Mothers and Daughters Ch. 20

"For my part, I have certainly been elated with the success I have achieved, but I try to keep my perspective. I may become a great violinist, but I will be ever mindful that my chance for success was made possible by my other non-musical skills."

Phil Newhouser was absolutely astonished by Natasha's bold frankness, despite its being clothed in euphemism. No doubt such self-effacement for her remarkable success was a factor that won her over with other musicians. He was beginning to like this Natasha Starikovich very much and knew that he would have a delightful professional relationship with her besides anything else.

It also made the rest of what he needed to say easier, "I am not one to speculate on the suitability of how your opportunity to succeed was brought about, but there is no denying that your subsequent acclaim seems to have been meritoriously deserved. However, I'm glad you mentioned this, as it naturally leads to the boldest aspect of Dietrich's proposed recording contract with me. I understand from what Dietrich told me that you have played this Enescu Sonata while completely naked in his office."

Natasha naturally reddened in embarrassment. However, as she was not ashamed, she answered calmly and with dignity, "Yes, that is correct. Maestro Ebersbacher was kind enough to grant me an audition to determine my qualifications to play for the Chicago Symphony. He had me play this music in the nude on the assumption that doing so would bring out the passion of the music more fully than an uninspired but technically flawless performance."

Chuckling at Natasha's cagey answer, Newhouser continued, "Yes, that was what he intimated to me as well. He went on to say that your playing was even more spectacular than the optimum he could ever have imagined."

"It was kind of him to say so."

"That, then, was his purpose of selecting this music for your recording. He wished to replicate this audition."

"I see. I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I realized my superior performance at the time, and I remember regretting not having anyone else witness it."

Phillip continued, "Dietrich went on to say that to truly replicate the performance, he proposed to have you record the music in the nude. However, I gather from his remarks at the time that he had not yet communicated such intention to you?"

Again, Natasha blushed as she replied, "No, he had not."

"Well, what do you think? What do you think of his idea to have you record this music while naked?"

Gathering up her courage in light of such a provocative proposal, Natasha answered, "I believe Dietrich Ebersbacher was a musical genius, a great artist of our time. I am modest enough of my musical acumen not to second-guess the Maestro. However, during the audition, Maestro Ebersbacher was naked as well while accompanying me. While acknowledging the validity of my performing in the nude, I fear that if my accompanist is not naked as well, I would become too self-conscious. Such a mindset would most likely affect my playing and thus defeat the purpose. Do you suppose Lajos would play the piano in the nude if I were naked?"

Newhouser smiled upon hearing Natasha's response and the prospect of her acquiescence to such a bold proposition. He replied, "I am one step ahead of you. When Lajos's agent contacted me to explore the possibility of Lajos's participation in the possible recording, I pointed out Dietrich's original intention was to play and record this music in the nude. I asked him if Lajos would accede to a request to play naked should you opt to play in the nude. After consulting with Lajos, who was present with the agent, I was advised that Lajos, having met you and recognizing your beauty, would be delighted to see you naked. In his view, being naked himself would be a small price to pay for such a pleasure."

Natasha smiled and replied, "Well, I sure do admire his gallantry. Can you tell me how many people would be watching me? I do not believe I am overly modest, and I probably could tolerate a reasonable small number of technicians hovering about while I record. But then again, I am not a Hollywood actress; they no doubt are inured to nudity on their working sets."

"There will be just Lajos and myself. I'll have the recording studio prepared beforehand. That way, I can assure you that I will be able to handle all the technical aspects and functions by myself without the need of the presence of anyone else. And by the way, to make you more comfortable, I would not object to being naked as well."

"Well, then, as I said, I trust Dietrich's judgment. If he thought Enescu's Sonata must be played in the nude, then so be it."

Noticing that this was the first time Natasha referred to Ebersbacher familiarly during their conversation so far, Newhouser felt confirmation of his suspicion of an affair between the two --not that it mattered especially, as Ebersbacher was now dead. Newhouser continued, "Excellent, but there is yet one more thing to consider."

Natasha warily prompted, "Oh! Should I dread this? Saving the worst for last?"

"It was Dietrich's idea as well that since you were going to record in the nude, the album cover ought to reflect this. He envisioned the back cover showing your naked backside as you are standing and playing the violin, with no concealment of the split of yourbuttockss. The front cover would be a full-frontal-nudity shot. He suggested a pose in which you would hold the bow such as to obstruct the view of your nipples and areola but leave your breasts otherwise visible. With your other hand, you would hold the violin strategically so that it hides your genitalia but exposes one entire thigh."

Natasha gasped, "My goodness, wouldn't that be a bit too risqué for the classical music world?"

"The violinist Lara St John has already pioneered this. One of her album covers has her pose obviously naked, with the violin completely covering her breasts. Our proposed album cover will only advance this concept to the next level. Of course, we will produce liner notes to justify our cover idea. So, what do you think, Natasha?"

