It is not uncommon that, upon hearing a musician's name, one thinks of them as the very embodiment of an instrument. For example, for many, the name "Horowitz" equals piano, or "Heifetz" equals violin. It is rare, however, that the opposite proposition is universally true. Say "piano" and one person might say "Horowitz" while another might say "Gieseking" or "Rubinstein" or any number of other worthy contenders. But there is one example is music history where the jury is surely unanimous: say "theremin" and the name "Clara Rockmore" immediately springs to mind. A terrific musician who understood immediately the expressive artistic possibility of the only instrument which one plays without any physical contact, she was, in a word, a master. That the instrument was only rarely taken seriously, once B-film writers got a hold of it, is gravely unfortunate. Happily this attitude is slowly changing. While musicians have known of her work for ages, the general public was treated to an introduction fairly recently in the form of a terrific, interactive Google Doodle (click here to try it). When I showed it to my dear friend, Morey Ritt (herself a star student of Rockmore's collaborator — and sister — Nadia Reisenberg, and a friend of Rockmore), she was astonished. Further happy incredulity followed when I showed her that, surely due to Google, Rockmore's famous performance of The Swan (here) reached well over a million listens. She stated unequivocally that Rockmore would have been shocked, but very pleased by it all.

This month's clip is yet another expressive turn with Rockmore and Reisenberg: de Falla's lovely Pantomine.