NEWS OF MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 491, 19 November 1948, Page 29

NEWS OF MUSIC

(By

Airmail — Special to

The Listener

October 16 HE London Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been a self-governing body for several years, has just appointed one of its members to be permanent assistant conductor at a salary ‘of £1,000 a year. He is Anthony Baines, who until last\week was third bassoon in the L.P.O. He is 36, and lives in Kensington, The principal conductor for each season will continue to be chosen afresh each year. For 1949 it will be the Dutchman, Eduard van: Beinum. As part of the selection process, the orchestra spent one whole working day (from 10.0 am, to 5.0 p.m.) in concentrated rehearsal under the batons of seven young conductors, who" represented the "short list" from a total of 30 applicants. This was done in the vast pfivaéy of the Royal Albert Hall (behind locked doors) with the arena quite empty, except for a group of the orchestra’s directors, who are themselves orchestral players, Thus the applicants must have worked.in. competition -with their own echoes, though possibly the directors knew where to find the magic spots that ordinary ticket buyers at public concerts hunt for in vain through costly experiment. The seven candidates conducted the orchestra in a movement of their own choosing from a Beethoven symphony, and in John Ireland’s London Overture, a work that is full of pitfalls. Anthony Baines, who chose the &rst movement of the Eroica, was pid¢d from these seven. The choice was backed by the entire orchestra, for a principle of the selection method was that each player was armed with a foolscap sheet of paper giving the names of the seven applicants, with space for a full comment on the achievement and promise displayed. ; "THOMAS RUSSELL, chairman of the _ L.P.O. (formerly a viola player in its pre-democratic days) says he believes this method z of appointment is com-

pietelty justined on artistic grounds, As an orchestral player, he had _ never had any difficulty in assessing the worth of a conductor after a brief spell of rehearsal, but since he has had opportunities of meeting conductors’ personally and studying their work intensively from behind their backs he has realised, he says, that nothing takes the place of experience in front of the conductor; and he is no longer surprised when an otherwise capable critic blunders badly in his

estimate Of this or that "stick-wagger," because "he sees less than half the picture" in the concert hall. ‘If this is true, Russell says, the old method -of an external © committee "imposing" a conductor ‘on the players ought to go. An external committee might select the wrong man, and often went out of jts way to stress the subservience of orchestral members. "However an orchestra is organised, the performances it gives demand active co-operation from all concerned, with no grudging response from those who feel ignored. That is why, in engaging Eduard van Beinum as principal conductor for 1949 the opinions of the players were first canvassed. Thus we can be sure of happy results when he takes charge." The relationship between the orchestra and a man chosen under the method which selected Anthony Baines is a sound one, Russell says, and to prove it he speaks of the "perfect discipline" which reigned on the day of the tests. "It is traditional to most orchestras that the appearance of a young conductor is the signal for high jinks. If, in addition, he comes from the ranks of the orchestra itself-as did three of these candidates-it is legitimate to give him a rough passage. This tradition arises from the fact that in the past conductors have always been imposed upon the men in the orchestra, who are often more capable as musicians if less privileged as citizens. "Much as I trust the members of the L.P.O. with whom I have worked for more than 13 years, I was amazed at the perfect discipline which reigned on that day. The conductors themselves were no less gratefully surprised at the co-operation offered them." . HE result of the experiment will, no doubt, be watched with great interest, though perhaps with more reserve than Mr, Russell expresses; for it is well known that where genius depends for its full expression upon the compliance of organisation and a complexity of circumstances, as it does in the case of conductors, there is a powerful élement of luck. There are many ways of selecting conductors. It seems jmprob.

» able, but it is pos- . sible, that Toscanini might have remained a’ ’cellist had not a -conductor once ’ fallen ill in South America, making it necessary for a member of the orchestra to take his place at the last moment. Anthony Baines is a bachelor, and has told one of the papers here that he likes Bach and Beethoven, but finds that Elgar has a depressing effect on him. When he was at Westminster school _he formed a band... It lasted eight days. (continued on next page)