"Well, I guess it's a case of in for a penny, in for a pound. If Lara St John has done it, then why can't I?"

"Excellent, Natasha! I like your spirit. I believe with this album we are going to set the classical music world on its ear."

The contracts were duly drafted and signed. The date for the recording was set for the third Thursday in July. First Natasha arrived with Olga, as she had started to refer her violin, at the photographer's studio. She endured a two-hour session in which every naked pose possible was taken and photographed. Natasha was so comfortable with the photographer that when she arrived for the recording session, she had no trepidation of playing in the buff.

Lajos Kiraly was an extremely handsome man and reminded Natasha of Dan Pearson. He was a hunk who exuded testosterone by the bucket. Natasha wondered how she could have forgotten him when she was introduced to him last May. Well, she was going to remember him now for sure. Lajos's command of English was not that good, but he was fluent in Russian. Thus, she conversed in Russian with Lajos.

As promised by Newhouser, the studio had been cleared for the recording, so that there was only the three of them. After introductions and brief small talk, Phil entered the closed in engineering/sound room to direct the recording session. Natasha had beforehand suggested to Phil he need not disrobe since he would be hidden from her view anyway.

Natasha and Lajos then disrobed. Lajos placed a heavy terry-cloth covering on the piano stool. The piano was an expensive grand Steinway, which was very suitable for him.

As Lajos warmed up, Natasha easily discerned his superior musicianship. She once again was delighted to realize that she was going to play the violin with easily one of the greatest pianists in the world. That he was delicious eye-candy in addition made Natasha muse that surely, she had arrived at a pinnacle in her life at only nineteen years of age!

After tuning up Olga, having elected to stand while recording, Natasha waited for Lajos to start the Sonata. After twenty-four and a half minutes later, they finished the Sonata, and Natasha was almost in tears. She stank! She knew she stank. She did not make any technical errors or miss a note, but her performance was woeful.

Her playing lacked passion and just sounded absolutely dispirited. The only solace she could take from her dreadful playing was realizing that Lajos's playing wasn't stellar either.

The two men noticed Natasha's obvious distress but had different reactions. Although Phil Newhouser made his living from classical music, and genuinely enjoyed the genre, he had no discernment. He was unable to differentiate superior playing from mediocre playing, and thus he had no clue as to why Natasha was unhappy. He was simply dumfounded at her reaction and did not know what to say.

Lajos, though, was right on the money in discerning Natasha's unhappiness. Having heard her play the Bruch Concerto, he knew she was capable of a far better performance than what she had just exhibited. Thu,s her despair had to be attributed to her awareness of her inadequate performance.

Lajos was paradoxically pleased with Natasha's despondence. He knew most persons, including a lot of musicians, would not have realized her performance was subpar. He was not, of course, surprised that Natasha was aware of her poor playing, but a lot of musicians in her position would have shrugged their shoulders. Most musicians would have believed that so long as their playing was error free, they had done their job, and they would be unconcerned of the artistic merit of their performance.

Lajos took great comfort in seeing that Natasha was a musician who took her craft seriously enough to desire to perform at the optimum level and not be satisfied with mediocre efforts. He had no idea, though, why she played poorly. But he could not delve into that too much without reflecting on his own efforts. He knew he was capable of playing better, but he was mystified about why this time his performance was a feeble effort as well.

He was certain that Natasha's poor playing was not a snowball which induced him to play poorly. Usually when he performed with a musician of Natasha's caliber, he would be inspired to play his best, unaffected by the performance of the other. It was absolutely mystifying to him why he played, to his mind, as poorly if not more poorly than Natasha. As a result, he was unable to find words at all, let alone think of a way to mollify Natasha.

After a while, as various thoughts ran through her mind, Natasha thought she came to a solution. It arose from the belief that there was chemistry between Lajos and her, coupled with the fact that they were superior musicians (she ignored for the moment all false modesty). That had to be the clue for the poor performance. So as the two men had hovered around her, she cleared her throat:

"As you both realize, I was awful!"

She held up her hand to stall a protest from Phil and continued, "No, Phil, don't say anything; I know of what I speak. And as most of this concerns Lajos, and as his English is not his best, I am going to speak in Russian so there is no misunderstanding. Please be patient, Phil; my intention is that we produce the best classical music CD yet."

Then Natasha did switch to Russian and spoke directly to Lajos, "My first problem is to identify why I played so poorly today, especially when I am accompanied by you, Lajos, arguably the finest pianist in the world. Certainly, better than Dietrich, for whom I played this Sonata magically. I think I am beginning to see an answer.

