TOSCANINI.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 281, 26 November 1937, Page 10

TOSCANINI.

AT QUEEN'S HALL. GREAT BRAHMS CONCERT. . iioCPIRAMIKTAL CONDUCTOR (By NELLE M. SCANLAN.) . , LONDON", November 1. Signor Toscanini, one of the greatest, if not, the very greatest conductor, conducted a Brahml concert at the Queen's Hull on Saturday night. This was a great musical event and one that has been looked forward to for many months. Seats, at high prices, were sold out long ago. Not one was to be had. for love or money several weeks before the date of the concert. I was fortunate, however, to lie invited to his rehearsal in the Queen's Hall the morning before, nnd so had a. grand opportunity of seeing and hearing. Signor Toscanini is to conduct two concerts; the other is the Beethoven Ninth Symphony. That is due next week. At his first rehearsal with the 8.8.C. Symphony Orchestra, when quite a_ number of distinguished people (inch ding ex-Queen Ena of Spain) were present, as well an about fifty musics! students or aspiring singers and players, mostly with some connection with the 8.8.C., tho performance had been going less than an hour, when Toscanini stopped the orchestra, because the oboes wcro not pliiyinjr a pasture to his satisfaction. They played it again, but still it was not right. They played it a third time, but still it did not reach the high standard demanded the conductor, so ho just flung his baton down, and walked out of the hall. The rehearsal was at an end. Toscanini, like most groat musicians, is decidedly temperamental. High Tension Among Player*. There wore explanations and excuses, but not exactly apologies, in the Press, but the position was smoothed over, and the morning I attended for the Brahms rehearsal there wag still »onie excitement about the incident. Would he repeat this gesture?

The "Renuiem" takes an hour and a' half to perform, And- in the muggy grey of a late October morning, the orchestra and choir begfn to arrive by 10 a.m. Six of the ten double basses took off their coats, and polished their huge Instruments with yellow dusters, as if they wcro baby cars. There was much tuning up, and one could sense high tension among the players. The 8.8.C. Choir wore ranged on either side at the back of the stage, the semi-circle at drums in the centre, and the two soloists, Alexander Sved, who sang the part recently at the Salsburg festival 1 , Vnd Isobel Baillie sat between the choir and the orchestra. As the concert was to be broadcast 8.8.C. engineers and technicians ware busy adjusting microphones and swinging them into position, so that the rehearsal could test their efflciency. < The Conductor.

On the stroke of 10.30 Signer Tosca* nini came out, a tall, elim, elderly man. The top of his domed head is bald and bronzed, and hi* thick wavy white hair is like two bird's wings folded back along the side, meeting at the back and ending in a drake's tail. He wore an alnaca coat. Standing on his roetrum, with his back to the audience, he held his slim baton in his right hand with the little finger curled delicately apart. I whs rather fascinated by the movement* of his left hand, a Slim, brown hand with an inch of white cuff showing. He held it outspread, the three middle Angers close together, the thumb *pd little Anger extended wide the fullest stretch. And am he moved it, hi* hr.nd, with this odd arrangement of Angers, made strange patterns against the dimly-lit stage. He kept his Itfft hand up, at a sharp angle with hi* wrist, and only when the Angers curved to shape a phrase, or appeared halfclosed, In a clutching, almost greedy gesture, demanding more power, more Are, more passion from the singers and players, did it vary from Its original pose.

Of course Toscanini conducted without a score, and only once during that liour and n half did he pause to wipe hi* forchend, but him whole lithe body deemed vibrant with concentrated energy.

Chorns of Praise. It was a magnificent performance. Never have I heard such unity in a choir j such perfect accord in • an orchestra. It was a revelation, There was no "scene"—no stopping 4f oboes or other instruments; no show of temperatnent. And when it was over, and the applauded him, and the II t, l " lence ' oine<l in - Toscanini orcWr* , With the ,ender ot the motions witThls h n ' ,P T ""J" clipping Indicating that L ♦ Went out ' but It was ih» v. j°°' W f ß a PP'nwling, whom this tribute 1 orchestra to liMenod'nn'th. ' through I turned.lt off Ho™ L W * V . seemed tS miss so much that i enjoyed during the rehearsal T IToscnnini himself ' "iwsed V s S: yqrzr*. Into thn n mimic something apparently tl ( y hnd not before known it to . Spenkinir of his method, one noted ) cntic remarked i "Tf the Prophet hiul l»d thee do «ome great thing, If only to plnv a quaver as a quiver- to sing an inner part as much as a medody, and generally to carva the back

of a statue as carefully as the front." That was what Toscanini achieved. That completeness of detail.

And again one sums up his method in a sentence:

"Hounds leave the man who feeds, them for tho man who hunts them." Toscanini is the supreme hunter. Many Soloiata in Choir. The choir sang the text in German. Members of this choir have to go under a truly drastic audition before they are admitted. They have to know several language*, to be able to sight-read the most difficult parts, and many of them are soloists of drstincllon. And at this concert, though their chorus work occupied a small part of the time, they all stood throughout the whole half-aiid-a-h<ilf, never once sitting down, which was in itself an ordeal. And there was not a sound from the audience, no ill-timed applause in between. This waa reserved for the end, when it came like thunder. Isobel Baillie has a magnificent voice. One critic wrote about her performance: "If to-day's conductors and singers held still the same relative position* in the public eye as a generation or two ago, Mis* Baillie would have * name in Europe equal to that of Toscanini himself." The Hungarian baritone, Alexand Sved, has a big, imposing, rather muffled tone, and has a great reputation in Europe to-day. Every conductor, of course, has his own idea* of interpretation, and one thing I noticed particularly during the rehearsal vai that the double basses, or several of them, kept a pencil behind their ear, like a clerk, and now and •gain I aaw them busily jotting down marlta on their music. The fiddle and other instrument* seemed too busy to get a chance, and so perhaps they were obliged to memoriae these variation* in pace and volume, etc. Now we are waiting to hear Toscanini conduct Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. That should be a rare performance.