Yael Goldstein is a writer of great emotional precocity. . . The relationships she has created are genuinely affecting and complex... Overture shows signs of brooding genius.
The Music Inspired By the Book
[A work of] fiction deeply involved with intellect and ideas, warmed by sensitively delineated emotions and propelled by strong storytelling. Overture establishes Yael Goldstein as a writer with a distinctive voice of her own.
Overture (Doubleday, 2007) draws readers into the glamorous and competitive world of classical music, capturing its harsh demands and its magical power to move performers and audiences alike. With a mastery rare in a first-time novelist, Yael Goldstein offers a fascinating meditation on the nature of creative brilliance and on the love that binds a mother and daughter even when their personal desires clash.
Natasha Darsky is "the most famous violinist since Paganini"—bow in hand, she lights an erotic fire under every piece of music she plays, telling each composer’s story a singularly sensuous way. The daughter of a world-renowned art dealer in New York City, Natasha grows up in a world where artistic achievement is the highest value and her father’s opinion determines the rise and the fall of many an artist. Her prodigious musical talent, discovered when she is a little girl, blossoms at Harvard, where she begins to pursue composition as well as performing. She is soon involved in a passionate love affair with Jean Paul, a young composer whose innovative music is hailed as revolutionary. Under Jean Paul's shadow, Natasha abandons her dream of writing music of her own, and turns toward performance. Channeling the frustration and muted fury of this choice into her playing, she creates a sexually charged sound that packs concert halls around the world year after year. Her young daughter, Alex, follows in her celebrated footsteps, but it is Alex’s talent as a composer that brings mother and daughter together—and tears them apart in ways Natasha could hardly have anticipated.