How I became Cellist
Playing the recorder was easier, though we only had group lessons and I didn’t practice an awful lot. It got a bit better as I grew older and later I was allowed to change from the soprano recorder to the alto recorder. We had to buy a new flute and my mother wasn’t very happy about it, as money was short with four boys. However she managed to scratch 50 German marks together, which was a lot of money in those days. The dark brown alto recorder of the Mollenhauer company was a source of pride for me. We played in a class of seven children and for the first time I had the zest to make music. But then my old teacher, whom I was very fond of, left us and I came to a new class.