FIEDLER HAS AN AUDIENCE OF MILLIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 345, 1 February 1946, Page 16

FIEDLER HAS AN AUDIENCE OF MILLIONS

He Grew Up With The Boston Symphony, and The Boston Promenade Grew Up With Him

(By Cpl.

Jerome

J. Pasten

in "The Gramophone" )

O become a successful conductor in a city ruled musically by so brilliant a figure as Dr. Serge Koussevitzky is something of a remarkable achievement. But then, Arthur Fiedler is by way of being a remarkable man. He literally grew up in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was born in Boston, the son of Emmanuel Fiedler, first violin in the orchestra and a member of the famous Kneisel Quartet. He received his musical education in Boston and in Berlin (even playing, for a time, at one ‘of the first desk chairs in the orchestra of ‘Johann Strauss III), and eventually — almost inevitably — joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in his turn, playing first violin and then viola. Fiedler’s great and influential rule in Boston music, however, did not begin until 1929, when he assumed direction of the Boston "Pops" Orchestra.

Properly speaking, these are the "Pops" (Popular) Concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and it is indeed the same orchestra, less some thirty of the first desk and leading men. But the orchestra has come to be thought of (in Fiedler’s time) as a separate entity, and on American records the label readsBoston "Pops" Orchestra. H.M.V. lists it as the Boston Promenade Orchestra simply for the convenience of those familiar with the English Promenade Concerts. Building Up the "Pops" When Arthur Fiedler took over the "Pops" concerts, they were in a lamentable state. Attendance had fallen to the point where scarcely half the hall was filled, and even then many of the audience were admitted on free tickets. The concerts, which years before had been originated primarily as a means of writing off a part of the deficit which a great orchestra always incurs, were actually no longer self-supporting. This was due above all to poor programmes. Mr. Fiedler has show me instances in which four Rossini overtures were programmed one after the other on the

same concert! Nor had any attempt been made to introduce novelties or challenging, new music, of however light a style. Under Fiedler, the programmes came to life again. New music was sought and introduced. Fiedler turned impartially to Tin Pan Alley, old folk music, and the best of contemporary writers for his compositions. From Tin Pan Alley he has introduced, in excellent arrangements for full symphony, such popular melodies as Strike Up the Band, Tiger Rag and Carioca. (Watching the staid Boston orchestra playing Tiger Rag is a hysterical, if unmusical bit of entertainment.) Folk-music has been introduced, in sparkling and often witty orchestrations by such men as Robert McBride, such as Pop Goes the Weasel, Arkansaw Traveller, and Turkey in the Straw. And from contemporary composers have come many fine works, some of which have been commissioned by Mr. Fiedler for first performances at "Pops" concerts. Arthur Fiedler has succeeded in introducing, to audiences who would have declined to listen to them ten years earlier, such works as the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto, the Tchaikovski

Secend Concerto, the Gershwin Concerto in F (an especial favourite at these concerts, with J. M. Sanroma as soloist), Peter and the Wolf; many of the works of Eric Coates, and Piston’s ballet-suite The Incredible Flutist. Two short compositions of Eric Coates have been extremely popular at the concerts, By the Sleepy Lagoon (since the Harry James popularisation ) and the Knightsbridge March from the London Suite, When the recording of’ the London Again Suite conducted by the composer was issued in America, it was my pleasure to draw Arthur Fiedler’s attention to the Oxford Street March, and this has since been added to the repertory and has grown in popularity. It would be wrong, however, to compare the concerts at the "Pops" with those of London’s "Proms." The "Pops" are frankly lighter in genre, purposely avoiding conflict with the superb presentations which Dr. Koussevitzky affects during the course of the Symphony season. And the two seasons complement one another. Nor is it detracting from Dr. Koussevitzky’s lustre to say that his audience, composed in part

