Survey

Back from Europe came Olga Samaroff, able pianist turned kindly critic for the New York Evening Post, wrote last week for her paper a very earnest article. Said she: "I doubt if anything could be more depressing to a musician of European education than to make a journey of investigation into musical conditions overseas today.

"On the human side poverty is the rule and actual misery only too frequent among musicians. On the artistic side the activities of concert halls and operas, filled as they are with memories of past glories, force upon the observer the unpleasant truth that art is hopelessly dependent upon economic prosperity. . . . "We must remember that an overwhelmingly large percentage of the composers, performers and teachers who make our musical life what it is today are Europeans; that most of the important music produced is European, and that the fundamentals of the whole art as we know and practice it are European.

"On the other hand, America is now not only the 'land of unbounded possibilities,' it is without doubt the seat of highest actual achievement in musical performance.

"Our orchestras are the finest in the world; our operatic performances unequaled.

"Insensibly, standards of perfection have lowered in Europe through prolonged listening to inferior musicmaking. I have heard present-day cognoscenti in Europe enthuse over performances which would not be tolerated in New York.

"The audiences abroad have deteriorated in quality. The cultured classes, which formed the backbone of the pre-War musical public, have but little money at present for concerts or opera. The rather nondescript audiences of today seem to lack the discrimination which, combined with warm enthusiasm for really fine things, formerly lent such an ideal atmosphere to musical performances abroad. "It is sad--immeasurably sad. . . .

"There are indications that Europe will not leave us in undisputed possession of the position we now hold.

"Mussolini is planning great reforms in the Italian opera houses [TIME, Sept. 6]. The Ministry of Culture in Berlin has created a special music department in which Dr. Leo Kestenberg is doing important work. "I have heard from leading artists in Central Europe that there is talk of an organized effort to prevent the exodus of the best artists.

"It would, however, require a very powerful organization to combat the almost universal desire of European musicians to come to America."