MUSIC IN BRITAIN

(continued from previous page) At Christ Church, Oxford, he studied for a science degree, but by 1934 (when he was 22) he was playing bassoon with the L.P.O. and studying at the Royal College of Music. In the war, he was with the Royal Tank Regiment, and was captured in the Middle East. On the way to Germany he jumped a train and was free for six months. Recaptured, he organised and conducted a Symphony orchestra in a P.O.W. ‘camp. NOTHER inhovation in the selfmanagement of the L.P.O. is the formation (announced a few days before the new conductorship) of an Advisory Council. Of the seven first members, four are’ well known names-J. B. Priestley (who has taken an interest in the L.P.O. since it first began to administer its own affairs), Miss Barbara Ward (the former Brains Truster, writer in The Economist, and now a Governor of the BBC), R. J. Cruikshank (editor of the News Chronicle), and Hamish Hamilton, the publisher. The advisory council will make recommendations on broad policy matters; the artistic planning of concerts will remain in the hands of the players.

Two Conductors Laid Up WO ‘well known conductors have lately been in the news to the extent of having, like Royalty, day-by-day reports in the papers on their physical condition. Sir Thomas Beecham, like the French composer Lully, injured himself in the very act of conducting, but happily without the same fatal result. While in South Africa he strained his back, or rather, affected a nefve by misplacing a vertebra, and after having to be helped out of the flying boat at Southampton took several days’ rest before conducting again. John Barbirolli, conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, was injured in a motor accident on his way back to Manchester from a tour. His leg muscles were torn and his face cut by the sun-glasses he was wearing. His wife (the oboist Evelyn Rothwell) later announced that he was determined to conduct the opening concert of the coming Hallé season even if he had to do it sitting down. Albert Hall Seats Two stalls in the Royal Albert Hall, of the privately owned category which was the subject of a. correspondence in The Times some months ago (as reported in The Listener) were recently

sold for £950. The result was that some owners, who only wanted some firm indication of the value of their seats, offered more for sale, and according to the estate market correspondent of The Times, a large company of bidders attended the auction of two boxes and some stalls. Eight lots, amounting to 26 seats, were sold for a total of £10,025. Box 38 in the second tier (five sittings) brought £1,900, the purchaser being a .company. Box 12 in the loggia (eight sittings) was bought for £3,050. Three adjacent stalls in block M (one of the worst blocks for echo) brought £1,050, and five other pairs of stalls went for prices between £700 and £959, Entertainment tax is payable on these seats (which may always be sold by the owners for any one concert or more, in competition with the concert promoters), but the Commissioners of Inland Revenue have lately intimated that it can be commuted in perpetuity by a payment of a sum equal to 4 per cent. of the proven market value. There is also an annual seat rate of £3 payable to the controlling body of the Hall, but it is also possible to extinguish that by a single payment. Some of the seat owners who have lately sold, or are now thinking of selling, may have considered the fact that it would also be possible to extinguish the Albert Hall itself by a single payment of a suitable

type of bomb. Sales of Albert Hall seats in the past have been rare and mainly on behalf of executors. Opera in the New England "HE extent to which England has now taken to opera may be judged. ‘from’ the fact that the» Sadler’s Wells co pany chose Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte | (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) open its new season-an opera of heavenly beauty, but subtle in its charms, and not one that a knowing Promoter would risk in a "land without music." It was Das Land éhne Musik that preferred the lesser substance of the Savoy Operas to the works now favoured as never before in England; but we were reminded of the passage of time by the death, the other day, of Rupert D’Oyly Carte. A memorial service was held in the Savoy Chapel, and afterwards there was a group of elderly people talking on the lawn outsidesome of the most famous Savoyards of the past, including Essie Spain, Leo Sheffield, and Decima Moore, the original Casilda of The Gondoliers. The Manchester ‘Guardian «said that none of those who were sitting by the lawn seemed to notice them. Meanwhile, two operas from Europe have just had their first performances in London. The Sadler’s Wells company has produced Simon Boccanegra, the only important opera by Verdi that has not so far been performed here. In the past, many people thought it too sombre

to be a success in England, but tastes have altered, and sombreness is no disqualification any more, Smetana’s opera, The Kiss, has also been produced for the first time, by the Carl Rosa Company (at Hammersmith). It was written 72 years ago. Another work from Czechoslovakia will also appear shortly in its first English versionWeinberger’s Schwanda the Bagpiper. At the moment, four opera companies are performing in London-Covent Garden, Sadler’s Wells, the Carl Rosa, and the English Opera Group (doing Benjamin Britten’s new Beggar’s Opera and Albert Herring).