A well known conductor loses his son, a virtuoso violinist during a performance. The doctors say it was a heart attack that struck the young man, given his poor constitution, he did not survive. His daughter, herself a pianist, and wife all mourn his loss and seek assistance in the process from a therapist. The conductor, most hard hit, goes on a 2 month tour to help get over the loss and during the tour appears to have recovered, but upon returning, hears his son’s music from the studio, and speaks as though he is still alive. The daughter, who has always played second fiddle (haha) to her more talented brother, dearly wants her father’s love and attention and seeks to help him through this terrible time.

This was (to me) a touching story of a man's mania about his deceased son and the live daughter he didn't seem to appreciate. The daughter takes what could be a dangerous step to break him out of his obsession out of her love for him and need for love from him.

It's episodes like this one that shine a spotlight on the fact that George Lowthar is a much stronger CBSRMT contributor when he is adapting the classics than when he is forging out on his own. This one is an original, and it's weak and messy. The psychiatry plot is shockingly sloppy, and the characters are bland.

I can't help notice the common trend amongst commenters here to speak of the persons involved in CBSRMT in the present tense, when the last episode aired some 33 years ago! A tribute to how well this series survives!

This is the first episode that I didn't enjoy. This man so completely values his son at the expense of his relationship with everyone else, including his daughter. His lack of value, compassion, or basic kindness to her is disturbing. It's beyond grief of losing a child. Per the story this went on way before the death. I struggled to get through the story and not just turn it off and move to the next story.

This episode should have been written by Elspeth Eric (haha) because of the weird father-daughter relationship theme that she often wrote about. I am surprised it was written by George Lowthar instead. (I guess this must have been a very popular subject to write about in those days.) As D-Ram said in his post, the episode is disturbing because of his lack of kindness toward his daughter, which is enough to give her "daddy issues" for the rest of her life. Not only that, but the story is totally unbelievable, from a psychological point of view. In real life, the father probably would have strangled his daughter if she had tried to do what she did at the end of the episode. In the real world, it would never have worked and it would have made him worse. Sometimes the psychology dramas were the silliest, most unrealistic episodes, imo. That's one reason they are often my least favorite of the episodes on the series.

Conductor Anton Stern vacillates between reality—in which he accepts the death of his son Jonathan—and fantasy, convinced he hears his son practicing the violin. Despite the efforts of his manager, his wife, and his daughter, Stern believes his son is communicating through the Stradivarius violin he used to play. Finally, only his daughter is willing to make a desperate effort to bring her father back to reality.

I find it extremely unlikely that a “father” would suddenly express affection toward his daughter. Didn’t enjoy listening to this one other than the music; too much emotional abuse for me to sit through.

Reading comments was interesting, the human psyche is truly not as well known as some may believe. Each person is unique and individual. This story speaks of how obsession to an ideal can sometimes twist relationships. It is also a story of hope and redemption through love. It is a story. I did enjoy the commercials and news!

I was pretty underwhelmed by this episode, particularly by it's all too pat conclusion. I think it would have been much more entertaining if the conductor had been right all along and his dead son really was using the violin to return to life.

We thought the story was excellent and the acting superb! Very well done.