Music: New Batons

One problem with conductors is that they seem to live such a long time.*For a young man on the way up, there rarely seems to be a vacant podium at the top. But lately, three comparative youngsters have won major successes in Europe:

Samuel Krachmalnick, 33, has signed a two-year contract with the Zurich Opera. Reputed to be a passionate hater of singers, Krachmalnick longs to conduct in the concert hall but has proved so successful at Zurich that he is already tabbed as one of the world’s ranking Wagnerians. St. Louis-born Krachmalnick played French horn in Washington’s National Symphony, became convinced from careful scrutiny of guest conductors that “if these jokers can do it, it’s got to be easy.” From Juilliard, where his early attempts at conducting were roundly panned, he graduated to conducting jobs with the Symphony of the Air, the American Ballet Theater, the New York City Center. Married to Mezzo-Soprano Gloria Lane (TIME, March 28), he is still astounded at being so much in demand for guest appearances. “A few years ago, if I wanted expense money for a taxi, I had to fight for it. Now they pay my way on a jet.”

Bernard Haitink, 31, will soon take over as one of two permanent conductors of Amsterdam’s famed old Concertgebouw Orchestra. Haitink has guest-conducted widely throughout Europe, is best known for his coolly controlled readings of Beethoven and Bruckner. A childhood violin student at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Haitink “felt the need to have a broader instrument,” studied conducting, was soon picked as assistant conductor of the Dutch Radio Philharmonic. In frequent guest stints with the Concertgebouw, Haitink has already replaced the light, silvery Eduard Van Beinum tone with a darker, deeper glow reminiscent of the way the orchestra sounded under Willem Mengelberg. Some critics call him too nuchter (sober), but, says Haitink, “after my first wild years, I am just trying to get a balance between my heart and my head.”

Andre Vandernoot, 33, is the new permanent conductor of the Brussels Opera. In London and Paris guest appearances, he has been greeted as the most exciting new conductor to come along in years, and at least one critic found him, at 30, “the equal of the greatest.” The Vandernoot repertory runs to “Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Bartok and the Sacre du Printemps, but not the rest of Stravinsky.” A late starter (“I admire people,” says he, “who start shivering at the age of three when mother sings false”), Vandernoot first studied the flute, soon found himself slipping off into the woods to conduct an imaginary orchestra of trees with a branch for a baton. While in the Belgian army, he entered the contest for nonprofessional conductors at Besangon, France, and finished next to last. After that he settled down to study conducting in earnest, soon got his own chamber orchestra and began winning critical cheers. Vandernoot is as famed for his girl friends as he is for his fortissimos. Says he: “I have given up my wife, my two” mistresses and my fiancee to devote myself to love.”

* Bruno Walter is 84, Fritz Reiner 72, Charles Munch 69, Pierre Monteux 85.