The weird and winsome ways of the late Blair Tindall

Word came through last night that the author of Mozart in the Jungle died a week ago at the age of 63. Her book lifted the lid on many cruel and unnatural practices in American orchestras. It became a television series, making the former oboist moderately famous. But its success brought her little contentment or happiness. She was a strange person, an outlier, usually out on her own.

The figure at the bottom left of her book cover is recognisably Blair. The book is scathing and self-unsparing.

I met Blair before the book was published when she came to a talk I gave in New York. I read the book proofs and invited her onto my BBC programme. When the red light went on she was practically wordless. It was all I could do to extract a few platitudes from her before moving on to the next topic. Soon afterwards, she accused me of doing a hatchet job on her, of destroying her career. Media pals told me this was common for Blair: hot to hostile in an instant.

Her emails  turned  ever more  vituperative and  I  stopped replying. Later, she submitted comments to slippeddisc.com, mostly balanced, polite and to the point.

Her last fiancé posted news of her death on Facebook: ‘Dear Friends of Blair, Chris Sattlberger, her fiancé writing. It is with immense sadness that I have to report the passing of my beloved partner and future wife Blair. We were going to be married in two weeks – alas, it was not to be. For her L.A. friends – I will organize a gathering in her memory at a future date. Please keep her in your memory as the amazing woman she was.’

May she rest in peace.