Menuhin to the Defense

Whether Berlin's great conductor Dr. Wilhelm Furtwaengler was or was not a Nazi hardly seemed worth arguing. Goring gave him the highest Government job held by a musician, that of Nazi Staatsrat (State Councilor) of Prussia. When he fled Germany to Switzerland last February, the Zurich Municipal Council canceled two sold-out concerts he was sched uled to lead. Three days later, Furtwaengler conducted in the Swiss industrial town of Winterthur, and the fire department had to turn hoses on 4,000 workers demon strating outside the hall. Since then, Furtwaengler has been writing a symphony.

Says he: "I have always tried not to mix art and politics." Cellist Pablo Casals, a Spanish exile, snapped: "Don't worry, within two years you'll be conducting in New York again."

Last week Violinist Yehudi Menuhin, back from a European tour, made a strong appeal for the Nazi Staatsrat, made even stronger by the fact that Menuhin is Jewish. He said: "If there is one musician who deserves to be reinstated, it is Furtwaengler. ... It is well known that he held on to the Jewish members of his orchestra as long as he possibly could. . . . He would be welcomed in Paris. If Paris can take a German, I'm sure we should have no qualms about it."

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