Evening star., 1954-05-02
News Of Music

tras rs good as the NBC," said
Benaf Heifetz, first-desk cell.
ist. of the now diSbanded or
ganization, when he was in
town last week to play with the.
Budapest Quartet. "but in one
respect it was in my experience
unique. Nothing was ever
taken for granted in the NBC,
Each individual player was al
ways on the alert not only lit
orally to know what the score
was, but to know what every
note in the score was"
This may seem like rela-
lively commonplace remark
about an orchestra which was
universally granted to be one
of the best in the world. Alert
ness is not something for
which one often compliments
an orchestral player-only its
absence is serious. But Mr..
Heifetz continued:
tOther big orchestras have
their personnel pretty firmly
established. Every one knows
who will be sitting on either
side of him next week. Also,
even the repertoire is known
at least in a general way
months in advance. This sta
bility Is good for the solidity Of
the orchestra, but it makes it
easier for the men to get into
a rut. With the NBC, while
we had a nucleus that stayed
the same, every week there
were men brought in just for
the rehearsalS and perform
anceS of that week. Even if
the management knew they
were to be needed for several
weeks, they were given only
just the job in sight.
And as for repertoire, with
Toscanini nobody ever knew
what was coming up. Even ex-
tensive rehearsals were no
guarantee at all that the piece
being rehearsed would be
played that Saturday, if at all.
It was a situation in which, if
people. didn't care. it could
have been the most ragged
orchestra you ever heard. But
everybody did care, to most
of the players it was always
the weeks most challenging
job. And, as I say. while there
may be other orcheStras just
as good, there never has been
one so alert, and so flexible.
Mistaken Identity
"As a matter Of fact, you
could never tell whether the
concert Toscanini would be in
terested in would be one in
the future or the past. Several
years ago Milton Katims and
l played in a string trio in
Town Hall on Sunday after
noon. On the same program
was the MendelsSohn octet for
strings, played by a group Of
which neither of us was a
member. At the next NBC
rehearsal, the old man pointed
his finger at Katims and me,
and began to tell us just what
was wrong with the Mendels-
sohn - tempos, attacks, dy-
namics, and so on. At the begin
ming of his dressing down, we
were dumbfounded. then puz-
zled. Finally we realized that
Toscanini had turned on the
radio, become upset by what
he heard, and had looked in
the paper to see who was play
ing. Our names were the first
to hit his eye, and he came
to a wrong conclusion.
LAS I recovered myself, I
tried to get word in now and
then to get the record straight.
This octet had just arrived
from Europe, and had never
played in Town Hall. The
boys went to the hall early, to
get used to the acoustics and
play themselves in a little.
They didn't know that Town
Hall on Sundays often has two
or three concerts, one begin
ming just as soon as the seats
can be cleared after the last.
I guess I became a little heated
in my defense Of the boys, who
hadn't had q chance to do
more than tune their fiddles.
At any rate, the orchestra
laughed to see Toscanini's
gesticulations , finally over
whelmed by my own"
asked Mr.. HeifetZ about the
last concert. in which Tosca-
minis memory apparently
failed him. To those who
know Toscanini, such a possi-
bility seems beyond belief.
He Was FoIIibIe
1--WE knew something was
wrong In the last rehearsal"
said Mr.. Heifetz. Toscanini
In one place brought the tim