The Peabody Notes SPRING 196 1 The Peabody Notes Published by the Peabody Conser·vatory of Music 2, MARYLAND PETER MENNIN, Director Ninety-second Year Spring-1961 VOL. XV No.1 H . D ONALD SPATZ, Editor Subscription rate $1.00 per year. See page 15.

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26TH AND SISSON STREETS, BALTIMORE 11 , MD. PHONE : BELMONT 5-86 00 I WONDER WHAT KIPLING WOULD SAY? By Walter Hautzig

Peripatetic pianist Walter Hal£t:':'ig has now departed on a,nother toUY of the Orient, the Near and Far East, Hilder State Depm-tment at/spices. On April 28 he played his fi rst Baltimore recital since joilll:ng the Peabody iacu,lty, performing under sponsorship of the Baltimore Ahumlae Chapter of Mu, Phi Epsilon S01'ority. This article was O1'iginally written for The Amer ican Record Guide, the editm' of which, M ·y. James Lyons, has given per1Jusston to -reprint the 1naterial here. A sa111,ple copy of the Guide may be sect-tred by addressing the magazine at P. O. Box 319, Radio City Station, New York 19, N . Y .

I was standing in the garden of Madame Butterfly's house and enjoying the magnificent view of Nagasaki Bay. A people with a vivid imagination, the Japanese had built this house "where Madame Buttefly would have lived­ if she would have lived." I was a bit tired, having just played recitals thirteen times in fifteen days. But as I looked back, and even as I thought of the concerts still ahead, a feeling of deep satisfaction was about me. For music is very much alive in Japan and the whole Far East, and my tour already had been a deeply gratifying experience for me both as an artist and as a human being. In three visits during the past two and a half years there were over eighty concerts on my schedule in Japan alone-a fact which by itself should prove how fertile this terri­ tory is for music. There is music everywhere. Tea and coffee shops advertise the daily menu and the daily program of the hi-fi set. It is "fruit-j uice," coffee, cake, etc., plus Beethoven, Brahms, and Stravinsky. There ar e music societies in most Japanese towns. Some have several, in friendly competition with each other. Tokyo has four orchestras. In the TV schedules, recitals and chamber music occupy almost as prominent a part as soap here. Programs are usually conservative, but they are solid, leaning heavily on the classic or romantic masterworks. In some cities the music society has also a choir, and they meet half an hour before the concert and sing. The audience sits according to its vocal parts­ tenors, contraltos, sopranos, etc. The music they sing is printed in the program and they sing it from sight. Music is very important to these people. After the concert the artist is many times requested to meet with local musicians. They just want to talk, discuss, compare, and if possible, learn something. The music societies are run by volunteer music lovers. But some concerts are sponsored by radio or TV stations, newspaper s, factories, and even stores. I had the privilege of giving a subscription series for workers in Osaka, the second largest city in the country. Thirty-three thousand people sub­ scribed, and I played twenty times in fifteen days, alternating three different programs. Exhausting? Yes. But also exhilarating. In one small town in Japan, Hiyuga, the candidate for mayor during a recent election ran on a platform which promised to bring culture to the city. I seemed to be the fulfillment of the election promise. And when I arrived in Hiyuga to give the first concert in its history, a brass band of students met me at the station and a parade of townspeople escorted me to the concert hall. Two thousand people came to the concert, and they sat on tatami mats on the floor during the whole performance. And, as almost everywhere in Japan, the piano was a first-rate instrument! The only disagreement among the members of the local committee was the question as to who would present flowers to me. As a result not one but three lovely little girls, in colorful kimonos, each gave me bouquets. Such disagreements should be the only ones that plague music societies! Audiences in Japan spoil the artist. Not with applause, for they applaud comparatively little and with restraint. But they shower the artist with letters, gifts, flowers, and true kindness. Japan has been a good country for music for some time, but