of people who were often musical tyros only a short while before, would not be so appreciative were it not for the schooling which they have received at the "Pops." Thus the two seasons walk hand in hand, both catering to sold-out houses. And the informality and almost cafe atmosphere of the "Pops," in its air-cooled hall, with its tables, wines, geen trellis-work and floral decorations, proves during its all too brief span a delightful contrast to the serious Symphony season (the "Pops" concerts last only through May and June) even to the most serious musicians. Al Fresco Concerts. When the "Pops" season ends, then the Esplanade concerts begin. Here Arthur Fiedler, conducting a 63-piece orchestra of Boston Symphony. men, gives free concerts (supported only by the voluntary contributions placed in the boxes mounted on posts about the area) to nightly audiences averaging about 20,000. ‘These concerts founded by Arthur Fiedler are’given in‘ an acoustically designed shell of red polished stone, well lit and equipped with all conceivable comforts. This shell, erected only a few years ago, replaced the wooden shell which was put up, when Mr. Fiedler made his first, tentative essay at outdoor concerts about fifteen years ago. The sub-structure of the new Hatch Shell (named for its donor) contains a large semi-circular rehearsal room, Ringed about the curved; part of this room is the musicians’ dressingroom, complete with lockers, and with a complete shower-room at one end. At the other end is Mr, Fiedler’s private dressing room. There is room as well for a commodious office and library. The entire interior is air-conditioned against the heat which afflicts Boston when the East wind stops blowing during July and August. The front of the Shell is separated from the lawn when the audience either stands, reclines on blankets, or rents chairs from a private concession by a sort of moat and terrace, the terrace continuing in a semicircle ‘about the sides and rear of the structure, whose sole decoration is the frieze of composers’ names in brass letters which encircles it. The Shell is ideally located on the Embankment, beside the broad Charles River Basin, with the white granite structure of Massachusetts Institute of

Technology gleaming in flood-lit splendour directly across the river and the water between dotted with the broadbeamed sailing dinghies of the M.I.T. and Charles River boat clubs as well as the small power craft which throng the upper reaches of the river. A distance up-stream, the Colonial architecture of Harvard College, red brick, white wood, and gold, stretches along the banks of the river and raises its many spires to the sky, not unlike the famous Backs of Cambridge, England, from which the city in which it is located takes its name. Strangely, the programmes which Arthur Fiedler presents on the Esplanade are often more ambitious and of a more serious nature than those which are presented during the "Pops" season in Symphony Hall. In addition to the "Pops" and Esplanade Concerts, Arthur Fiedler’s appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra players take another form. Even before he became conductor of the "Pops," Fiedler has organised his own Sinfonietta, drawn from some of the best men in the orchestra, and had toured New England with his group. Fantastic Royalties A man ought to be content to rest upon achievements such as these. Fiedler is the best represented and most recorded conductor in any American record catalogue. His royalties are fan-tastic-reputed in the vicinity of twentyfive thousand pounds sterling per annum (or at least they were while record stocks were plentiful). He is highly respected throughout the nation, his concerts with the Boston "Pops" and Esplanade Orchestras are broadcast every Saturday night from one end of the continent to the other. He can count an audience of millions. Yet the "Pops," the Esplanade, and the Sinfonietta, while they comprise all of Fiedler’s regular activities with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (save for some occasional work at Tanglewood), do not call an end to his musical activities in and around Boston. Works Well with Young People He is, for one thing, the conductor of the St. Cecilia’s Choral Society, a choral group which, along with the RadcliffeHarvard Choral Society under G. Wallace Woodworth, is the finest choir in New England. Fiedler is also conductor of the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, and, in more peaceful days, he | was also conductor of the amateur Mc-_ Dowell Symphony Orchestra, composed of men and women of all ages and pro- fessions (including one or two members of the Boston Symphony playing other instruments than their own), and later, until the hunger cry of the armed forces took his boys-and girls-away from him and called a halt, he was conductor of the Massachusetts National Youth Administration Symphony Orchestra, inwhich no member was more than twentyfive years old. Fiedler’s forte indeed is his amazing ability to work wonders with young people. I have often heard young orchestras play under his hand with more enthusiasm and sparkle than he will sometimes obtain even from the Boston "Pops" Orchestra itself. And it is this perennial youthfulness of outlook, belying his now greying hair, that has made him the vital force in music which he is. He is a quiet business-like man, and from him you may not look for the fireworks and brilliance of the. stellar, virtuoso conductor, but only good music, sensibly and honestly played. ~~ .