Smith: Final salute for WWII veteran Don Clouston

On street corners and in grocery aisles and coffeehouse queues, music lovers rave about the Russia-born pianist who saved the Santa Rosa Symphony last weekend, and was in turn saved by the orchestra.

A sweet man of 66, Alexander Toradze of Indiana came to the rescue when scheduled soloist Olga Kern was forced by a sudden illness to withdraw. Kern had been set to perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s difficult Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Saturday, Sunday and Monday performances directed by conductor laureate Bruno Ferrandis.

An eleventh-hour appeal for a replacement produced 30 potential piano soloists - of whom just two had performed the 1957 piece by Shostakovich.

And imagine this: After Santa Rosa Symphony staffers confirmed that Alexander Toradze would appear as soloist at the Green Music Center performances, they learned that the native of Tbilisi, Georgia, had known Shostakovich, who died in 1975 in Moscow.

On Saturday night, the compact and grandfatherly Toradze blew the audience away with his orchestra-accompanied performance. Then he did something symphony patrons will be talking about for years.

The globally admired pianist stood and told the audience he could have done better on the third movement so, to honor the orchestra’s fine performance, he wanted to play it again.

And he did. Then the audience raised the roof.

On Sunday afternoon, sans a replay, the crowd demanded with thunderous applause and hoots and whistles - an encore.

Toradze returned to the piano bench and played again the second movement of the Shostakovich concerto.

The response of the audience, one assumes, was heard in downtown Penngrove.

HHHHHH

DON CLOUSTON was a lovable old fellow who long ago served his country at arms. I don’t believe there is any doubt about that.

As lanky and lean in his 80s and 90s as he was in his teens and 20s, Clouston dressed often in combat boots and a frayed uniform jacket with arm patches of the 101st Airborne Division.

He told of growing up in Maine, joining the U.S. Army at age 17, taking part in the D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge, and a few years later fighting in Korea.

“I’ve seen all the combat I wanted,” the longtime Santa Rosa resident told me in 2010, when he was 83.

Clouston for years took part in veterans ceremonies, and he was often singled out for acknowledgment. But a few years ago, there was talk among other vets that Clouston had embellished his service record.

There are veterans who gave him the benefit of the doubt, at least to the point of assuming that he thought his claims of combat action were true, or that there was no malice in his suspected exaggerations.

It’s also possible that everything Clouston said about his service in World War II and in Korea was entirely factual. I just don’t know.

I do know that he was an active and loyal participant in local veterans activities, and he was troubled by the dangers that every day confront members of our armed services.

I know that Clouston died in February at the age of 92, and that a graveside service with military honors will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.

You can contact Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 or chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.