Hybrid Orchestra

"I have created." says Conductor George Szell. "an instrument perfectly suited to express my artistic intentions." Szell's instrument is the 104-member Cleveland Orchestra, which he designed as a kind of hybrid--a cross-breeding of American precision and cleanliness of tone with European warmth and temperament. Satisfied that he has under his baton "personnel as good as any conductor could wish for." Szell has long since satisfied his artistic intention. When he brought his great orchestra to Manhattan's Carnegie Hall last week, it put on the kind of performance demanded by a conductor who wants his players to "see music from the inside." The Cleveland's program reflected the tastes of a musician who champions contemporary scores but is firmly schooled in "the great Viennese classics." Alongside Veteran Composer Howard Hanson's Bold Island Suite, Szell offered Haydn's Symphony No. Q2 ("Oxford"), Brahms's Violin Concerto in D (with Erica Morini as the excellent soloist), and Rossini's bubbly overture to La Gazza Ladra.

Standing stiff-backed on the podium, ticking off the beat with the rapt air of a man unraveling a problem in calculus, Conductor Szell drew forth music that was a wonder of elegance, discipline and response. Every detail of every number seemed illuminated; all the balances were precise. Although the Cleveland sound was handsome and full-bodied, the visiting orchestra tried for, and consistently achieved, something rare in a large orchestra--the internal clarity of a chamber group.

Szell came to the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, renowned as a greatly gifted Wagnerian conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and as a man with a monumental temper (his Met career ended when he walked out in midseason after a dispute with General Manager Rudolf Bing). As a hedge against the possibility of stirring up any such disputes in the Cleveland, Szell demanded and received assurance that the board would give him "the means of making this orchestra second to none." The board provided the means, and Budapest-born George Szell, a World War II immigrant to the U.S., created the orchestra.

A perfectionist and tough taskmaster, Szell runs the orchestra like a military unit, refers to his concertmaster as his "chief of staff." Now some 20 members larger than it used to be, the Cleveland Orchestra plays a 40-week season, tours extensively, and rarely faces anything less than a sold-out house. On its European tour in 1957, it astounded audiences and critics, who had never dreamed of such an orchestra "in the wilds of provincial America."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.