Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-01-01

certainly one of the greatest who has
ever led an orchestra. Mr.. Nikisch was
asked by n student OF conducting for the
secret Of leading an orchestra in the
manner in which he did Il. He replied:
We'll, you Just take the baton. get on
the conductors stand and wave II. II
you can, you can and II you can't, you
can't That is all there Is TO conduct
ing."~
Mr.. Nikisch's recipe for conducting,
like the simplicity Of some of the great
est of the Beethoven, Bach or Mozart
compositions, sounds very easy, but Il
does not seem TO work out In Its prac,,
tical application. If il did, the world
Nikischcs, whereas the allotment UP 10
date has been about two to the century.
But there is some element OF truth N
tho statement, and that is that the real
secret OF great conducting, like great
Interpretation. is born in person. No
amount Of study would enable lesser
artist than Fritz Krelsler to play the
Beethoven and Brahms violin concertos
in tho manner that kreisler does. II IL
would, here again, as In the former
cases, there would be many Kreislers
instead of only one.
DUT each great musician seems 20
ID have one metier in which he particu-
larly excels and which, as n matter of
perhaps that Is why he eXcels IN IL.
There Is. for example. no reason to be-
licve that Mr. Kreisler would be as great
as a conductor as he IS as q viollnst,
although his Unborn and unfailing arts
try would probably place him far above
the average conductor. But TO take the
pace rs q conductor which he occupies
as "A vtoinist he would have to Do the
best one living, and that iS quite an
order with Nikisch, Toscanint. Vein
GARNER and some others still active
waving potent hatons.
one reason why orchestral players,
even those OF the most talented as gem
eral musicians. entirely outside of their
special instrument, rarely reach the plat
form Of the conductor IS tho lack OF In
tcrcst which they usually feel In the or
chcstral instruments outside of their
own.
II Is true that the string players gen
orally have some knowledge Of the other
strirgrd Instruments of th" orchestra as
to range and some feeling as to tone
quality in the various registers. but this
knowledge does not often extend TO the
other instruments. The wood wind play
erS usually know tho other reed instru-
ments pretty we'll, but are not greatly
Interested on the strings or the brass:
In other words, they are more Interested
in their own instruments than IN the
music as Il whoie, and this Is perfectly
proper, as II makes them invaluable as
performers, and q man must be more
than n good" player nowadays 10 hold
a position in n great orchestra.
DUT lack of opportunity is probably
ID an even more potent cause. II can
not be denied that Mr. Stock for all
his ability, had some good fortune in
securing the backing of Mr., Thomas as
his successor one never knows what
man can do until he gets chance. and
that chance rarely comes the way OF the
orchestral player
There has been a good bit OF talk in
the last few years MS to tho reason why
the conductorship Of the great American
orChcstraS was always given to some
American conductor rarely gets n
chance" and this Is true In two senses
He rarely gets n chance to conduct but
Of equal importance IS tho fact that he
still moro rarely gets chance to learn
how. When conducting is taught in this
country as one Of the great branches OF
musical art, as 1t is taught in Europe.
the chances to get one of the large or
chestras will be immeasurably improved
for the American with baton welding
propensiteG.,
II is true that he can probably obtain
instruction privately here, but where
IS he TO get the most important thing,
the actual practice? No one who mas
followed tho course and progress of
music in this country for the last quarter
OF a century can doubt the musical ca
pabiliticS of the American people, both
as whole and in individual cases but
until the American people take the fine
work worthy of the best efforts OF a
man there Is not n cheerful outlook for
either the American composer or con-
duCtor.