LATE-COMERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 658, 9 May 1929, Page 14

LATE-COMERS

TOSCANINI SHOWS THEM ] LITTLE MERCY A STERN REBUKE Signor Toscanini, the distinguished conductor of the La Scala Opera House, Milan, and worshipped there as the -world’s greatest conductor, is an autocrat of the concert room, and has no mercy on late-comers. He rules his audience with an iron hand as though they were members of his La Scala orchestra. While conducting the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society con-

cert at Carnegie Hall recently he administered to some late-comers a stern rebuke—a rebuke which echoed all round the vast auditorium. His baton was just raised to open the second movement of a concerto by Pizetti when a group of late-comers clattered noisily toward their seats. Signor Toscanini turned on his stand, crossed his arms with a Napoleonic gesture, and looked sternly at them with his brilliant, deep-set eyes. The beginning of the movement requires pianissimo, with muted strings. “You are late!” exclaimed the con ductor in a voice heard all over the hall. Then he turned sharply to his orchestra, rapped loudly on his stand and continued the concert. This is the first occasion on which any conductor has rebuked a New York audience. Perhaps it is a pity the same treatment could not be meted out in Auckland.