When NBC broadcast the movie in 1995, Barbra Streisand called the network mid-movie to request they lower the volume on the commercials, which were loud compared to the relatively quiet movie. The weekend operations manager obliged, reducing them 2 decibels.
Streisand considered Jeff Bridges for the male lead. She later worked with him in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).
Chris O'Donnell, who would soon become a star in Scent of a Woman, won the role of Streisand's teenage son, Bernard, but Pat Conroy didn't think he was right. Looking through photos of other young actors, he picked one out, telling Streisand that she should hire him instead. The actor was Streisand's own son, Jason Gould.
Although playing a world-renowned violin player, Jeroen Krabbé didn't play the violin himself. He showed the piece he was supposed to play in the film to two professional players, who also had some difficulty to learn it. However, when they did, Krabbé watched them play it and learned their every movement by heart, which he copied perfectly while filming the scene. Barbra Streisand was so impressed by his performance that she spontaneously hugged him after shooting the scene.