Pianist-into-Conductor

Infrequently of late has Spain, which used to dispatch musicians to the U. S. in a steady stream, sent figures worthy to rank with Soprano Lucrezia Bori, Dancer Argentina, Pianist Jose Iturbi. As though to atone for this neglect, alert little Pianist Iturbi, who plans to become a U. S. citizen, has lately carved a niche for himself as an orchestral conductor as well. His quiet debut occurred last May in Mexico City, speedily became a triumph. Emboldened by the success of his first piano recitals in Mexico, Iturbi organized an orchestra of 75 "professors," inserted a small advertisement in a newspaper saying that he would conduct it. He describes the effect: "The people did not stay away. They broke down the doors and pushed aside the attendants, saying 'to hell with you!' and the ladies threw fans and the men cheered and some wept and they took 40 sticks away from me for souvenirs."

In Manhattan the Philharmonic Symphony invited Iturbi to guest-conduct it in a concert in Lewisohn Stadium. Eagerly he agreed, for there is one musician in the world whom he idolizes: Arturo Toscanini. An audience that filled all but the extreme end seats turned out to see what this black-haired, electric little maestro of the piano bench could do with a baton in his hand.

No dabbler, Iturbi plunged into a program fit to give his hearers an honest test of his ability. He announced that he would begin with two Wagner numbers, Overture to Tannhduser and Prelude to Act i of Lohengrin, then simultaneously play the piano solo and conduct Beethoven's Third Concerto in C Minor, before winding up with the Eroica.

As a pianist, Iturbi is distinguished for a fluent, unhesitating technique. Conducting, he defended himself by a slower tempo, was deliberate in his presenting of the Wagner numbers, as though coaxing the orchestra. His swifter style returned when he played and conducted the Concerto. Alternately he rippled off a solo passage, waved the baton, bobbed his head at the orchestra, beat time with a momentarily free hand. The sympathetic orchestra caught his swift mood, faithfully followed him then and later, through the formidable stretches of the Eroica. Happily convinced, the audience broke in with premature applause even more frequently than usual, twice rose in a body to applaud. Happy Jose Iturbi applauded the orchestra, grinned when they applauded back.

Though his Mexico City Orchestra was the first he has publicly conducted, Iturbi's metamorphosis is no sudden miracle. He likes to tell how he led a music academy band in his native Valencia when he was 12, how he has prepared long and secretly for the podium. During his concert tours in the U. S. since 1929 he has spent most of his spare time in New York studying orchestra scores, watching Toscanini and others conducting the Philharmonic-Symphony. Says Jose Iturbi: "I am like Diogenes. All my life I search for an honest musician. I find Arturo Toscanini." His face, always set and sober during recitals, was more so than ever while he conducted Toscanini's orchestra. Afterwards, to a group of friends who congratulated him he remarked simply: "It was like first love. There was nothing more to live for."

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