before the war it was mainly in the principal cities that concerts could be heard. Now the whole hinterland has opened up. The audience is predominantly young. Many students are among them, and often they have to save and skimp to buy a ticket. They don't save and skimp for tickets alone; they do it for records too. An LP costs about $5-$6, which is a lot of money to people earning $50 a month. My schedule from Nagasaki on sounds like an itinerary of Marco Polo. After an appearance with the Tokyo Philharmonic under George Barati (of the Honolulu Symphony) and some recordings for the Victor Company of Japan, I was off to Manila, Taipeh, Hong Kong, Macao, Bangkok, Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Of these places Japan offers the most to the visiting artist, if for no other reason than the number of concerts he can expect. But there are many countries now opened up for music where few people would have expected to give concerts twenty years ago; they have all benefited by being en route to Japan or , and while no artist could consider a special trip to Manila or Macao, most of us are happy to stop over thert'}. It means seeing some fascinating places, meeting delightful people whose hospitality can hardly be described. And most im­ portant of all, Beethoven is the same language in or Bangkok, except that his music may be more appreciated in Bangkok because there isn't enough of it there. Of course, people have other interests in Bangkok, too, for instance, an ad for my second recital was placed next to one extolling the virtues of tiger hunting! The musical life of the Philippines is still limited to Manila, at least as far as foreign artists are concerned. But Philippine musicians are beginning to play concerts all over the islands, and this kind of pioneer work is bound to bring results. In Manila there is a symphony orchestra, plus several universities and colleges with most active music departments. The driving force in Manila is Alfredo Lozano, a human dynamo. It would be easier to name what he is not than what he is. Among his many involvements are the presidency of the National Music Council, Musicians League of the Philippines, and the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory Alumni Association ; the board of the UNESCO National Commission; he is also the chief movie censor (!), Philippine representative to the Asian Festival, etc., etc. But above all he is a dedicated manager who loves music and musicians and has spent his life bringing both to the Philippines. 2 I spent only two days in Taipeh, so I can't say much about the city, but the fact that 1,600 people bmtght tickets to hear a recital in a non-air-conditioned hall at 97 degrees perhaps speaks for itself. Much has been written about Hong Kong, the pearl of the Orient. Whatever has been said about its beauty is an understatement. It also is a shopper's paradise. Most artists, including this one, spend their fees and more to have new wardrobes made! My tailor is still busy with the Amadeus Quartet, ten months after their concert. As everyone knows, Hong Kong is a free port, and so English textiles are ridiculously cheap. But few people know that Hong Kong has a wonderful group of people who run a music society which has organized a great many concerts during the past few years. It also has an orchestra. A side trip to Macao is always arranged. Macao is a Portuguese colony on the Chinese mainland, famous for its smuggling of opium and gold and its gambling casinos. But it, too, has a society for music and culture which arranges concerts in the old and medieval-looking Teatro Dom Pedro V . In India, concerts of Western music are comparatively recent. The majority are organized by the Madrigal Singers Society of Bombay. This group actuall y meets once a week to sing madrigals, but in addition they arrange for concerts. Everyone of its workers is a volunteer, but no professional impresario could ever give so much attention and devotion to visiting artists. My recital was sold out. Incidentally, I was told that the snake charmer in front of the Taj Mahal Hotel, where I played, was dozing (and so was the cobra in his basket) throughout my recital. He must have wondered where all the people had gone. They had gone to hear Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. I wonder what Kipling would have said?

