Symphony Lures Youngsters

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30814, 28 July 1965, Page 7

Symphony Lures Youngsters

ing EAfILE TAVEL LIVEZEY, special correspondent of the (, Christian Science Monitor >> ] When Paul Rudolf began kindergarten, his teacher said it was customary on the first day for her to play something on the piano each child would like to hear. The grandson of Max Rudolf, conductor of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, requested, “Play something by Mozart.” Stunned, the teacher made a quick recovery. As it happened, she said, she wasn’t playing Mozart that day. “Then,” said Paul, “play something by Vivaldi.” This kind of musical taste may be hard on kindergarten teachers. But it is the kind of interest symphony orchestras need today.

American musicians want year-round employment and good salaries—lo,ooo dollars a year and more. In recent years there has been a concerted effort nationally to reach this goal. Some major orchestras already have attained it. But it requires full audiences around the calender. HERITAGE

Cincinnati is working toward this end. And this Ohio River City, set among hills, is fortunate. It has a proud musical heritage—with a fine gilt-and-crimson Music Hall, built in 1875, to prove it. Its May Festival of choral and orchestral music stems from the days when an influx of music-loving Germans helped to make this a city of unusual culture. Its orchestra begun in 1895, is the fifth oldest in the nation. Its summer opera at the city zoo’s amphitheatre is another event of civic pride.

Mr Rudolf estimates there is a nucleus of some 2000 Cincinnatians who know

music, love it, and play it in their homes. But to fill Music Hall’s 3718 seats in years to come, Mr Rudolf doubts that homes can provide the musical stimulation. “The schools,” he says, “will have to do it. ■

TOO MUCH MUSIC “We have too much music today, It has become a silence killer. You can’t even ride an elevator in silence. This is dangerous. It dulls the ear for music. So it is very important to open the minds of school children as soon as possible.” To do this, the Cincinnati Symphony has devised a plan unique among major orchestras in the United States. It has long presented Children’s concerts in Music Hall. But now divides itself into three parts, disperses to public and private schools throughout the Greater Cincinnati area, each group playing a pair of one-hour concerts in mornings or afternoons.

Although presenting the best in classical music, the concerts are intimate in nature. They provide narration and an opportunity for children to get close to instruments and musicians.

The project began last spring with 42 concerts for 25,000 children. This year, with demand overwhelming, both numbers have doubled. Support from industry brings the cost to only 125 dollars a school, and makes the concerts free for children. FACET OF PROGRESS

But this reaching out for tomorrow’s audiences is only one facet of the symphony’s progress. Since 1958 when Mr Rudolf, former conductor and artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera, mounted the Cincinnati podium, the orchestra has been undergoing a renaissance.

He took over an orchestra which had a reputation as one of the finest in the country. Its conductors had been Frank Van der Stricken, Leopold Stokowski, Ernst Kunwald, Eugene Ysave, Fritz Reiner, Eugene Goossens, and Thor Johnson. Latter years, however, had somewhat dimmed its lustre. Mr Rudolf was invited to restore it.

This he has done. Some of his musicians say they can’t believe the transformation. Lloyd H. Haldeman, appointed manager in 1963, says the orchestra has resumed its position as one of the major symphonies, in the United States “There is a great feeling of confidence,” he says, “that we are developing a substantial musical product.” EXPANDING

Orchestra membership has expanded from 86 to 93 members, 36 of whom are new faces. Many first-chair players have been succeeded by youthful talent. Salaries are higher. The season is longer. Touring dates have increased. Concerts this year, including inschool performances, number 192 compared with 89 in 1962. Some will be broadcast nationally. And now the orchestra, the third in the nation to record, is recording again.

Whenever the symphony performs, critics enthusiastically hail its rebirth. Next year it will make a 10 week State Department world tour which will include several major European festivals. The future is bright with hopes for summer concerts in Cincinnati, and possibly even winter opera. AID TO AMBITION One naturally wonders why Mr Rudolf, with such broad experience in opera—l 3 years

at the Metropolitan, plus engagements in his native Germany and in Italy and a knowledge of five languages—would turn to symphonic conducting “Basically,” he said, “I was not an opera man. For me opera was just the quickest way to get started.”

His earliest ambition was to conduct a symphony orchestra. During his strenuous years at the Met, reading symphony scores was his form of relaxation.

After coming to the United States in 1940. he wrote, “The Grammar of Conducting.” With 20,000 copies sold, it has become a standard work on the subject.

“UTMOST RESPECT” John Beroset, a first violinist and personnel manager, says the musicians “have utmost respect for Mr Rudolf’s ability as a conductor. He’s a gentleman—very firm, but he’s nice about . it. At rehearsal he never bawls anybody out before the orchestra, never.”

Mr Rudolf is not a showman, On the podium his posture is erect, his manner even, his gestures conservative. “A conductor who uses large gestures and aims for a flashy appearance to impress the public,” he says, “will never be what I would call an outstanding conductor. “I assure you that many gestures you see are prompted by lack of technique. An orchestra plays much better when led by spare gestures. Fritz Reiner and the composer Richard Strauss did almost nothing. “If I don’t succeed in having an inspired performance,” Mr Rudolf says, “something is lacking. B,ut it is not that small gestures cannot inspire an orchestra. It is inspired by rehearsal work and by the conductor’s intense participation in the performance."