Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-16
ORCHESTRA SEASON
HAS SIMPLE START
~, stokowski and the Players
= Row Before Oppressive
Heat.

oo,ld scarcely have been a less
Az chosen than yesterday for the
I,.g NJ the 18th season Of the Phila-
.r,-.,a orchestra. The dreadful soggi-
ss'p" - tho atmosphere and the immoral
~ ,,or october) sapped the vitality OF
- -. and audience alike. IL hady as
P'" :, opening days. peculiarly dis
ss,s,us eject on The violin strings
,.n experience with the orchestra
,,s moods make the reporter more
ehu tnduleent OF the haphazard ana
snotless playing OF the AcaueIny concert' 0.,,
ioou, apd again and invariably when
Aeaih Aeo, s is played. the orchestra has
bee."V Vv,retched work Friday afternoon
done .,,,rned to it's best self Saturday
ang Tbere is no reason to doubt that
,bev will repeat
so much is said in extenuation, II
Nnen n,.-a,rdlv he suspected that much was
MAJ, may Yesterday. That suspicion IS true
NIVns s,ynher was well-played throughout
Ohe HH'a,,delssohn music for "A Midsum-
tne N,eht's Dream" The "Rienzf' over
~. nv was moderately successful. Inc
ture ,nnrbers of the program were bad
great e,nLoysk does not redeem him
.o,ioht he ought to put the seventh
sen nSnnv of Beethoven on a separate
S.n,,, after rehearsing II 300 times as
q penance' ,,.....u,.. -,
l,.s,,o d,,ate musical circles concerning
Wy conditions under which this symphony
the rritten. The Dionysians said that
s.Aoven was drunk when he wrote IL,
ss pe aImost proved their point by the fact
az, every one goes drunk when they
ursr n The Apollonians insisted that he
s~as possessed by a sacred sobriety-the
phr,s,v Of those who do not need to get
.,, SUI, IN order to be happy. 1t was the
=, ~ nonaict between madness and sanity,
s.',,od ~ bv some who could not see that
t,,, is at once the rarest and most
.sr,Iling of human experiences.
vnsteTdav. in the loose and listless play
- - the orchestra and the weary and
sninspired leading of Mr.. Stokowski'
asr answer was given to these questions.
pssthoven, to Judge by that performance.
80 simply bored. A quintal or SO of
s.arrv little tunes hung like cobwebs In
h,s brain. In brushing them aside lie
msed an enormous amount of orchestral
energy. and produced nothing but the
s.arr, little tunes And all this time we
IA been thinking that Beethoven had
r,ritten in the seventh symphony the last
exhilarate tones of ecstacy.
Truth to tell, we think SO still and hold
Mr. stokowsk to strict account for DASH
inp the hopes of a happy day. 1t is not
hard to pick out the elements of this
mournful failure. The conductor him
self was careless in conception. This
symphony apart from the technique OF
remembering the notes in their proper
order can never be learned by heart, al
though the heart alone can learn it. 1t
must be recreated with each performance
Aftar all II is not one of Handers hum
dreds Mr. Stokowski's detail was obfus-
Gated by the playing of his men. but he
Is still to be held for the decentralization
Of spirit which obtained equally in the
major work and in the 'LeUnore" over
ture His points, when they were made.
we're too emphatic. Only in the broad
rustic humors of the finale did he express
with constraint.
G. " s.