The Brussels All-Stars

Other American offerings at the Brussels World's Fair may stir assorted snorts, crank complaints and real misgivings, but U.S. musical fare is a solid hit. Against such exotic competition as the Peking Opera, Congoese Dancers and the Bolshoi Ballet, the U.S. gets top marks for a first-rate music and dance program on a shoestring budget. "The Americans," wrote De Standaard, "are producing musical activity that can truly be called unique."

Last week crowds thronged to hear the student orchestra of Manhattan's Juilliard School of Music play its first concert in the fair's Grand Auditorium, responded with such applause that Conductor Jean Morel had to come back and lead two encores from Stravinsky's Firebird. And the main fairgrounds competition the Juilliard musicians had to buck came from another U.S. group: Jerome Robbins' "Ballets: U.S.A." troupe, which at the same hour was packing the U.S. Pavilion Theater by presenting such gustily American dance pieces as The Concert and New York Export: Opus Jazz.

Other attractions on the U.S. Performing Arts program: the New York City Center Light Opera Company's Carousel and Wonderful Town (wrote Ghent's Het Volk: "An absolute revelation!"), and the New York City Opera's Susannah by Carlisle Floyd. Crowds also jammed the Grand Auditorium to hear Violinist Isaac Stern play three times with the Philadelphia Orchestra, turned out again when the Philadelphians and Pianist Van Cliburn played the piece that catapulted him to fame--Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Some of the finest solo talents in the U.S. turned up for one-night stands: Singers George London, Blanche Thebom, Leontyne Price, Robert McFerrin, Pianist Byron Janis, Violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Still to come are Pianist Leon Fleisher, Harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick, Singers William Warfield, Eleanor Steber, Harry Belafonte. The world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Maria Golovin will take place in Brussels, and some performers from the Newport Jazz Festival will appear. The most cherished scheme of U.S. Performing Arts Coordinator Jean Dalrymple: to find a well-heeled angel who will underwrite a live run of Pajama Game.

The program, which would cost millions to reproduce in the U.S., runs on a mere $500,000, chiefly because many artists agreed to work for the Equity minimum, or came at their own expense. Coordinator Dalrymple still has a number of dates open. But however she fills them, her program has already made a lasting impression on bedazzled Europeans.

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