Saengerfest

Clevelanders could not resist humming to themselves as they listened, in their public auditorium of which they are proud, to a male chorus of 4,000 Germans singing Friedrich Rotbardt. It was good singing. It was also a climax of the 36th national Saengerfest of the North American Saengerbund.

For three days, Cleveland had been sprinkled with Germans--from Chicago, from Milwaukee, from Peoria, from St. Louis, from Manhattan, They were singing as they loved to, celebrating a community festival that some of their parents and grandparents had founded in 1845 in Wurzburg, Bavaria.

It was fitting that the Saengerfest should be directed by Bruno Walter, music master of present-day Teutons. His baton had many times hushed audiences of the Staatsoper, once the Royal Opera of Berlin. Even at 17, he had directed the opera at Cologne. Munich, Vienna, Riga had acclaimed him. Later, when anti-Semitic feeling grew bitter in Europe, he sailed for the U. S. Some say he is first in the hearts of German-Americans.