Hard-Working Musicians

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 518, 27 May 1949, Page 12

Hard-Working Musicians

An I nterview with

WINIFRED

CARTER

INIFRED CARTER, harpist in the National Orchestra, came back the other day from a six months’ holiday in the United States. She spent most of her time looking up old friends in Detroit, where, for the 16 years before the war, she played in the Symphony Orchestra.. It was exhilarating (Miss Carter told me when I talked to her the other afternoon) to be back in her old haunts. \ "The Americans all complain about being hard up," she said. "Their ‘gadget’ standard of living is higher than ours, of course. But bread, butter, milk and some of the other basic commodities are twice the price they are here. Meat is more than twice as much. A restaurant meal that cost 3s 6d ten years ago is now about 12s 6d. Rent is up, and coal too-and coal is a big item, because of the central heating. Even people with fairly substantial incomes complained to me that they couldn’t save a cent, and were beginning to get anxious about their old age. But in spite of harder times, music is booming. Audiences are as keen as ever, and with so many firstclass European musicians in the States there’s hot competition for jobs and contracts. The standard of playing is very high indeed." The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Miss Carter told me, is virtually owned by a millionaire, Henry H. Reichhold. "There’s just been a tremendous row." she said. "Reichhold fired one of

the players for being disloyal to the conductor, and complained about the press reports of concerts. He told the members of the _ orchestra that if they didn’t make some protest against these reports, most of them would be out of a job. The newspapers were full of all this. But things have settled down again now. Reichhold off@ged to stand down, but still to support the orchestra financially, and that gesture-which one of the papers said was unprecedented in Detroit for ‘unselfishness and devotion to an ideal’-pav-ed the way to a peace conference. I can tell you, there are advantages in an_ orchestra being run by the State, as ours is in New Zealand." Informality at the Symphony I was much interested in Miss Carter’s account of the symphony concerts in Detroit. Their way of doing things is astonishingly informal. The big symphony hall, which seats 7,000 people, is opened at a quarter to seven, and from that time on the audience and the members of the orchestra begin trickling in.

LCnnnnn ence | The players turn up very early as a rule, and begin quietly practising, each by himself. They consider that this time spent on the platform before the concert is most important. The instruments are warmed up, and the quiet fingering and lipping practice gets the players into their very best form. "Please remember, too," said Miss Carter, "that these aren’t amateurs playing at the village concert. They’re among the finest players in the world. And that reminds me of another thing. These players don’t make any bones about taking home their parts to practise. I’ve seen John Wummer, who is the finest flautist in America, going over difficult passages for half-an-hour or more before ‘a concert -in full view of the audience, of course-and then picking up his music after the concert and taking it home to have another run ‘through the difficult bits. The same thing applies to Marius Fossenkemper, the principal clarinettist of the Detroit orchestra-and in fact to all these players. They never make any pretence about having to work hard all the time to get results. The modesty and seriousness of their approach to music is really quite inspiring in itself, apart from their performances." Five Performances a Week Most of the big American orchestras will be visiting Detroit this season, and

the same continuous interchange takes place in all the big centres. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, by the way, rehearses 23 hours a week, as compared with the 25 hours of the New Zealand National Orchestra. But the Detroit Orchestra averages five performances a week as well, during the six months’ season. Miss Carter met some very distinguished musical people on this visit. Dohnanyi, the Hungarian composer, played his own concerto, recently composed, at one concert. Although he is 74, his performance was full of spirit. Erica Morini, the German-born violinist, now being hailed as one of the greatest of all time, played in Detroit. And the very fine Orchestre National of France, on tour in the United States, impressed Miss Carter greatly. Speaking of orchestral technique and discipline, Miss Carter said that in America nowadays it is not considered necessary for all the bowing in the string section to be uniform. The seating arrangement of the orchestra varies considerably, according to which particular conductor is on the rostrum. "The thing that struck me most," said Miss Carter, "was the single-mindedness of the players. They work hard all the time to come as close to perfection as possible, and they don’t mind the world --

knowing about it."

A.R.D.

F.