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3 NOTA BENE CAROL ELIZABETH HOFFMAN, student of the Peabody "Prep," has been honored by the Maryland Academy of Science, receiving the top award for her exhibit in the June Baltimore Science Fair. CHRISTOPHER WOLFE and KENNETH KAWASHIMA, both students of Sidney Forrest, have been named members of the American Wind Symphony with summer headquarters in Pittsburgh; they will tour Ohio and Louisiana, later spend­ ing three weeks touring England. The corps de ballet, prominent in the Baltimore Civic Company performances of Andrea Chenier, was directed by CAROL LYNN with choreography by Mattlyn Gavers. The Women's Association of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented a musicale in March at Evergreen House with ESTELLE A. GOLTON and A. SVILOKOS, assistant concertmaster of the BSO, playing the Brahms D Minor violin and piano sonata. Erwin Sholz, cellist, joined Mrs. Golton and Mr. Svilokos to do the Mendelssohn D Minor piano trio. VERONICA TYLER appeared March 19 on the coast-to-coast CBS Television network with Leonard Bernstein and the N ew York Philharmonic for one of the orchestra's regular Young People's Concerts. BIENVENIDO P ANGANI­ BAN attended the East-West Encounter, international Music Conference and Festival, in Tokyo, as official representative of the University of Santo Tomas. JOHN WEAVER, organist, having ended a western concert tour with a recital at Riverside Church in New York in March, has just announced publication by Boosey and Hawkes of his setting for chorus and organ of the One-Hundredth Psalm. SUSAN HEIMBACH, student of Leon Fleisher, has been awarded a scholarship for summer study with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainbleue, Paris; the young pianist's hometown (Altoona, Pa.) teacher was Peabody alumna, ALMA LEIGHTY. RICHARD GOOD­ LAKE, whose Town Hall recital of last season was most cordially received, has now joined Lillian Messina, soprano, and Sophia Steffan, mezzo-soprano, the ensemble to tour under Alkahest Celebrity Management as "The Windsor Singers." JOANNE .COHEN's Town Hall debut February 11 was a great success, one of the leading New York critics saying, in part, that the young violinist's musicianship was "faultless" and that her tone "had elegance and linear beauty"; her accompanist, who came in for a just share of praise, was RUSLANA ANTONOWICZ. The opera, Nausicaa, by Peggy Glanville­ Hicks, will be given several performances in Greece this summer at the Athens Festival with Carlos Surinach conducting, the American principals in the cast including Teresa Statas and SPIRO MALAS. CAROLLE ANNE BILLINGS was named Recreation Leader for the Army Special Services Program, to be- stationed in Central for a two-year period. has continued his varied operatic activities, appear­ ing with the phenomenal in several performances of Bellini's with the American Opera Society at Carnegie Hall in March, the conductor. WILLIAM DAVID HEAGY IV was musical director, ROBERT DURE stage director, for the Peabody Student Opera Workshop April 27 triple-bill-There and Return (Hinde­ mith), The Telephone (Menotti) and A Hand Of Bridge (Barber) . BRUCE H. BURKLEY in early May attended the third annual Symposium of Con­ temporary American Music at the University of Kansas School of Fine Arts, where his Image For Flute and Strings received its premiere per­ formance. 4 MEMORY DRAWS FROM DELIGHT JOHN CHARLES THOMAS 1892 - 1960 By Gordon M. Eby It is almost twenty-one years since I walked into a record shop on Franklin Street in Baltimore and purchased the first record in what has become a large library. I like to think I have since gained a musical maturity and taste since some of those early purchases no longer seem worthwhile. Yet that first beatific recording of John Charles Thomas singing "I Heard A Forest Praying" (by Peter de Rose) remains to this day a luminous and favorite platter. John Charles Thomas was an idol (in the nicest sense) of my youth. I wanted desperately to sing "like that" and never have. He was the type of baritone who could make any tenor uncollsolably jealous. At least he did 5 this one. But his voice fired me with enthusiasm for music and singers, and so I am glad to answer a request for a tribute to the Peabody's most illus­ trious student of the past. "I Heard A Forest Praying" was a trail-blazer in 1940 because it was "modern." To this day we are not certain if it should be sung in church, though its text is completely religious. It is a popular but controversial composition. Be that as it may, the singer may have been a controversial one but there was never any question about his popularity. John Charles Thomas was tall, handsome, manly and athletic with a voice to match. His long musical career began in 1904 when he sang a new song for his school in Cumberland, Maryland; he attended Peabody from 1910 to 1912 with the Eaton Memorial Scholarship, under the tutelage of Adelin Fermin; he made his first professional appearance in 1912 in London, Ontario; he made his operatic debut (Washington, D. C.) before President and Mrs. Coolidge as Amonasro () in 1925 and his Metropolitan debut occurred on February 2, 1934 as the elder Germont in La Traviata in the company of Tito Schipa (Alfredo) and the sumptuous Violetta of . Less than a month later, he sang the role again opposite Fredrick Jagel and Lucrezia Bori. John Charles was praised at his debut for the ... "Opulent color ... and fine spun legato" of his voice and he ... "joined Miss Ponselle in a touching treatment of Act II" which won him ... "as much acclaim as any new- comer in a long while." When Edward Johnson became the Met's general manager, Thomas was heard in , competing in that role with . Thomas was admired as Tonio () , Athanael (Thais) with Helen Jepson and once with Marjorie Lawrence, and as Amonasro with Elizabeth Rethberg and Giovanni Martinelli. His ribald wit and cunning theatrical instinct made him a huge success as Figaro in The Barber of Seville. Though his "burlesque exaggerations" and "interpola­ tions" (whistles, gestures and spoken asides) were not liked by the critics, others felt this was what the staid Metropolitan and static grand opera needed. He also sang the villa;~ous Baron Scarpia in with Irene J essner and Martinelli as the star-crossed lovers, and Renate in The Masked Ball with Stella Roman as his Amelia. There were many other roles he could have and should have sung at the Met. Count di Luna in , Iago in Othello, Consul Sharpless in Madame Blttterjly, Falstaff, Wolfram, and the Count in The Marriage of Figaro, to mention the most obvious. Whether it was fair or not, Ezio Pinza, Lawrence Tibbett and Robert Weede offered man-sized competition to John Charles in every aspect of the singer's art. Of the many operatic excerpts Thomas recorded there is robust, debonair, healthy strength in his version of the "Chanson Bachique" from Ambroise Thomas seldom-heard . The baritone absolutely reveled in the florid nature of the music, adding his own variations to the vocal line, even as he did in adapting the "gloom-dispelling" ardor of the text to his own 68 years.

