Evening star., 1954-05-02
Note on d Careers S End
NBc Symphony First-Desk CeIIist
TuIks Of Life With Toscunini
BY Doiy Thorpe

PAM IN q Dar IaCe, DuC the Cym-
paniSt played his part correct
ly according to the score. ToS-
canini stopped the orchestra
and said that the tympani were
a bar too soon. The tympanist
said nothing, but the next time
through. he again played cor
rectly. We were stopped a sec
ond time. and the third time
Frank Miller, the first cellist,
turned and called out, What's
the matter! Play it the way he
says
We'll. the man did, and it
was obviously wrong, and Tos-
canini hit the ceiling. Since
when was a cellist running his
orchestra, and so on. But at
any rate it was the first time
any of us knew that Toscanini
was fallible.
In the concert, everything
seemed to be like dream. The
beat kept getting slower and
slower. 1t is true what others
have said-ToScanini seemed
to be listening rather than
conducting. When we finally
caught on we played the piece
regardless of the beat, and
Toscanini himself came to be-
fore the end.
by the way, I suppose
you've noticed how when Tos-
canini folded, the NBC Or
chestra melted away like dew
at noon. Even at the end of
his career, Toscanini was the
only man in the world-the
only one-who could conduct
the National Broadcasting
Company"
More About Jonko
We are grateful to Mrs. Will
liam R. Bluedorn. of 5318
Thlrty-Second st. NV, for
further information about the
Janko piano. the story of
which appeared in this column
last week.
Your item In Sundays
STAR" she writes, "about the
Janko piano was of interest to
me because it is the first men
tion Of one that I have heard
for a number of years. How
did Barney Neighborhood
House happen to acquire one?
CIT was left it by the founder
of the social service organiza-
tion. Madame Dreyfus- Barney.
D. TO
"They were indeed rare, but
you are wrong in stating that
no one but the inventor ever
learned to play one. During
the '20s, while a music student
at Mary Baldwin Seminary
(now college) in Staunton,
Va, I had occasion to hear
one played a number of times
by my piano professor, Wilmer
Robert Schmidt. A German
graduate of Leipzig Conserva-
tory. he had brought the jan
ko to America as a young man.
He gave a number of public
concerts on it, but I am not
sure just where. Since he
taught for a time at Mt. Hol-
yoke College, they were prob
ably somewhere in New Eng
land. He gave I'D the idea
because it was too difficult to
transport his piano from place
to place. So far as I know, he
afterwards played it only in
his home for friends. I believe
he even composed some for it.
He certainly got some very
interesting and beautiful mu-
sic out of it.
"As he grew older, it became
a matter of concern to him
that there was no one trained
to take his priced instrument.
One of his advanced students
living nearby undertook to
learn and, I understand, in
herited it when he died several
years ago. I suppose it is now
in her home in Staunton-and,
I hope, played"
Dmitrieff Contribution
Six hundred twenty-five dol
lars was raised last week by the
Dmitrieff Studios in Chevy
Chase for the National SYM
phony sustaining fund. Ia
mara Dmitrieff, head of the
school of piano instruction,
sponsored recitals open to the
public in which her faculty
and students were the per-
formers.
Albert Fuller at YoIe
Albert Fuller, one of Wash
ington's few harpsichordists,
gave a recital April % in
Sprague Hall at Yale Univer-
sity on his favorite instrument
in fulflllment of requirements
for the degree of Master of
Music.