Rhapsody v. Concerto

Proudly in the front rank of contemporary composers stands Bela Bartok, Hungarian. Symphonophiles the world over know him for a revolutionist, remember his music for its brutality, its stark rhythms. Last week he made his U. S. debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra--and a great audience was surprised.* They had expected a bulky, grim-jawed man with personality to match. Instead they saw a frail little person scoot shyly around the orchestra's first-string men and bow his way almost meekly to the piano set out for him. They had expected to hear him play a new concerto which had disturbed and pleased the International Festival for Contemporary Music last June in Frankfurt. But when Conductor Willem Mengelberg looked over the score, he pronounced it too difficult for just a week's rehearsing. Therefore, Bartok played his Rhapsody. The substitution was unfortunate. The Rhapsody is 24 years old now, the product of an immature genius. Bartok the Original began like all great composers as an imitator. First Brahms was his idol, then Liszt, then Wagner, then Richard Strauss by reason of his Zarathustra, then Liszt again. It seemed peculiarly ironic last week that the Rhapsody, fruit of the Liszt influence, should have been chosen as his introduction, for the mature Bartok has now turned his back on Liszt and his theatrics. Liszt claimed a native Hungarian music when he took gypsies' tunes and made them into rhapsodies. But gypsies were not Hungarians, Bartok held, their jiggings not the real musical stuff of his people. He went forth on a quest, spent two years among the Magyar peasants, listening and remembering. He found the real Hungarian folk-tunes akin to early ecclesiastic music, their rhythms more like Bach and Handel than like Liszt. He collected nearly 3,000 of them. He turned put a one-act opera, two ballet-pantomimes, seven orchestral scores, two string quartets, songs and some piano music. His last works are best.

Arrivals

Last week brought famed musicians to the U. S.

Conductor Bernardino Molinari of the Augusteo Orchestra, Rome, arrived (on the Conte Biancamano) in Manhattan where later in the season he will appear as guest conductor with the Philharmonic Orchestra. He stayed a day making arrangements with his manager, granting interviews, and set out for St. Louis to lead the city's symphony in fifteen concerts.

Igace Jan Paderewski arrived (on the Majestic) in Manhattan ready for a 50-concert tour, beginning at the New Rochelle (N. Y.) High School.

After a world-tour taking more than two years, Violinist Jascha Heifetz returned to Manhattan and made ready for a concert there. He played last in Mexico where audiences threw hats and gloves at him as at a favorite matador.

Chamber Orchestra

In Boston last week, 16 players taken from Koussevitzky's Symphony plus Pianist Clifford Kemp and Conductor Nicolas Slonimsky gave their debut concert at the Chamber Orchestra of Boston. The program compelled attention. Every note on it was new if not welcome to Boston. Critics found the whole too bulky for the inspiration behind it. The players were capable, so was Conductor Slonimsky but his readings were too often just skin deep. Kindest words were for Composer Heinrich Gebhard, Boston resident, whose Divertissement combined rare skill and imagination.

*Bela Bartok will appear as composer, pianist, in some instances as lecturer, in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland (Ore.), Denver, Kansas City, St. Paul, Chicago, Washington, Boston, Cincinnati.