Music: Season’s End

Conductors all over the U.S. last week tucked away their batons as the symphony season ended. Most orchestras immediately started figuring how to manage another season.

In New York, the Philharmonic was all set for its 94th season because of its $500,000 drive last year. Arturo Toscanini will return to direct ten weeks out of the 30-week season. Towering Otto Klemperer. by far the most successful of the other conductors engaged this past season by the Symphony Society, will conduct for 14 weeks, opening the season.

The Boston Symphony wound up its season with a Bach-Handel Festival, and a $100,000 deficit, slightly bigger than last year’s. Unless Massachusetts’ State Board of Tax Appeals grants Trustee President Bentley W. Warren’s petition to exempt Symphony Hall and its site from 1935 city taxation, President Warren will have to make an appeal for $130,000 to the guarantors of the annual subsidy.

In Chicago, while men patrons pleaded for a bar as a means of increasing both enjoyment and attendance at Symphony concerts, the Orchestral Association watched over the progress of the public plea for funds, second in 29 years, to cover the $28,000 remainder of a two-year deficit. While it looked as though the Symphony’s deficit would be smartly erased, the bar problem remained in the air.

Cincinnati’s Symphony has lost $300,000 in the past six years, $60,000 of that total this past season. Losses have been met by borrowing from the capital of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Institute. Last week while seat sales for next season were being boosted, Conductor Eugene Goossens signed for another year.

Some 1,800 symphony-goers stamped, applauded, cheered and roared their approval of able Artur Rodzinski as Cleveland’s season closed in Severance Hall.

Business Manager Murray Paterson of the Detroit Symphony proudly announced from Orchestra Hall that the season ended with all bills paid, that a financing drive for next season will be launched late this month. That spry, little Victor Kolar’s Sunday Evening Ford Broadcastsboosted the Orchestra’s finances, no one doubted.

In two years capable Conductor Karl Krueger has built up a Philharmonic Orchestra in Kansas City, attracted great audiences. Season’s end found them only $1,000 in the red, and with 17,500 season tickets already sold for next year’s extended season. But $25,000 more in underwriting pledges is still required.

In Los Angeles, with Otto Klemperer safely signed with the Philharmonic for three years, $98,000 of the $150,000 expenses for 1935-36 have already been raised.

In Minneapolis & St. Paul, socialites worked hard & long to get pledges of some $60,000 for another season under popular Conductor Eugene Ormandy. Philadelphians rubbed their hands with satisfaction knowing that fair-haired Leopold Stokowski would definitely return for twelve weeks next season to conduct “our eloquent and unique orchestra.” But this year’s deficit was nearly $250,000. In an effort to avert a similar deficit next season, new Manager Alfred Reginald Allen announced that next season’s subscriptions would be offered on an installment plan. 20% down, the rest payable in eight monthly installments. Whether or not Philadelphia’s excellent opera series will be presented again by the Orchestra is a matter of conjecture.

In St. Louis a similar plan was adopted, but St. Louis’ worries pale in comparison with Philadelphia’s. When the Symphony moved into the new St. Louis Municipal Auditorium last autumn, attendance increased 50% over the previous season. By last week all but 10% of next season’s subscriptions had been sold.

For the first time in 23 years San Francisco went through a winter without a symphony orchestra. The Musical Association was unable to raise funds sufficient even for the promised twelve-week season. The downhearted musicians refused to play for less. Conductor Issai Dobrowen, flashy young Russian Jew, pocketed the $12,000 owed him by contract and departed in March for Oslo without having raised a baton. But music-loving San Francisco, which three years ago came to the fore with a magnificent new municipal opera house, was unwilling to admit defeat.

Two months ago the city government voted $10,000 for five popular-priced concerts, picked as conductor reliable old Alfred Hertz, who was ousted from his Symphony job five years ago when Dobrowen was engaged. Last week San Franciscans again rose to the occasion, voted $3,000-to-47,000 for a symphony subsidy expected to yield $35,000 a year. To be raised by a tax of ½% per $100 of assessed property, the subsidy will be administered by the City Art Commission and the Musical Association. The Association will provide $35,000 more to guarantee at least a 16-week season. Neither Issai Dobrowen nor popular Alfred Hertz is likely to conduct.

Responsible for the Symphony subsidy is J. Emmet Hayden, longtime (25 years) member of the Board of City Supervisors, chairman of the Music Committee of the City Art Commission. An amateur violinist, he organized a municipal band 20 years ago, a municipal chorus in 1924, was responsible for a series of municipal “pop” concerts given every season since 1922 by the Symphony. Supervisor Hayden also finds time to run bang-up restaurants on ferries plying San Francisco Bay.