Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-03
THE CRITIC TALKS
TO MUSIC LOVERS
Weekly Comment on Things
Musical in Discriminating
Philadelphia
rTHE appointment of Pierre Monteux,
Il ,...i,,a,o, ,,f lsrnprh npora al thn

surprise. Indeed " was more OF VI sur
prise that he did not get 1t this season,
instead of Mr.. Rabaud, inasmuch as
the Metropolitan Opera Company has
ht all times been willing to release Mr..
Nontcux from his contract. which, by
the way. has still year to run. in case
tho Boston Orchestra really wanted him
and he was willing to go.
BY one of those strange happenings
so frequent in musical circles, in this
country especially. Mr.. Rabaud. who
has for years been a distinguished con
ductor of opera and has done orchestral
and symphonic conducting only Incl
dentally. was called to one Of the great
est of American orchestras. By the
same token. Mr.. Montcux, who, among
other things. frequently conducted the
Colonne Orchestra in Paris and who
maintained his own symphony orches-
tra in the French capital, only con-
ducting opera occasionally, and never
making it speciality, was summoned
to the conductorship of our greatest
opera company. One would naturally
have thought that Mr.. Monteux would
have gone to Boston and Mr.. Rabaud to
New York, although probably the sal
ary paid in Boston had something to
do with the final decision.
MIR. RABAUD'S chief reason for not
lV1 remaining in Boston is said to be
that he desires to devote himself almost
exclusively to composition. But there is
no denying the fact that the Boston
season has not been brilliant one,
either from the standpoint Of popular
&C ,t Thn nf pOnrprtq
given In Philadelphia this season are
positive proof of this, for although there
were only five of them, they came at
such widely distributed points Of the
season that the progress or rather retro
gression of the orchestra could be plain
ly seen.
As the early concert, which was
conducted by Mr.. Monteux, who had
been lent by the Metropolitan to lead
until Mr.. Rabaud should have arrived
in the United States, nothing could be
reasonably expected. The Boston Or
chestra was then for the first time in
its existence playing under or rather
being trained by a French conductor.
Despite the mixed nationalitics of its
personnel, it had been stepped in the
traditions of Gcricke. Nikisch, Paur,
Fielder and Muck. These were not to
be overthrown in a moment and, in fact,
10 an outsider it seemed as though they
had not been seriously impaired, al
though somewhat shaken, by the entire
reason.
There was also a new concertmeister
who had not had the orchestral train
ing of some of his predecessors, and, all
in ALL things were not in very homo
gencous state when Mr.. Monteux ar
rived to take over the organization.
Nevertheless his concert here was one
of the hest of the series and showed
that he had some definite plans for the
handling of the orchestra.
VERY much the best concert of the
Y series. however, was the one in De-
cember. which was the first time that
Mr.. Rubaud appeared in this city as a
conductor. The orchestra at this con-
cert showed mental state entirely diff
ferent from that which it had shown
since the enforced retirement of Doctor
Muck, and at that time it looked as
though Mr.. Rabaud would be able to
get the organization in at least some
. tDlng ike ltS IOTIDeF sell.
The succeeding concerts, however,
dispelled this idea. There was very
apparent friction in the orchestra, which
played careessly and with lack of
discipline which would not have been
tolerated for a moment under the former
leaders. The writer at one of the later
concerts saw one of the violinists stop
playing for no apparent reason, lay
his violin in his lap and deliberately
talk to his seatmate for space of not
less than Il minute, before he resumed
playing. although the instruments of his
section were busy at the time. This was
only one of number of incidents which
occurred in the Philadelphia concerts,
which indicated something was seriously
wrong in the body. Imagine what would
have happened had such thing oc-
Cured under disciplinarinns like Mix
isch or Gericke.
HOWEVER, this is now all past, and
IL the interesting question is, What
will Mr.. MOnteuX do with the orches-
/, ira! To an impartial observer it seems
us though the change from Rabaud to
Monteux or. for that matter. to any
y French or Italian conductor is case
/. of from the frying pan into the fire, 1"
unless certain radical changes are
made. 1t had been said that there are
twenty three changes in the personnel
of the Boston Orchestra for next sea :
SON. and some of these may. make Mr..
Monteux's task considerably lighter.
As has been said, the traditions of
the Boston Orchestra are those of a
nMion other than that of the coming
and the retiring conductors 1t is no
sasy matter to make a change so radical
without affecting, to a very serious ex :
tent, the morale of the organization.
Come indication of what that means
las been given this year. The well :
,nown leopard and the equally we'll
/ ;nown Ethiopian would have far easi :
r. time changing their respective spots
lud skin than the average orchestral
,layer in changing the traditions under
which his organization has won success
n the past, and from which partia
hcauge has been shown to be unsHc!
eysful. Under any circumstances, the
uture Of the Boston Orchestra, in its
ouling season Is one of the most in
erestng situations in American music
TT is, of course, impossible to bring il
about, but there ought TO be a law
tgainst the collecting of fine instru
nents. especially violins. Many OF the
inest cremonas aud instruments o