Orchestral Prima Donnas

It takes at least 70 musicians to make a symphony orchestra, and they must be as carefully fitted as the parts of a machine. A symphony orchestra in good running order has from 28 to 34 violinists, from twelve to 14 viola players, from ten to twelve cellists, from eight to twelve contrabassists., It must have one piccolo player, two flutists, two oboists, an English-horn player, two clarinetists, a bass clarinetist, two bassoonists, a contrabassoonist, four or five horn players, three trumpeters, three trombonists, a tuba player, a kettledrummer, and a harpist. Each of these musical specialists is indispensable to the proper functioning of the mechanism. A symphony orchestra without a kettledrummer, for instance, is about as helpless as a car without a carburetor.

Just as baseball managers try to outbid one another for fine pitchers and hitters, so orchestral managers try to outbid one another for champion piccolo players and contrabassoonists. The violin and the cello are commonly placed among the noblest of musical instruments, but good violinists and cellists bring only a fair figure (average salary: about $80 a week). Most strenuous bidding frequently takes place over first-class oboists and horn players. Fiddlers are the symphonic world's plentiful proletariat. But fine horn players are rarer than fine conductors, and often make a bigger difference to the sound of an orchestra.

Last year, NBC's orchestral scouts, seeking talent to build the 94-man NBC Symphony, snooped around the concert halls of several U. S. cities, succeeded in luring key men from the Detroit Symphony and other Midwest orchestras. Symphonic managers all over the U. S. shivered in their boots, fearing that NBC's juicy contracts might tempt their most prized performers. Manager Alfred Reginald Allen of the famed Philadelphia Orchestra tried to placate the NBC menace by offering the loan of his players ''at any time," including his two world-famous instrumentalists--suave Oboist Marcel Tabuteau and courtly, grey-haired Flutist William Kincaid.

For the time being NBC only sniffed, did not bite. But last week Philadelphia newshawks revealed that Manager Allen had caught at least three Philadelphia Orchestra men in the act of reaching for XBC contracts. A six-months-notice clause in their contracts (upheld by American Federation of Musicians' President Joseph N. Weber at a special Manhattan conference) foiled Trombonist Charles Gusikoff and Contrabassist Anton Torello. But prized Horn Player Arthur I. Berv got loose, signed up with NBC. Oboist Tabuteau and Flutist Kincaid, whose Philadelphia salaries are rumored to be in the neighborhood of $300 per week, would not say whether they had been tempted, indicated they would stay where they are.

U. S. orchestras are internationally conceded to be the world's best., Best of the world's best are the 57-year-old Boston

Symphony, the 96-year-old New York Philharmonic-Symphony, the 38-year-old Philadelphia Orchestra and the five-months-old NBC Symphony. Connoisseurs rate at the top Boston strings, Philadelphia wood winds (flutes, oboes, etc.), Manhattan brasses (horns, trumpets, etc.). The NBC Symphony, which now takes second place only to Boston in strings, is still trailing Philadelphia and the New York Philharmonic in brasses and wood winds. With NBC again hungrily on the hunt for lip & lung virtuosos, symphonic boards of directors are lashing down those they still possess, hoping the ropes will hold.

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