part of the base of Beethoven’s pedestal cracked off. Luckilly, from past experience, Diana knew that black crayon was key to repairing the damage once the Crazy-Glue had done its job.
Both statues are still on either side of our Yamaha (electric piano) Clavinova. Diana named it “Clara” after Clara Clemens-Gabrilowitsch — Mark Twain’s daughter — who would buy Tav and her ice cream cones before the summer outdoor concerts of the Detroit Symphony.
The mirror has been hanging on the wall above Clara since February of 1997 and the cellist at the end of the mantle opposite Mozart is a wind-up music which plays the Waltz from Gounod’s Faust box (also not far from Clara).