"There was chemistry between Dietrich and I when we first met. I also sensed, at least on my part, similar chemistry when I met you today. Please, Lajos, you cannot count the first introduction back in May, as I was not paying any attention at the time. Now, as I remember, I really wanted to fuck Dietrich above all else when I first met him. I know I also want to fuck you, Lajos, and I intended do so after this session.

"Ah, now comes the difference. I actually fucked Dietrich before I played this Sonata, and I played beautifully. But I have not fucked you, Lajos, and I played terribly. So, you now see the connection, don't you? Perhaps you did not play so well yourself because your mind may have been clouded by the possible pleasure of fucking me. I trust I'm not presumptuous to suggest that you wish to fuck me?"

Lajos responded, in Russian of course, to this bold speech, "I cannot deny the presence of a chemistry between us. And yes indeed, my desire is to fuck you. Actually, when I met you back in May, I was enchanted. I was aware you were in love with Dietrich, and you weren't noticing me even when we were introduced, but I vowed I would fight for you, notwithstanding Dietrich."

Natasha purred in acknowledgment of their mutual attraction, "Oh, I am sure you would have won that fight, just as you have now won me without any opposition."

"Well, Natasha, my love, I can see no one can accuse you of being shy about expressing your purpose. So how do you propose to fix our poor playing while we are so infatuated with each other and just wishing to fuck?"

"Why, the answer is obvious. We must fuck now! We will make music with each other, and then I believe we will be able to play the music. I'll ask Phil to leave us alone for say an hour, and when he returns, I am sure we will be able to play and record this Sonata properly."

"Well, I am not certain that this is the right remedy, but it cannot hurt to try. After all, we were going to fuck in any case. Besides, it's not like we need time to get undressed."

Reverting to English, Natasha said to Newhouser, "Phil, would you kindly allow Lajos and me to be alone together for an hour? We will strategize, and I believe when you return, we should be able to play this Sonata much better."

"Strategize, you say? Hmm! Well, I guess that is all right. I can get some work done that I need to do anyway. I have an office I can use upstairs. All right then, I'll be back in an hour."

So as Phil Newhouser duly left the studio. Natasha and Lajos turned to truly gaze at each other. Natasha gasped again upon contemplating Lajos's physique. He was tall 6'3" -- not gaunt, but not fat either. His body was a man's body, and she became wet just realizing that he was about to possess her. She sensed that he might be a combination of the best of Dan Pearson and of Dietrich Ebersbacher; and if that proved to be the case, she was in for the ride of her life.

As for Lajos, he believed that the gods had been unduly kind to him. Unlike most renowned world-class artists, he did not have an overblown ego. He believed his skill in playing the piano was a gift from God. He took credit for practicing diligently to hone his talents and acknowledged his benefit from a superior musical and academic education at the world-famous N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory in St Petersburg, Russia. Apart from that, he did not think he was especially gifted.

When he was introduced to Natasha, he was instantly smitten with her. That she was attached to Dietrich did not surprise him, as he respected Dietrich's masculine appeal to females. Nevertheless, he was determined to snatch her away from him. Seeing her personally and hearing her play the violin, he could not imagine a more perfect soul mate.

That Dietrich died the very night that Natasha was introduced to him, he took as a sign from the gods that she was truly destined for him. Now, as he was beholding Natasha's gorgeous lovely naked body, he learned that she desired him-- and, of course, Dietrich was not a factor. How much more fortunate could he be?

Fortuitously there happened to be a love seat in the room they were in, to provide a comfortable place for their love making. However, the passion between the two was strong enough that they would have fucked on the floor, unmindful of any discomfort.

As it was, the two of them fucked vociferously, with her riding him on the love seat. Then they fucked sideways. They finished off with oral sex in the "69" position, with him sitting on the love seat and she draped over him.

When Phil returned upon the expiration of the hour, he saw them in the 69 position. Natasha, having just finished swallowing the last bit of Lajos's cum, broke away first. Without a word, she went to her violin and began preparing to play. Likewise, Lajos got up from the love seat and returned to the piano. No words were exchanged, so Phil had nothing to do but emerge into the engineering/sound room to direct the recording.

The sex took. Natasha played brilliantly, passionately, and flawlessly. She was pleased with her own performance. Ignoring false humbleness, she believed that if Enescu himself had heard this performance, he would have had no complaint. Likewise, Lajos was outstanding; she couldn't have asked more from an accompanist. So satisfied was she that she suspected that their recording would become the definitive performance of this work, notwithstanding the distracting nudity of the album cover. They also successfully recorded the other music, including Natasha's own composition.

The ensuing CD was a smashing success. The nude cover certainly was controversial, and no doubt was a factor in the success of the album sales. However, what sealed the deal was the unanimous critical acclaim from all classical music reviewers. The album became the all-time leader in classical music sales and won the classical music Grammy.

When Natasha entered her second year at Northwestern, she had become the absolute queen of classical music in Chicago.