Streamlined Music

A smart, brisk little practitioner of radio and cinema music is Andre (''Kosty") Kostelanetz, who once was assistant conductor in the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg, left his native land after the revolution to become U. S. accompanist to a number of second-string opera singers. For seven years, Kostelanetz has been a radio conductor, has had his name linked frequently with that of Soprano Lily Pons since he led the orchestra in her first two pictures (I Dream Too Much, That Girl From Paris). Commuting last year between Hollywood and Manhattan by airplane, "Kosty" flew 126,000 miles, earned from four appreciative airlines a silver mug and the title of No. 1 air traveler in the land (TIME, Feb. 1). An accomplished orchestrator, Conductor Kostelanetz was at the same time rated No. 1 in radio popularity. He specializes in lush, full-blown arrangements of popular and semiclassical numbers and this week on his radio half-hour for Chesterfield cigarets (WABC), he prepared to launch what his sponsors declare is a new musical style, presenting brief, "streamlined" versions of symphonic works.

This summer, said "Kosty'' last week, he discovered that "other leaders, men I respected, too, were playing popular music in such a complicated style it was hard to follow the melody at all. . . . We had reached a point where a lot of leaders were arranging their programs to impress other leaders. I decided I would not do that any more." In turning to reconsider symphonic music, it occurred to Kostelanetz that "sixty percent of a symphonic overture is development of the themes. That is intended for musicians and confuses a lot of other people. I think it should be permissible to cut those great works down to the purely melodic passages."

Tchaikovsky's sombre Romeo & Juliet Overture usually takes 16 min., or four or five sides of phonograph records, to present the strife between Montagues & Capulets, the love between their offspring, the appearance of Friar Laurence, the death of the lovers. By cutting whole pages of repetition and development, Conductor Kostelanetz will give casual listeners this week a pretty good idea what Tchaikovsky was driving at in only 285 sec. flat. Likewise the overture to The Barber of Seville will be reduced from 7 min. to 1 1/2 min. and the late George Gershwin's 16-min. American In Paris will be streamlined to 4 1/2 min. Baritone John Charles Thomas, first of 13 soloists on Kostelanetz' new series, will sing Home on the Range, a song from Apple Blossoms, Largo al Factotum from The Barber of Seville, as they were written. But next week Kostelanetz will excise large chunks from the Naila Waltz of Delibes, the Caprice Espagnol of Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pianist Jose Iturbi will whip through the finale of a Mozart sonata in 3 min. He will also play the piano part of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, minus only 4 min. of its 16-min. length.

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