Some of you might remember Neil McGowan - aka Reiner Torheit - from the original R3 messageboard and r3ok. I heard today that he had just passed away, as a result of various long-standing health problems. He lived in Moscow where he worked at the Helikon theatre and was an enthusiast for baroque music in particular. I was in touch with him outside messageboardland, but met him only once when he turned up to a gig I was playing at the Vortex. Later on our friendship soured and we lost touch; I think he was generally quite a hard person to get on with, possibly for reasons connected with his health. Anyway, I'm sure some of you will remember him as an entertaining and sometimes curmudgeonly member of the ancient BBC messageboard.
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Sorry to read of this, his flame posts and PMs notwithstanding. In face to face circumstances he was a pleasant enough person to get on with but seemed very much partisan in his support for the Russian Federation and its leadership.Originally posted by Richard Barrett View Post -
I remember him as one of the many vituperative personalities on the old board. Like most people on there, I ‘had words’ with him but he could also be friendly and helpful. I did suspect that his online personality might have been informed by issues he had off-line.
I seem to recall he had some connection with ENO at some point in the psat. Is that right?Last edited by Conchis; 10-12-19, 00:47.Comment
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Thank you for letting us know. I imagine that, like most people who had anything to do with him (especially those who never met him face to face), he could be unpleasant at best and impossible at worst and seems to have made a point of turning vituperation into an art-form but, despite several run-ins with him, there have been occasions on which he displayed a quite different side of his persona and showed himself to be intelligent, sympathetic and really quite interesting. I did not know of his ongoing health problems and can only speculate as to whether the impacted upon his manner from time to time. I could never understand his apparent sympathy for the current Russian régime or his habitually abrasive putting down of anyone who dared to criticise it for anything but I tried to assume that, as he lived and worked in its milieu, he might know more about it that I would expect to do so I always avoided that subject when in exchanges with him.Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostComment
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....yes, he certainly had an odd way of going about things....esp nasty to frenchfrank at times....he was often way off the mark, and very difficult to get back from a twisting turning persona that liked to win....rip...bong chingComment
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One of those whose messages could be informative but also vituperative and entertaining. Always up for a 'Ruck'.Comment
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De mortuis nil nisi bonumOriginally posted by eighthobstruction View Post
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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I remember too, f f, and you are right.Originally posted by french frank View PostDe mortuis nil nisi bonum
RIPComment
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Very sad to hear about that. He was knowledgeable about recorders, and passed on some very useful tips links to me - and maybe to the whole message board, though unfortunately I may have lost them since.
I can't remember ever really having a problem with him, but I know others did.
Reiner RIP
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I first came across him in 2007/8 on the Bright Cecilia forum (which no longer exists). Like quite a few people I got involved in a spat with him, though I recognised that he was very knowledgeable about various aspects of music and other things.Comment
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If he had a problem with you, you would know about it.Originally posted by Dave2002 View PostVery sad to hear about that. He was knowledgeable about recorders, and passed on some very useful tips links to me - and maybe to the whole message board, though unfortunately I may have lost them since.
I can't remember ever really having a problem with him, but I know others did.
Reiner RIP
He would go to great lengths to find information about people he had ‘issues’ with and would then issue Lear-like threats via PM. I know some former board members whom he managed to harass offline by finding their private email addresses and sending them viruses, etc. He was, literally, a keyboard terrorist.
But I don’t think anyone can take online feuds to that extent without having someting seriously wrong wtih them. And so, it apparently proved.
I sincerely hope he’s in a happier place now, whatever his personal beliefs.Comment
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Reading the above comments I did become interested in finding out a bit more about the bloke. One of the things I found was an RT TV interview where he rather uncontentiously chats about Russian tourism but you get to see what he looked like.
I only vaguely remember his contributions and was mainly curious about his Parsifal-alluding on-line name. It occupied me (but only slightly) that his online name in terms of German grammar was either dative (to pure folly) or genitive (of pure folly) and not the more neutral nominative which would be "reine Torheit". Also, the German forename he has borrowed is spelt "Rainer". (I do realise I am living up to my own online name and going on a bit.)Comment
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I recall exchanging posts with him re Jon Vickers & Method Acting. I'd seen JV perform the whole of Fidelio Act 2 to colossal effect, without for a moment leaving the floor. Reiner was very interesting.
Nearly all the posts so far say little more than "He was HORRID to me.". I was a bit sorry when he disappeared.Last edited by Zucchini; 10-12-19, 15:12.Comment
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Originally posted by french frank View PostDe mortuis nil nisi bonum
My few exchanges with him online were entirely friendly - he shared my, indeed confirmed my, dislike of the way two of our leading English tenors have with Schubert, and he forever ruined my favourite Dowland song for me by supplying alternative words which once read could not be unread
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