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6 Like many other singers, John Charles Thomas was a superb singer of songs-a real balladier. The memory of the songs Mr. Thomas sang rush to mind like the remembrance of a luscious dessert or a never-to-be-forgotten view of mountains and valleys, rolling plains and fertile fields. For the songs Thomas sang were like all of these. Fortunately, they are all imperishably recorded for posterity. Anyone will admire the facile virility with which he interprets "Bendemeer's Stream." This was one of his favorites and he sings it like a legendary minstrel of Irish antiquity. . . . "Thus memory draws from delight 'ere it dies an essence that breathes of it many a year ... " as indeed it does when the art of John Charles Thomas is recalled. No one ever sang the old English ballad "Lord Randall" as did Thomas. To those critics who deplored the lack of "dramatic intensity" (as some did) in Thomas' renditions, I point to the dramatic whispers, the calculated pauses and the several "voices" employed to bring the tragedy of this imposing story to life. There is combined American fervor and provincial finesse in his several French songs and operatic arias-notably the two H erodiade excerpts and the eloquent "Chanson Triste." Like Grace Moore, Thomas was an American who was vociferously admired in Europe and particularly in . His diction, intonation and dramatic flair were precisely what Europeans expect of opera singers. Above all, I admire his square-shouldered assurance as he sings "There Is No Death." No singer ever sang a song with more invigorating confidence. His masterful interpretation indicates a masculine sincerity in faith and ultimate immortality for mankind. This is only magnificent. To the simple hymn tune, "Softly and Tenderly," Thomas brings a compelling urgency rather than the obvious interpretation of the title. But he treats "Home on the Range" with sublime tenderness. Yet, of all songs associated with John Charles Thomas, none will ever be more his own or as popular as 's setting of "The Lord's Prayer." The song has become as universally loved and as familiar as the Nazarene's transcendant words. Like the words, the music is devout, inspired, triumphant and miraculous. The music fits the text like a glove even as Thomas' voice fitted both. Although the minister with whom I work, and I, dread every wedding when the aunt of the bride, or the groom's college chum, disrupts the liturgy of the ceremony and the solemn reciting of this prayer by "performing" it, Malotte and John Charles Thomas were surely not to blame. The composition has become hackneyed only because so many lesser singers than Thomas have sung it. Malotte wrote the stately music for John Charles and no matter how many flutey sopranos, glee clubs, organists or other players transcribe it, the composition remains indelibly associated with the baritone whose powerful voice and faith brought it to reality. Thomas rounded out his more than half-century as a singer with innumerable characterizations. He was known to adapt the texts to his own poetic fancies. He gave fresh life to such operettas as The Gypsy Baron, May time and the perennial Blossom Time. (I once wore the same plum-colored coat Thomas had worn-he in Blossom Time and I in a Schubert Memorial-but he looked and sang better than 1.) Thomas was supremely talented in many directions. His innovations in stage-business, the reality he employed in make-up and costuming, his sense of the dramatic and the comic which he unashamedly motivated for audience appeal and his dynamic vitality engendered all sorts of admiration and adulation. To 7 enhance a song he would crack a joke, quote scripture or tenderly explain tex t and music, as I heard him do once with Campbell-Tipton's "The Crying of Water." And Thomas could do a double shuffle or "the old soft shoe" with the agility of any performer in vaudeville. Though many have criticized his open vowel vocal projection, Thomas' style was his own and he alone knew how to handle it. Through the years many baritone imitations have only proved this. In the case of John Charles Thomas, imitation was not "the sincerest form of flattery" but the quickest form of tragedy, for most. As a singer he was no Ladyfinger. He was outwardly poised and calm but vocally he was always robust and masculine­ a real man's si nger-and the ladies loved it. Change alone is permanent. A youthful idol can be r ep laced or fo rgotten unless it happens to be John Charles Thomas, that American baritone whose singing was like a fire, whose career was like a modern freeway and whose minstrelsy has numbered him with the immortals. For such-there is no death.

