1
 When Robert McDuffie was 14,
5001
circumstance

2
 he got a chance 
5001
span

3
to play in the starting lineup for his high school basketball team in Macon, Ga.
2
elaboration-object-attribute-e

4
 Unfortunately, his mother had tickets for a recital by Itzhak Perlman the same night,
5003
span

5
 and she was adamant about his attending.
4
elaboration-additional

6
 I threw such a fit,
5005
attribution

7
 says Mr. McDuffie,
5005
span

8
 who had begun violin studies at the age of six.
7
elaboration-object-attribute-e

9
 But
5009
Same-Unit

10
 once Perlman started playing,
11
circumstance-e

11
 I didn't give a damn about basketball. . . .
5008
span

12
 Afterwards, I went home 
5010
List

13
and practiced for three hours.
5010
List

14
 Today, it's obvious that the brawny, six-foot, one-inch musician made the right choice.
5140
span

15
 At 31, Mr. McDuffie has a rich, full-bodied tone, an admirable rhythmic precision and an increasingly busy schedule.
5019
span

16
 He's currently in the midst of a 17-city U.S. tour with Yehudi Menuhin and the Warsaw Sinfonia, with stops 
5018
span

17
including Charleston, S.C.
5016
span

18
 (Oct. 25),
17
elaboration-additional-e

19
 Sarasota, Fla.
5015
span

20
 (Oct. 28),
19
elaboration-additional-e

21
 Tampa, Fla.
5014
span

22
 (Oct. 29)
21
elaboration-additional-e

23
 and Miami
5013
span

24
 (Oct. 31).
23
elaboration-additional-e

25
 Later this season he gives a recital at Washington's Kennedy Center,
5022
List

26
 and appears as soloist with several major orchestras.
5022
List

27
 Yet Mr. McDuffie's career has developed at a slower pace than those of some of his better known contemporaries.
5026
span

28
 During the late 1970s, he was part of a musical brat pack 
5025
span

29
-- a group of budding virtuosos 
5024
span

30
who studied at the Juilliard School with the noted pedagogue Dorothy DeLay.
29
elaboration-object-attribute-e

31
 His violin classmates included Shlomo Mintz, a protege of Isaac Stern
5030
span

32
 who performed with major orchestras while still a student;
31
elaboration-additional-e

33
 Cho-Liang Lin,
5029
span

34
 who joined the roster of ICM Artists Inc. at the age of 18;
33
elaboration-additional-e

35
 and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg,
5028
span

36
 who launched her career
5027
span

37
 by winning the 1981 Naumberg Competition.
36
means

38
 I thought
39
attribution

39
 I was over the hill at 22,
5033
span

40
 recalls Mr. McDuffie, an outgoing man with pale blue eyes and a light Southern drawl.
5033
attribution

41
 But I wasn't ready for a career at that time.
5035
Contrast

42
 Young McDuffie's first violin teacher was Henrik Schwarzenberger, a Hungarian refugee 
5037
span

43
who taught in the Macon public school system.
42
elaboration-additional-e

44
 He taught me how to play like a gypsy,
5038
span

45
 jokes the musician.
44
attribution

46
 I didn't learn to count
5039
span

47
 until I got to Juilliard.
46
circumstance

48
 After studies at that conservatory's Pre-College Division with an assistant to the legendary instructor Ivan Galamian, he switched at the college level to Miss DeLay, Mr. Galamian's longtime assistant and, ultimately, his rival.
5073
span

49
 I think
50
attribution

50
 I had to prove myself to her,
5043
span

51
 says Mr. McDuffie.
5043
attribution

52
 But she was always encouraging.
5046
span

53
 She only put her foot down twice, 
5045
span

54
he continues.
53
attribution

55
 In my freshman year, my roommate was known as a party animal.
5048
circumstance

56
 She thought
57
attribution

57
 I wasn't getting my practicing done.
5048
span

58
 As the violinist tells it,
5051
attribution

59
 his grandmotherly looking teacher put her hands on her hips,
5051
Sequence

60
 stomped her foot
5051
Sequence

61
 and said,
62
attribution

62
 `You've just got to get the {expletive deleted} out of there. ' 
5050
span

63
 The second incident took place 
5055
span

64
after Mr. McDuffie gave an ambitious student recital
5054
span

65
 and was feeling rather pleased with himself.
64
consequence-s

66
 Miss DeLay requested
67
attribution

67
 that he come to her studio with a tape of the recital.
5056
span

68
 We listened to the Chausson `Poeme, '
5058
span

69
 he recalls,
68
attribution

70
 and she said,
71
attribution

71
 `You hear the first note, that B-flat?
5057
span

72
 That's the only note 
5060
span

73
that's truly in tune . . .'.
72
elaboration-object-attribute-e

74
 That's the most important experience 
5064
span

75
I've had with any teacher, 
74
elaboration-object-attribute-e

76
he says,
5064
attribution

77
 because she taught me how to listen.
5069
span

78
 Now,
5068
Same-Unit

79
 when I play with orchestras,
80
circumstance-e

80
 the musicians often compliment me on my intonation.
5067
span

81
 It was also at Juilliard that Mr. McDuffie discovered his predilection for conservative, 20th-century American composers such as David Diamond and Samuel Barber.
5105
span

