Longer & Better

Tristan the Hero, wounded by Traitor Melot's sword thrust, was dying one night last week on the stage of the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth, Germany. As Kurvenal, his faithful manservant, stood by him, Tristan sang feverishly, sometimes shouting, sometimes sinking into exhausted murmurs. Patiently the audience attended his efforts. But a larger audience, more excited, spread all over the world, listened to Tristan und Isolde through loudspeakers. It was a tradition-breaking radio broadcast: first one to come from Bayreuth. To insure its excellence, all other broadcasting in Germany had been hushed. The Reichs Rundfunk Gesellschaft sent it out to all of Europe on a short wave; British Broadcasting Co. relayed the third act to National Broadcasting Co. for its U.S. hookup.

For 40 minutes, while Tristan raved, U.S. listeners waited. From their radios came substitute music. Atmospheric conditions were not yet right. Then, amid buzzings and squawkings, came Tristan's voice and the shepherd's pipings which tell him that Isolde's ship is in sight. Although the orchestra (under Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler) was less clear than the singers, reception improved during the last 20 minutes. Best voice was that of Basso Josef Manowarda (King Mark). Others: Tenor Gotthelf Pistor (Tristan), Soprano Nanny Larsen-Todsen (Isolde), Baritone Rudolph Bockelmann (Kurvenal ).

NBC's Tristan bit was followed three days later by an hour-and-a quarter program from the Mozart Festival at Salzburg, Austria: the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Conductor Bruno Walter (who will conduct Manhattan's Philharmonic-Symphony next winter) in an all-Mozart program; and part of a promenade concert at Queen's Hall, London, under Conductor Sir Henry Joseph Wood. Clearer than NBC's first program, this one was not relayed but picked up by short-wave and re-transmitted. Symphonic-minded radiauditors were pleased. Heretofore radio policy had been to keep programs short: 15 or 30 minutes. Now competition between NBC and the Columbia system was making things look up.

First to change its mind had been Columbia. Recently it announced a series of six concerts during the winter by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Conductor Leopold Stokowski: one hour and three-quarters each. Then, last month, it put on the air the first international festival rebroadcast. From the Festspielhaus at Salzburg, with some degree of success, came the first act of Rossini's Barber of Seville* This month CBS scheduled a one-hour performance of Mozart's mighty Requiem from the Salzburg Cathedral. After half an hour of howling and squawking (thunderstorms) it was taken from the air. NBC got the idea, planned a coup with its Bayreuth broadcast.

* Reason for including it in a Mozart Festival: its libretto, like that of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, is based on one of the pair of comedies by Pierre Aupustin Car de Beaumarchais.

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