Gordon M . Eb3'J who has written f req'ltcntly for THE PEABODY NOTES, 1"csponded with this Hre/lection" to a req'u,est for a suitable 'memorial to the late lohn Charles Thotnas, certainly one of the Peabody's most illustrious former students. Mr. Eby. who is organist of the Broad Sh'cet Methodist Chu.rch in Lancaste'r, Pa' J has recently completed a series of four organ pieces, gro'nped in a sHite- When I Consider the Stars. They M'e Stars Above Gethsemane (Lenten), The Silent Stars Go By (Christmas), Song of the M orning Stars (General) , a11d A Halo Of Stars (Moth,,"s Day) . Mr. Eby's book, From The Beauty of Embers, published by Robert Spelle'r and Sons, 33 West 42"d Street, New York 36, pl. Y., with an introdltction by Milton Cross, has receZ:ved enth'ltSl:astic crr:tical acclaim f ollowing its March p·nblication. A series of intim.ate portraits of s ~tch greats as Po·n.selle, Bori, Aida, Gar1'ison and many 11t01'e, it is available at $5.00 per copy at book stores or from the publisher.

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The D irector of the Conservatory fulfil1ed several important speaking engagements in recent .weeks. In late February, Dr. Mennin served as a judge for a composition contest sponsored by the School of Music at West Virginia University, and addressed the student body of the same school on "The Climate of American Composition." In early March, he was guest speaker at meetings of the Col1ege Section of the Virginia Music Educators Asso­ ciation at Radford Col1ege, and later the same month he dedicated the F ine Arts Building of the College of Wil1iam and Mary, speaking on "Ar ts And Education In America." In May, Dr. Mennin addressed the student body of the University of California on "The American Musical Scene." On May 7, during the eighteenth American Music Festival at Washington's National GaUery of Art, the Director's String Quartet No. 2 received a performance by the Alard String Quartet. 8 THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Seymour Fink, associate professor at the Yale School of Music, recently played the Brahms B-flat concerto with the New Haven Symphony Orches­ tra, substituting on three days notice for Sylvia Zaremba. Barbara Canfield has been appointed administrative assistant to the Vice President of the classical division of Mercury Records Corporation in Jew York City. Jean Eichelberger Ivey was honored by Station WNYC New York in the presen­ tation of a program of her compositions recently, the broadcast including her Sonata' For Piano, premiered in 1958 at Washington's Phillips Gallery. Mrs. Ivey's Suite For Cello and Piano was performed in April at the Composer's Forum, University of Alabama. Marcia Silverstone Wolf, active as church and oratorio soloist (and in giving piano-voice recitals), included among recent opera appearances the role of the Countess in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Frasquita (with Mignon Dunn of the Met) in Carmen. The Alumni Association held its annual Founders Day Dinner at the Park Plaza Hotel in February, with Sylvia Betts Dodd as chairman. The accompanying photograph does not include everyone who attended. Mrs. Joseph . Zierler presided for the last time, her six-year term as President ending, and H. Emerson Meyers was elected to the office. Mr. Meyers, who holds the Peabody Piano Certificate and the Artist's Diploma, is Professor of Music at Catholic University of America, and is conductor of the Friday Morning Music Club String Ensemble of vVashington. He is also first Vice President and Chairman of Theory and Composition Section of the Maryland State Music Teachers Association. Mr. Meyers, as pianist, has appeared recently in several recitals at the National Gallery of Art in the Nation's Capitol (April 30 being the most recent) and has given countless perform­ ances throughout the East and South. His compositions receive constant hearings, while in April this versatile gentleman conducted the combined high school festival band in concert at Virginia Beach. An entertaining feature of the Alumni Founders Day Dinner was the presen­ tation of a Music Quiz, won, incidentally, by Justin Williams. The Quiz is reprinted on the next page. See what you can do in supplying the answers. When you give up, turn to page 16.

