Tradition Marks 80th May Festival Opening

This week marks the University Musical Society's 80th annual May Festival, and what a proud history this perennial musical institution possesses! The list of prominent soloists who have appeared with official festival orchestfas (first the Béáíon "Festival Orchestra," then the Chicago Syniphony and, since 1936, the Phladelphia ) is a virtual Who's Who among this century's top instrumental and vocal performers. Pianistic giants have included Schnabel, Rachmaninoff and Rubinstein, while Szigeti, Heifetz, Primrose and Feuermann have numbered among those who ably represented the string department. The assemblage of singers served Ann Arborites these past 80 seasons could be considered Golden in any Age. Today's opera buffs would, no doubt, willingly exchange seats with those audiences of yesteryear who witnessed Rethberg, Ponselle, Anderson, Galli-Curci, F 1 a g s t a d , Schumann-Heink and Matzenauer. And those local connoisseurs of stentorian high C's who once reveled in the tenor voices of Martinelli, McCormack, Bjoerling and Melchior, could also thrill to ■ the dark vocal shading of sos Pinaz and Kipnis. The University Musical Society (UMS) inaugurated this year's star-studded edition of the May Festival last night at Hill Auditorium after what was probably the most adventurous season in its long history. For the first time, the UMS had swung off into jazz (with Duke Ellington) and presented an all-20th-century program (Aeolian Chamber Players). A Guitar Series was launched, the Asian series was broadened to encompass four events, and an evening of Spanish Medieval music was offered (Paniagua Quartet). It was especially significant that virtually all of these innovations met with enthusiastic public support. The largely conservative programming of the current May Festival contrasts quite sharply with the concert fare that has preceded it, however. Outside of Verdi's "Stabat Mater," La Montaine's "Songs oL the Rose of Sharon" and Mozart's First Violin Concerto, the scheduled selections never stray far from hard-core standard repertoire. The series' chief attraction lies in its array of worldfamous musicians: concert - goers have stampeded the box office not necessarily to hear the nth rendition of a standard concerto, but rather to behold pianists Rudolf Serkin and Van Cliburn performing that nth rendition with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Although this critic would have preferred to hear Serkin's Mendelssohn, Cliburn's Mozart or Ormandy in the latest Shostakovich symphony, the festival programming becomes understandable when viewed in an historical conext. Two of the three Beethoven selections encountered yesterday evening, f o r instance, hearkened baick to some landmark in the festival's past. The Third Leonore Overture appeared on the first May festival's opening concert in 1894, while Arthur Nikisch's Boston Symphony prepared the "Eroica" Symphony for the Ann Arbor public exactly 80 years ago. The "Eroica's" Funeral March movement also presented an opportunity to honor the memory of Dr. Charles A. Sink, under whose gusanee the UMS attained international significance. And since Rodolf Serkin celebrated his 70th birthday this season, it seemed fitting that he should choose for this, his 15th UMS appearance, the Beethoven Fourth Concerto, a work in which he made his American debut with orchestra in 1936 under Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic. Recently the Arturo Toscanini Society made available a disc containing a broadcast transfer of this historie 1936 performance, and what a magnificent collaboration the dim sonics reveal! Toscanini appeared to be in one of his relaxed moods, and the young Serkin's flowing, sensitive reading fit naturally into the Maestro's orchestral Shell. Even though last night's performance was superficially more exciting ( i t literally swept the capacity Hill Auditorium audience onto its feet), the 1936 account got closer to the spirit as well as to the letter of the score. The Fourth is Beethoven's subtlest concerted work. The first movement, in particular, is an essay in the delayed' resolution of tensión, demanding a liquid stream of piano tone in which forte passages lead inevitably to cantabile lines of haunting beauty. Too often, sections marked dolce (sweet and soft) emerged dry and percussive in Serkin's hands, while forte passages tended to sound sinewy and a bit violent, breaking up the movement's logical progression of musical thought. 1 ertheless, there were ear-l ravishing trills near the 1 certo's conclusión, a memorable statement of the Rondo's main theme, and tides of warmth which Serkin's genial personality wafted across the stage. It must be added that the acoustics in the first cony center impartea a Dritue I edge and an annoying echo I fect to the piano tone. Ormandy and nis orchestra I proved themselves to be I thoven interpreters of the first I magnitude. T h e i r readings I were in the best Toseanini I eralist tradition, which is to I say that they were indeed I "like readdng the score." I spite a full complement of .1 strings, crucial woodwind I os were never buried. Indeed, I the balance between winds I and strings was so I ble as to be incredible: even I ñute and bassoon doublings of I string lines were clearly I ble. Each dynamic shading I dicated by Beethoven was I scrupulously obeyed, w i t h I sudden juxtapositions of loud I and soft being stunningly I fective. In addition to all the above I elements, Ormandy's I "Eroica" had guts, fire and a I human vocal quality which I placed it apart from t h e I sterility of many note-bound I interpretations. W h e t h e r I phrases were intoned by a I solo instrument, a section, or I the total ensemble, they had a I naturally curved shape which I képt the inner structure I ing. Beethoven's accents were attacked with bite and gusto as the w h o 1 e orchestra I sponded with snap and precisión. Once a tempo was set it I was modified within limited I bounds only. Thus Ormandy achieved flexibility within a controlled rhythmic framework, leading a performance of musical integrity, instrumental virtuosity, visceral excitement and structural cohesión. J