82
 After winning a school competition with a performance of the latter's Violin Concerto,
5075
circumstance

83
 Mr. McDuffie was invited to play the work for the composer,
5075
span

84
 who was dying of cancer.
83
elaboration-object-attribute-e

85
 Barber was seated by the fireplace
5078
span

86
 looking very pale,
85
elaboration-object-attribute-e

87
 recalls the violinist,
5077
span

88
 who performed the work with a piano accompanist at the composer's apartment.
87
elaboration-object-attribute-e

89
 He didn't say much,
5080
antithesis

90
 but what he said was important
5080
span

91
 because it's not in the score.
90
explanation-argumentative

92
 There's a beautiful, Coplandesque motif
5083
span

93
 -- he'd kill me 
5082
span

94
if he heard me say that -- 
93
circumstance

95
throughout the first movement . . .
5084
Same-Unit

96
 The only time 
5086
span

97
the violin has it
96
elaboration-object-attribute-e

98
 is right at the end.
5087
Same-Unit

99
 It's written `marcato' in the score,
5089
List

100
 and I played it that way, kind of gigue-like.
5089
List

101
 And he yelled out
102
attribution

102
 `dolce! dolce!' {`sweet! sweet!'}. 
5090
span

103
 So we did it over, 
5093
span

104
he adds.
103
attribution

105
 I played very transparently, with the tip of the bow.
5093
elaboration-additional

106
 If a conductor is sensitive enough
5096
span

107
 to bring down the orchestra {volume} at that point,
106
consequence-s

108
 it makes the piece magical.
5097
span

109
 I don't know 
110
attribution-n

110
why Barber never told anybody else.
5100
span

111
 On Isaac Stern's recording it's very biting.
5100
evidence

112
 Since leaving Juilliard,
113
temporal-after

113
 Mr. McDuffie has made some smart moves and some controversial ones.
5108
span

114
 His guest appearance on the NBC soap opera Another World, scandalized musical elitists.
5123
Contrast

115
 By contrast, he's won kudos for his espousal of William Schuman's Violin Concerto,
5109
span

116
 which he recently recorded for Angel/EMI along with Leonard Bernstein's engaging Serenade for Violin Solo, Strings and Percussion.
115
elaboration-object-attribute-e

117
 Mr. McDuffie's sweet tone, heartfelt lyricism and rhythmic punch make him an ideal interpreter of both works.
5109
elaboration-additional

118
 Aided by the fluid playing of the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin's direction,
119
circumstance

119
 this Serenade really swings.
5111
span

120
 Mr. Schuman's Violin Concerto,
5112
span

121
 which sounds more like a mildly atonal rhapsody for solo violin with orchestral accompaniment,
120
elaboration-additional-e

122
 meanders until the propulsive Agitato, fervente.
5113
Same-Unit

123
 But there are ample rewards in its plaintive slow sections and virtuoso fireworks for soloist, brass and timpani.
5113
antithesis

124
 At Avery Fisher Hall here, Mr. McDuffie was heard recently with Mr. Menuhin and the Warsaw Sinfonia in more conventional fare 
5117
span

125
-- Bruch's overwrought Violin Concerto in G Minor.
124
elaboration-object-attribute-e

126
 His performance was so effusive and driven
127
circumstance

127
 that the phrases rarely breathed.
5118
span

128
 The 35-member Sinfonia played adroitly with a big, lush sound 
5120
span

129
that belied its size.
128
elaboration-object-attribute-e

130
 Whatever he plays,
5128
contingency

131
 Mr. McDuffie finds satisfaction in the music itself
5128
span

132
 -- something greater out there than me,
5127
span

133
 as he puts it during an interview at the Manhattan apartment
5126
span

134
 he shares with wife, Camille, a literary publicist.
133
elaboration-object-attribute-e

135
 A normal person did not write the Beethoven `Violin Concerto, '
5131
span

136
 he declares.
135
attribution

137
 Even when I hear it played badly,
138
concession

138
 I'm still humbled by the piece.
5132
span

139
 If I could ever feel
140
attribution

140
 I've contributed to it in some way,
5134
span

141
 then all the hard work has been worth it.
5135
span

142
 Ms. Jepson is a free-lance music writer in New York.
5139
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reason

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antithesis

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comment-e

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condition

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Contrast

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5108
example

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