9 MUSICAL QUIZ I Judging from the surnames of some well known musicians, they would not be musicians if they lived up to their names: a) What American composer would put up the framework of a house? b) Who would press your suit ? II The most popular of the four seasons is Spring. Can you name the work of the following composers with Spring in its title? a) Stravinsky c) Sinding b) Mendelssohn d) Schumann e) Beethoven III What instruments did each of these men play before becoming con­ ductors: a) Hans Kindler c) Serge Koussevitsky b) Eugene Ormandy d) Leopold Stokowski e) Arturo Toscanini IV The middle name of these composers is given; can you fill in their first and surnames? a) Maria ...... b) Seymour ...... c) Tomlinson ...... d) Alexander e) Peter .. V The Lost & Found Dept. is searching for things from operas listed as missing by the characters. Which character has lost the following: a) His hair ? b) His head? c) Her mind? VI The circus is coming to town and needs to hire some additional acts. From which operas could they get the following: a) A clown? b) A strong man? c) Two giants? VII At least 4 important pieces of music celebrating Abraham Lincoln have been written by contemporary composers during recent years. Here are the titles; can you name their composers? a) Abraham Lincoln Symphony b) Lincoln Symphony c) Lincoln Portrait d) Lincoln,Legend VIII How much do we know about our own National Anthem? a) Where was Francis Scott Key when he wrote his poem? b) When was The Sta'Y Spangled Banney made our official anthem ?

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10 IX Do you know how "Maryland My Maryland" came to be written? a) Who wrote the words? b) In what city did the event occur which inspired it? c) Was it written in that city? d) What was the approximate date? e) What is the older name of the tune? X Who wrote each of the following groups of songs: a) Begin the Beguine and Night and Day b) Cheek to Cheek and Remember? c) The Man I Love and Embraceable You d) My Heart Stood Still and With A Song in My Heart e) Make Believe 'and All The Things You Are

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The Peabody Library has received for its permanent collection, from the Misses Doetsch, the flute played by their late father, Louis J. Doetsch, in the first orchestral performance ever given in the Conserv­ atory. This was in 1868. The flute, and .other items, were shown in an exhibit at Hampton House recently, along with copies of the printed program for the original concert.

The performing units of the Preparatory Department have been most active in recent weeks. In addition to the dance concert, May 19 and 20 by the Modern Dance Group directed by Dale Sehnert (An Old Wive's Tale) and the Senior Ballet Company directed by Carol Lynn (Giselle) with guest stars Sallie W ilson and Aly Pourfarrokh of American Ballet Theater, there was the May 13 concert by the Senior Choir, directed by Donald Regier, and the Senior Orchestra, conducted by Louis Cheslock. Additionally, the Choir during May appeared in concerts at Morgan State Teachers College, the University of Delaware, and for the Organist's Guild. "Prep" faculty recitals during the same period were given by Walter Schurr, pianist; Emilio del Rosario and Phyllis Hays, also pianists; duo recital by Bonnie Lake, flutist, and pianist J ulio Esteban ; sonata recital by Celia Sucgang, violinist, with Reynaldo Reyes, pianist; and a program featuring H ugh O'Meagher, harpsi­ chord, Bonnie Lake, fl ute, Wallace Toroni, cello, and Stanley Petrulis. bassoon. 11 THE MOST CRUEL FACT By Irvin g Lowens

Mr. Lowens is Mlltsic e rit'!:c for The Sunday Star p'ltblished in our nation's capitol, for 'which paper he originally wrote this article. Though he refers to a situat-ion that worries him, in Washington, it would be fotly to suppose that the sam·e state of affairs does not prevail thro1tg!tont America. Both M 'y. Lowens and his publisher have grallted permission for the reprinting of his article here.

