Survivors

There's an obituary for pianist Grete Sultan in today's NY Times. (Use bugmenot.com to get past the annoying login.) It's the first time I've heard of her, though I wish I'd heard of her before. Two things about the obit, though.

First, it talks about the range of her musical taste as if loving and recording the Goldberg Variations and being a mentor to John Cage are somehow contradictory. They aren't, and it's just silly to think that they are. Common, but silly.

Second, the obituary ends with "She leaves no immediate survivors." I understand the form of obituary, but my God. To read the obituary is to know that she has a world full of survivors, even if none of them are blood relatives.