MUSIC LOVERS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18415, 23 June 1925, Page 12

MUSIC LOVERS.

APPRECIATIVE AMERICANS

M. VERBRUGGHEN PLEASED.

(special to "the press.")

AUCKLAND, June 22.

The celebrated Belgian conductor, M. Henri Vcrbrugghen, formerly of the New South "Wales State Orchestra, and now director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, arrived by the Aorangi yesterday, en route to Sydney. He is enjoying four months' holiday from his musical duties, and. is visiting Australia after an absence of 3J years to see .his three eons. M. Verbrugghen brings bacji some Tery definite impressions of American initiative in the interest of musical culture. Although ho was obviously averse to making direct comparisons with the Australian arid .New Zealandattitudes towards good music, he left little doubt in the mind that ho is both heartened and pleased with, the appreciation and treatment lavished upon him in America. The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra is the fourth orchestra of its kind in point of iniportance in the United States and its salary Hst for the payment of its instrumentalists amounts to over £l2O a week for 7i montos in the year. In addition, M. Verbrugghen is paid, as he expressed it, more in.eight weeks than he received in Australia in a whole year. This is' an lLubu-ation of his contention that music, like any other art or form of culture, requires proper business-like direction for its adequate fostering. The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, he states, is dependent financially, oh a body of influential guarantors. numbering between 600 and 800, who are quite happy to make good the annual deficit entailed in running an orchestra of such proportions. This loss, amounts to anything from £26,000 to £30,000 a year. Such losses were practically unavoidable in running a big musical enterprise, 6aid M. Verbrugghen, and the other symphonic orchestras in the United States experienced much heavier losses than did that of Minneapolis. The deficits were made good as a matter pf course, and in many cases by guarantors who were without an atom .of music. Asked what was the secret of musical organisation' on American lines, M. Verbrugghen/replied .that leadership by one man (blessed with enthusiasm for splendid music could rally patrons and money, where- hundreds o f. smaller men might fail. Such an instance was to be seen in Los Angeles,, where one man had built up and maintained an excellent orchestra by his own enthusiasm and perseverance; ; Jt was these arid .endowed orchestras i which were the best and'.most success-1 ■ful..'" Such orchestras were those of! Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston, i where rich endowments ensured that they would' flourish for ever, and gave them a leading place among the musical institutions of America. ■, ■•

\ "America is to-day the most active musical country in the world," declared M. / Verbrugghen, "and she is making ai conscious effort to keep it up. At the present moment all the finest musicians in the world-are congregating ;iti the "United States, and it is qiiite : an. easy matter to secure the Borvices of the very best instrumentalists and vocalists.

"Canadft, "however, is following suit. I \ visit Winnipeg every year with my and thethalls 'are, packed. The'last time I was in Canada I also played at Regina. There was an an«!im^': for the 6Jse of the town, and. they listened to tt-ejassical programme' with, intense relish and in perfect silence.. "isyi .phpny. is extremely popular in America,;" he added % "and what may seom extraordinary is that I am able to give a full classical programme with symphony and overture with such obTtous success. It is a sign that people listen intelligently with their minds as well as their ears."