Two exceptionally gifted young A merican pianists have been heard here in Washington in wonderful recitals within the last two weeks. Cliburn's Constitution Hall concert was com­ pletely sold out. And every available listening place in the Phillips Gallery was occupied when Theodore Lettvin played there. But let us suppose it was Lettvin who was going to be heard in Constitution Hall. How many tickets would have been sold? We all know the embarrassing answer-vir­ tually none. Unfortunately, the reason for this dis­ heartening truth is all too plain. The average American music lover does not go to a con­ cert or a recital to hear music-he goes to see a virtuoso, to participate in a social event, to be in on a thrill. The average listener depends on someone else to tell him what is good. The same point was neatly made in a clever radio program recently aired. Six Rachmaninoff preludes were broadcast as recorded by two pianists. One recording artist was Sviatoslav Richter; the other was Stewart Gordon. Neither was identified in the broadcast. No one has to be told \~ho Richter is- the marvelous Soviet pianist sold out Constitution Hall twice this season. But Stewart Gordon is only a young man at the beginning of his career. Now teaching at the University of Maryland, he did not draw 100 people to the recital he gave on the campus a few months ago. It so happens that Gordon records for Washington Records, and the enter­ prising Robert Bialek, who runs the label, has a great deal of faith in the pianist's art and in his fu!ure. Hence, the broadcast. Listeners were not asked to identify who was who­ they were merely asked to write in telling whether they enjoyed pianist A or pianist B more. Force the li stener to concentrate on the sound of the music alone by artificially removing the glamour of the artist's name, and surprising things happen. The experience, to me, was astonishingly educational, and the conclusion that there really was not much difference between Richter and Gordon was inescapable. And I appreciate the wisdom of the sponsor in not asking the hearer to distinguish between the two because this is unimportant, when you get right down to brass tacks. vVhat is important is that both artists are worth hearing. 12 Throughout the land, observers see increased American interest in the arts, and point with pride at the veritable epidemic of plans for "cultural centers" as its symbol. But our vaunted growth in musical culture is tragically superficial. Things of the spirit are too much controlled and shaped by the demands of commerce. Economics, not art, calls the tune. Ours is too much of a huckster culture in music. Whether from lack of confidence in its own judgment, some basic inferiority complex, the tyranny of fashion, or sheer immaturity, the American public demands (through the ·concert impresario) only "the best." It is too bad that "the best" means merely "the best known." Lesser known artists, regardless of merit, are free to try to win a contest resulting in an embrace of that paragon of music critics, Nikita Khrushchev. The cruel fact is that we will pay to hear only a few dozen virtuosi of international fame. When one per cent of the population of a city such as Washington eagerly pays out cold cash to hear a Lettvin, a Gordon, a Browning, a Frank, a Frager, a Luvisi, a Davis, a Kuerti, a Fleisher, a Janis, a Lipkin, or a Graffman (to name only a few pianists among the hundreds of brilliant young American instrumentalists who are now struggling along in this country as best they may), I will joyfully concede that we have something about which to boast. And when that same one per cent pays to hear these musicians because of the music they are playing and not because they are wonderfully wrought music-performing machines, we will have achieved Utopia. But until then, the most cruel fact is that music means all too little to us as a nation.

JULIUS M . STARK & CO.

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Reginald Stewart followed his appearance as guest conductor of the Balti­ more Symphony Orchestra this season with a concert from Toronto for which he lead the C.B.C. Symphony Orchestra in a Beethoven-Stravinsky program. T he former Director of the Conservatory will in J uly conduct a Summer School of Music on the campus of Appleby College at Oakville, Ontario, his faculty including Eric Rollinson and Gordon Hallett. 13 FACULTY FOLIO HUGH THOMPSON (SEE COVER) included among his recent concert and operatic appearances a performance of the Berlioz L'Enfance dn Christ in N ew York with the Little Orchestra Society, Thomas Scherman conduct­ ing. The baritone was most warmly praised by the press, most vociferously applauded by the public. The second of this season's productions by the Peabody Art Theater-Bizet's Les Pechenrs de Perles-found Mr. Thompson in the role of Zurga, in which role he appears 0 11 the cover of this issue of the NOTES . In May, the artist sang the Lawyer in The Little Magic Fife and the Senechal in The Jstand Tuiipalan, two-thirds of the Offenbach triple bill presented by the Art Theater with Salvatore Baccaloni, basso-buffo of the Metropolitan, as stage director. Baccaloni, Thompson's colleague for a number of years at the Met, also sang the role of Cacatois in Tulipalan. ROBERT GERLE played the Brahms violin concerto in January with the Madison, N. J., Symphony Orchestra, and in March with the Princeton, N. J., Orchestra, Harsanyi conducting both. Gerle, now under Eastman Boomer Management, plays a Wigmore Hall recital in London June 15 during the course of a European tour which will also see him appearing with ALBERT FULLER at Gian-Carlo Menotti's Festival of Two W orlds in Spoleto. In October, the violinist and harpsichordist will record, for DECCA, the six Bach sonatas played during the course of their three T own Hall recitals last March in N ew York. ROBERT HALL LEWIS won a $1,000 top prize for his composItion, Prelude and Finale For Small Orchestra, in the nation-wide competition sponsored by Lado, Inc., of New York in cooperation with the National Association of American Composers and Conductors. The award was announced in April. DANIEL ERICOURT returned to these shores in mid-February following an extremely successful five-week E uropean tour which took him to Spain, Holland, Scandinavia" and England. In the latter country he played his first W igmore Hall recital. In March he appeared again at Town Hall, playing the same program ( Debussy's twenty-four Preludes) he offered at the Con­ servatory April 4. The pianist is presently recording the same preludes for early fall release on the KAPP label.

