"Nice Program"

Arturo Toscanini was feeling fighting-fit after his vacation in Italy. Pink and rested on his arrival three weeks ago, he had even been persuaded to pose for photographers (who had promised not to use flashbulbs). He also arrived ready to carry out a promise made in Italy. Answering the request of his old friend (and NBC's general music director) Samuel Chotzinoff, he had cabled: "Accept Ridgefield. Make nice program." Last week, for the second time in two years, the maestro made a "nice program" for his favorite little U.S. town, and had the time of his life doing it.

He had drilled the 53 musicians from his NBC Symphony through two renearsals just as demandingly as if they were to play for royalty. Said one: "There's just something about Toscanini; he makes us sound better."

Then, in the tiny (550 seats) auditorium of the Ridgefield, Conn, high school, he led his orchestra, proud, gay and beaming, through a typical "pop" concert program that his concert and radio audiences seldom hear him play. While kids and grown-ups sat enthralled, he gave them Saint-Saens' bone-rattling Danse Macabre; he made Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony glow with Italian sunlight, Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun shimmer sensually. By the time he had sailed through one of his own light favorites, Waldteufel's Skaters' Waltz, the audience could not let him go without more. Even though he despises encores, he gave Ridgefield a rousing Stars and Stripes Forever.

Said he when it was ended: "I'm not tired at all. Let's do it all over again." Ridgefield (pop. 1,500) would be happy if he did. His first benefit concert there two years ago had earned a neat $9,000 for the Ridgefield Library and Historical Association. Last week, with seats selling as high as $50, he raised $15,500 for the library and Ridgefield Boys' Club. . . . . Two other far-famed conductors also made notable first appearances of the season last week.

In Boston's Symphony Hall, Bostonians greeted silver-haired Alsatian Charles Muench, their first new permanent conductor since Serge Koussevitzky took over 25 years ago. Le Beau Charles had tactfully chosen for his debut the identical program of Weber, Schubert, Handel and Beethoven that inaugurated Symphony Hall 50 years ago. Boston ate it up. Said one 20-season ticket holder: "I didn't expect to enjoy him so much. His shading is so delicate." Said the musicians: ". . .

The last word . . . superb musician . . . we're all very happy." Said new Conductor Muench himself in tentative English: the orchestra was "good," the enthusiasm from the audience "difficile" to explain.

With the Chicago Symphony, Conductor Victor de Sabata bowled over an ecstatic opening-night audience -- and the critics -- just as he had in Pittsburgh last year (TIME, Nov. 22). Said the Sun-Times's Felix Borowski: "By all odds . . . the most fiery of any of the conductors who have appeared here in recent years."

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