Cleveland Rebuked

Cleveland spends high praise on its ten-year-old orchestra, on Conductor Nikolai Sokoloff who has been with the orchestra since its birth. Con- ductor Sokoloff evidently does not hold the Cleveland musical public in the same high regard. Often he is vexed by it--for coming late, for coughing, for leaving early. Last week he rebuked it publicly for general lack of interest. A chorus of 30 Glenville High School girls had assisted in a concert, just finished Debussy's Blessed Damosel and taken their applause when Conductor Sokoloff stepped up. Said he: "If this were a baseball or basketball game, or other physical exhibition, we would have turned thousands away. But here we have a group of children doing a serious work marvelously and our auditorium is less than half filled. . . . I want you to tell all your friends that I consider it a shame that Cleveland hasn't filled this auditorium for this occasion!"