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14 SIDNEY FORREST, who will again teach at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Mich., this summer, has been engaged to conduct a clarinet clinic at Ann Arbor for the American Band Masters Association in July. He wi ll conduct another clinic for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Asso­ ciation in Harrisburg in November. At Mr. Forrest's invitation, a similar clinic was conducted at Peabody in April by the renowned clarinetist, Reginald Kel!. WILLIAM SEBASTIAN HART, founder and music director of the Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra, inaugurated a series of youth concerts with that ensemble this season, appearances scheduled for Gettysburg, Hanover, Pa., and Frederick, Md. Other concerts were given recently at Morgan State College and Calvert Hall College, with the conductor also appearing as lecturer and guest conductor, on February 4 and 5, with the Mississippi Southern Civic Symphony. LEON FLEISHER, in recent wide-ranging activities as soloist with orches­ tra and in recital, was heard in the Beethoven second piano concerto with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in Washington's Constitution Hall, March 25. He has been soloist with Maestro Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra more often than any other pianist.

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LOUIS CHESLOCK, a close friend of the late H. L. Mencken, has com­ pleted proofl'eading the manuscript of a new book, H. L. MENCKEN ON MUSIC, which will be published on September 12, the writer's birthday, by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., of New York. Mr. Cheslock undertook much research preparatory to the writing of this book, going back to the turn of the century to cover all phases of Mencken's life that relate to music. Central and South America will be hearing from Mr. Cheslock in the months to come as a composer of music, as well. Eisabelita Carrasquillo will include his S,onatina in spring piano recitals in Puerto Rico, and his suite for two pianos, Set of Six, will receive hearings in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil in recitals by Claudio and Sue Vasquez. On May 13, Mr. Cheslock appeared in his regular role as conductor of the Senior Orchestra of the Preparatory Depart­ ment at its annual spring concert. ALICE GERSTL DUSCHAK, assisted by harpist Jeanne Chalifoux, was presented in a recital at the Alexandria, Virginia YWCA in March, the soprano's program including compositions by Mozart, Schubert, Faure, Rey­ naldo Hahn and others. ROMAN TOTENBERG, who taught at the Conservatory during the 1943-44 season, will join the faculty again with the start of the 1962 school year in October. A recent photographic study of the distinguished violinist appears on the next page. 15 MUSICAL QUiZ-ANSWERS- SEE PAGE 10 I. a) John Alden Ca'ypenter VI. a) Pagliacci b) Deems Taylor b) Samson & Delilah c) Das Rhinegold II. a) Rite of Spring b) Spring Song VII. a) Robert Russell Bennett c) Rustle of Spring b) Daniel Gregory Mason d) Spring Symphony c) Aaron Copland e) Spring Sonata d) Morton Gould

VIII. a) Imprisoned on a British III. a) Cello ship b) Violin b) March 3, 1931 (within 3 c) Double years) d) Piano and organ e) Cello IX. a) James Ryder Randall b) Baltimore IV. a) Carl Von Weber c) No, in New Orleans b) Arthur Sullivan d) 1861 c) Charles Griffs e) Der Tannenbaum d) Robert Schumann e) Franz Schubert X. a) Cole Porter b) Irving Berlin V. a) Samson c) George Gershwin b) John the Baptist d) Richard Rodgers c) Lucia e) Jerome Kern 16 Subscribe Now

1961 - THE CANDLELIGHT CONCERTS - 1962

For The Tenth Season of Concerts

The Peabody Presents

October 17-Jorge Bolet, pianist

November 14-Szymon Goldberg, violinist, and Netherlands Chamber Orchestra

December 5- lndrani- lndian Dancers

January 23-1 Musici

February 13-The Paganini Quartet

March 17-New York Pro Musica

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