Looking for information about H.  Szeryng on the internet I somehow
stumbled over an interview with Glenn Dicterow (New York Philharmonic
concertmaster, violinist) at:

   http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/03/29/nyphil.violin/

and found out much interesting about a violinist's life and work.

However, one of the answers was strange:

   "Q:  Aside from the Kreisler CD in your car, what other music do you
   listen to? A:  I listen to the Beatles a lot, because my son is an
   11-year-old who's discovered the Beatles in a big way.  And I love
   Sinatra, I love Streisand.  I don't often listen to classical music
   to and from work -- basically, I need a rest from that.  But I love
   pop and soft rock, so I'm not an old stick-in-the-mud."

I don't understand how anyone who has listened to classical music and liked
it can ever LOVE soft rock.  Some Sinatra, Streisand, maybe some Beatles
but, excuse me, "pop and soft rock"? And the subsequent miserable assurance
that he's "not an old stick-in-the-mud" is really bad...  I feel sorry for
a musician who has to spend hours daily in contact with classical music
that he compares to "mud".  He could be advised to give up such a dirty job
and do something else with the Spice Girls and Sting in the background.

What is your opinion on this matter?

I know some classical musicians listen to (more seldom "love") pop and
soft rock but, to my mind, it shows a certain inner conflict in them -
maybe they were forced to study music (a very frequent scenario!) or
realized the absence of vocation to music.  A classical music lover
switching to pop is almost unimaginable for me, although the opposite
happens quite often.  The content, emotion, complexity of classical music
leave pop absolutely bland.  It is possible, however, that a pop-lover
starts listening to some easy-listening classical, maintaining his affinity
to pop but there's incompleteness in this case:  most frequently such
listeners spend little time listening to any style of music or need some
knowledge of classical to feel more educated (Vanessa Mae often suffices
for this purpose).  But that doesn't seem to apply to the New York
Philharmonic concertmaster whose true artistry is now doubtful for me...

Juozas Rimas Jr (not the one playing)
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/141/juozas_rimas.html