A PAINFUL INCIDENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 10 (Supplement)

A PAINFUL INCIDENT.

TOSCANINI AT BAYREUTH. SCENE WITH ORCHESTRA. A painful incident at a Bayreuth rehearsal was recently reported by tlio correspondent of the Borcsen Zeitung, who was a witness of it. The orchestra was rehearsing a memorial concert, with which tlio anniversary of Siegfried Wagner's death was to be celebrated. At a few bars after tho beginning of the first item on the programme, the "Faust" Overture, Toscanini rapped tho desk so violently that he broko his baton in the middle, 110 continued to conduct with the now angular stick, but ho had lost touch with tho orchestra, and when they camo to the Allegro ho turned and bolted from tho house. Somo' of tho instrumentalists followed him, and it was only with difficulty that Dr. Furtwangler succeeded in inducing them to return to their places. According to another account, peace was afterwards mado between Toscanini and tho orchestra. The little dissension was ascribed to tho fact that the orchestra was on tho static and that tho theatre was practically empty. Tho result of this circumstance was acoustic disturbances, which, though not noticeable in tho auditorium, wore distinctly audible on the stage, and were attributed by Toscanini to slackness on the part of tho orchestra.. Apparently, however, their tempers had been strained by overwork.