The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-02-12
Conductors and Non Conductors

WN ' THIN the past few weeks
 wv prior to the ~Midwinter
 VV Festival of Music presented by the "Ail-Star Concerts" when the Minneapolis Symphony orchestra will be heard today in matinee and eve ming programme under the baton ot MT. Emil Oberhoffer I have been re- necting good deal upon the different kinds of conductors"
 There are just plain electrical con ductors. non-conductors, motor conduc 4 tors, Pullman conductors, Cooks tour conductors, prima donna conductors, John Philip Sousa and MT. Emil Ober : hoffer.
 The last two must be mentioned separately because they are unlike all the others, who are now figuring so prominently on the musical horizon
 for~we have with us this 'evening MT. Arturo Toscanini, MT. William Mengel-, berg, MT. Stokovski Mir. Albert Coates Mir Bodanzky, MT. Walter Damrosch, Mr. Monteux and others.
 I shall not make an attempt at classifying these, so pay your money and take your choice, but, en passant, will remark that Mir. Damrosch may be qualified as "Cook's s Tourist Con- ductor," because he takes personal charge. of the audience and explains
 everything as he goes along.
 As for the mon conductors" we'll
 again I sAy-select them for your
 self
 One thing I may say as "prelude' to my "Fuge" on the subject of the eminent MT. Oberhoffer, whose schol- arly and graceful baton will wave over America's greatest orchestra here to- day and that is,s that he is a Light ming Conductor."
 His baton sends forth rays of bril- liant light, magnetic waves, cracklil g sparks and irristible glavanica cur rents.
 He is par excellence. the ssyirtuoso,' of conductors, true magician, waving the transforming wand that turns sym phonic scores into musical magic. Mir. Oberhoffer has the mind of a master musician; his temperament is overwhelming, but it is controlled from the cerebral centers; his passion, sis that of the intellect; his color sense is irridescent and his technical striv- ing is for flawless perfection and with these marvellous attributes he fairly raises "the tonal deuce" eff you'll ex- cuse me while I "coin" this phrase) with his scores of men who play un, der his magic direction, as ia single man.
 Take MT. Oberhoffer's reading of the great Beethoven Fifth symphony co minor, Opus 67) which he will use as his initial number on the evening programme at the Jefferson this eve | ming, and you will hear a musical treat of the richest order, and the premier number of the matinee" pro- gramme, the "Overture' to "Oberon'' l (Weber), and you, will observe such lights and shades employed, such in- spring 'verve' and rhythmic push that even the most cynical critic can not fail to cry Bravo" in his sur prised emotional participation in the beautiful interpretation.
 l Mr. Oberhoffer's conducting makes one think of a sort of musical story telling hour" for as you sit beneath 1 his magic wand and hear the glitter | ing, shimmering, gorgeous strains oi that perfectly picked" orchestra-you will realize that here is a mosaic.
 gathered together and interpreted from the designs of Beethoven, Dvorak
 Tschaikowsky' Rimsy, Korsakov Bruch, Silelius, Chabrier. l No orchestral symphony Is in tho same class with the great Beethoven Fifth" and one of the worlds mos, renowned critics has declared that il he had the writing of an "All-Bee- thoven symphony he would choose the "firstn and second" movements of the Fifth" the third movement of the Third" and the last movement oi the seventh" thus giving the pref
 erence to the immortal Fifth" by
 choosing two movements" from it ant only one from the others.
 l Critics and laymen alike bow in homage to Mir. Oberhoffer, and his great Minneapolis Symphony orchestra and Birmingham awaits with eager
 ness the two beautiful programmes te
 be presented here today.