It's Orlov

 

I took over the UK representation of the Romanian 'cellist Vladimir Orlov from a nice old agent called Finzi who was retiring I think. 

Orlov was tall, dark, handsome, charming and good to work with. He played magnificently but as a contemporary of Rostropovich opportunities at least in the UK were not enormous. He seemed to accept this and never twisted my arm on the subject of not getting more work. 

He moved to Canada where he became a revered teacher. He continued with his career as soloist so it was nice to see him from time to time. 

There was one danger though. On at least one occasion when he called the office, someone called over to me saying (as I thought) 'It's all off!!' suggesting that whatever project I was struggling with at that moment had bit the dust.

Gennady Rozhdestvensky told me he remembered Orlov's father playing the 'cello in a Romanian orchestra he had conducted. The musical world can seem small sometimes.