Avery Fisher was active in chamber music in an unusual way: He had a large library of sheet music and a wide acquaintance among musicians. The musicians, many of them famous, would drop by in various combinations, and Fisher would dig out music appropriate to whatever instruments showed up (for pianists, there was a Boesendorfer on hand). Much of the music was unusual, so often his guests would be playing stuff they had not played even heard in years -- if ever. Or so he told me when I interviewed him. i can vouch for the sheet-music collection and the Boesendorfer, and that the latter was was kept in tune. I believe he also played a bit himself, but I forget which instrument. -Ivan Berger