Mix Master

Until his early 20s, Andre Kostelanetz never allowed a Tin Pan Alley tune to get into his rigidly classical musical diet. Born in St. Petersburg 49 years ago, he studied piano at the conservatory, became an assistant conductor at the Mariinsky Theater before he was 20. But during the civil strife of the early '20s, Kostelanetz grew restless, set out for the U.S.

On the way, he stopped off in a Warsaw record shop, got an earful of U.S. popular songs of the day. Kostelanetz has forgotten what the tunes were, but he remembers that he was bowled over by their "dynamism and melody." Since then, he has been convinced that "popular music is good music," that composers like "Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers and Berlin can and should be treated as seriously as Beethoven or Brahms."

Electronic Tricks. In the U.S., Kostelanetz earned his living for a while as voice coach and accompanist. Then he got a radio job that allowed him to put his pop music convictions into practice. Experimenting with a studio orchestra, he concocted what he calls "middle music," played programs mixing dehydrated classics ("I think it should be permissible to cut those great works down to the purely melodic passages") and expertly inflated popular selections. Working on the brisk premise that the lengthy development of themes found in the classics "is intended for musicians and confuses a lot of other people," Kostelanetz was able to hack Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture from its usual running time of 16 minutes to less than five.

Kostelanetz' easy-to-take versions of classics and pop tunes soon made him as much of a habit with a section of the U.S. public as Coca-Cola, cigarettes and convertible coupes. To catch his listeners' jaded ears, he mixed the flashiest symphonic devices of conservatory and concert hall with new electronic tricks picked up from radio engineers. With the help of a battery of microphones turned up or down for the proper blend ("We couldn't do it without the microphone"), Kostelanetz' music took on "sounds and sonorities that didn't exist before."

"I Am Fortunate." Kostelanetz' masterly mixing of melody and schmalz is still paying off. Columbia Records, celebrating his tenth anniversary as their biggest and bestselling Masterworks artist, announced last month that the U.S. public has bought more than 20 million Kostelanetz_ records in the past decade. On Columbia lists he stands first, with more than 50 classical and popular albums catalogued under his name.

Last week, bald, stocky Maestro Kostelanetz and wife, Met Coloratura Lily Pons, were returning to the U.S. from a European vacation. With guest-conducting, a full fall recording schedule and an estimated $100,000 annual royalties to look forward to, the mix master felt well content. "I am fortunate," he said, "to have lived at a time when radio and records have made it possible for more people to hear more music than has been heard since the beginning of time."

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