The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-08-22

At Suvermlne. The nights were
 filled with music when the New
 York Philharmonic orchestra, die
 Yected by Eugene Ormandy and Jose
 1tlrbi. played their respective pro-
 grams Thursday, Friday, Saturday
 (morning) and Sunday nights dur ing the four-day Silvermine Music Festival Happily, weather conditions were excellent. Katydids were heard from the sidelines but did not tn- trude. Friday night the air was still, cool and there was no humidity to deaden the volume of the various choirs of the band, 50 the strings and woodwinds, brasses and tym- pani were an harmonious whole and recorded well in the night air. The orchestra shell took care of the sound effects and the white-coated men went at 1t.
 Jose Iturbi, who conducted the Friday night concert. stepped for ward promptly at fifteen minutes before o'clock and there followed a two hour program from Mendel- ssohn to Ravel with an appreciable tntermission when the audience strolled out and piano was quickly and easily launched at the right end of stage looking from au- dience to stage.
 Trumpets sounded the return call, the audience quietly sauntered back and Iturbi was seen on piano bench with both hands raised for the opening bars of Gershwin's "Rhap- sody in Blue," in which he not only directed but played the piano solo portions. It was something of pro- cedure; the artist busy with his piano technique and then raising both hands or one high or when both hands were busy marking the rhy- thm and tempo with his head. Bra- vas filled the air at the conclusion of the Gershwin rhapsody and in
 less than five minutes 1turbi was
 back at center stage and the open ing measures of Ravels "Bolero"
 were coming delicately and meas ured. The Revel composition with its
 repetitious theme was the finale on
 the program and was done with pre- cision, gradually working from the piano to forte and grand climax with full volume of all instruments. Here too, Itrubi led his men expert ly and theatrically.
 The first half of the program gave us the Ruy Bias Overture by Men, delssohn, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and two Sibelius offer ings, the first with English horn solo by Michael Nazzi was "The Swan of Tuonela", and the second Fin landia". Thus the Friday night con- cert which, happily, had perfect weather conditions. The audience would have liked something more on ths piano but MT. Itrubi kept to the letter of the program.
 The vast open space where the shell was erected for the Silvermine Festival was naturally bordered with trees; the huge section for the au- dience having likewise natural cov- ering of sky, which Friday night was dotted with millions of stars, only plotted out when the huge food lights were on between numbers Here with thousands of persons gathered and cars parked for miles | along neighboring roads there was no sound during the playing except | the steady but not disturbing chirp of the katydids; they, like the stars, the people and the cars, were in large numbers. On the lovely grounds were art buildings which l one might visit; and the little town itself is like picture or story book town; narrow streets to be sure, but their attractive houses pre- sented delightful picture, most of them white fence boardered, all | lighted from stem to stern these past few nights, and lovely old in- teriors presenting themselves as one rode or walked by. The old Silver mine Tavern was bustling with life, and perhaps no house in the town or surrounding lovely country was not without its quota of guests for the four day festival. To be sure those attending had to walk consid- erable distance to get back to their cars but all seemed to take it for granted that parking would be diff1- cult. Silvermine highways and by- ways. banks and braes were pretty much trampled, but it was Silver mines week and cleanup week can easily follow festival week. Now Silvermine events were all on a par as to the merits of the several programs. As was announced Friday night, Sunday nights concert was perhaps the longest, so 1t began fif- teen minutes earlier than the pre- viouS evening concerts. The Thurs day night concert when Eugene Or mandy conducted as he did Sunday night had, likewise, good weather conditions, perhaps a little more favorable Sunday than Thursday, but taken as a whole, it would be