Variety (April 1959)

62 MUSIC PtSHETf Wednesday, April 29, 1959 National Symph of Washington Playing 62 Concerts in 72-Day Latin Tour ♦- -- : -- — By FRED HIFT When the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington leaves for Panama City on May 20 it’ll set out on the first leg of what is believed the most extensive foreign tour ever undertaken by an American orchestra. Touring Central and South America, the ensemble un¬ der conductor Howar d Mitchell will play a total of 62 concerts in 72 days and will visit 19 countries. Trip is being undertaken for the U.S. State Dept., which is footing part of the bill, according to Mrs. Jouette Shouse, vice-president" of the Svmphony and also chairman of The President’s Music Commit¬ tee of the People to People Pro¬ gram. ANT A is the planning agen¬ cy for the tour and the Pan-Amer¬ ican Union has cooperated in the arrangements. Mitchell has prepared five basic programs for the tour in addition to special ones for Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Panama. Each in¬ cludes the work of at least one con¬ temporary American composer and several take in compositions by composers of the countries being visited. The soloists for some of the concerts will be local people. If the selections picked appear to be on the conservative side, with no Bach or pre-Bach music in¬ cluded. Mrs. Shouse explained this by saying that the N.Y. Philhar¬ monic has played such numbers on its tour of many of the same coun¬ tries in 1958. Well-Needled Musicians Don’t envy those junketing musicians. When the National Symphony Orchestra of Wash¬ ington goes on a tour of Cen¬ tral and South America May 20, the 100 men making the trip will have to get the follow¬ ing inoculations: Small pox, typhoid, tetanus* yellow fever and one polio shot for all those under 40. Col Pics Inks Duning For Film, Disk Duties Hollywood, April 28. Composer George Duning has been signed to a new two-year ex¬ clusive contract by Columbia Pic¬ tures. New pact calls for Duning’s services for the scoring of pix, as well as his work for Colpix Rec¬ ords, diskery subsid of the studio! Duning is currently composing the scbre for the Fred Kohlmar production, “The Last Angry Man.” Tri-State Musicians Assn., com¬ posed of members from Ohio, Ken¬ tucky and West Virginia, elected Logan O. Teagle, Akron, president; Hal C. Carr, Toledo, v.p., and Don Duprey, Cleveland, secretary- treas¬ urer. Wants Rnsskis to See US. in Light of ‘Day’ A retired Los Angeles policeman, A1 Lieb, one of 14 World War II vets heading for a Moscow rendez¬ vous with Soviet soldiers whom they met at the Elbe River in 1945, is hoping to swing the Russian kids away from rock ’n’ roll. Lieb, who thinks the U. S. is getting a black eye, culturally, from the spread of the rocking idiom, is taking along a trunkful of Doris Day disks for plugging on the Soviet radio-tv outlets. Lieb selected Miss Day because of her popularity overseas via her disk and film exposures. Columbia Records is cooperating in the proj¬ ect by cuffoing the disks for distri¬ bution in Russia. Lieb hopes to be able to set up a. display of U. S. disks in the huge state-owned GUM department store in Moscow. New Music Shed Canopy Boston, April 28. A stage canopy will be construct¬ ed for the Music Shed at Tangle- wood, Lenox, by the Boston Sym¬ phony this summer. To cover the cost, Mrs. Edmond H. Talbot of Boston donated $40,000 ta the orch in memory of her husband, Hub attorney, for whom the structure will be named. Construction will be completed in time for the 1959 Berkshire Fes¬ tival, six weeks of concerts by the Boston Symphony under direction of Charles Munch. It will replace the present shell built for the first Berkshire Symphonic Festival 25 years ago. j Inside Stuff-Music Add to the avalanche of “Porgy and Bess” albums and other Gersh- winiana, keyed to the upcoming Samuel Goldwyn film production, Is 20th-Fox Records’ release of “George Gershwin At The Piano,” which is unique in that it is a scientific 1959 reactivation of recordings made by the composer in the 1920s. The “Rhapsody In Blue” side is per¬ haps a first, done as Gershwin played his own composition, on an Aeolian piano roll. This was taken off on tape, in monaural and stereo platter versions, under the aegis of 20th-Fox and RCA Victor record¬ ing engineers. The other side includes the only recording ever made by Gershwin of his “I Got Rythm,” this performance taken off a film soundtrack which he made in December 1929 when Fox Movietone took its camera to a theatre rehearsal of “Strike Up The Band.” The soundtrack also caught Gershwin’s voice in good-humored repartee with Clark & McCullough, the comedy stars. Other Gershwin excerpts on this same side include “That Certain Feeling,” “Grieving For You,” “Just Snap Your Fingers At Care,” “Left All Alone Again Blues,” "I’m A Lone¬ some Little Raindrop” and “Mademoiselle In New Rochelle.” The “Rhapsody” was piano-rolled some years prior thereto. These Gersh¬ win arrangements are unique in that Ferde Grofe, Joseph Daly and Robert Russell Bennett generally did the composer’s arrangements. The modern-day transmutations called for some skillful slowing* down and speeding-up of the piano roll interpretation for regulation and control of the tempo and expression to assure a completely au¬ thentic and realistic performance. A dozen RCA Victor LP covers copped honors in three major graphic arts shows held here recently. At the Art Directors’ Show, held at the Waldorf-Astoria. N.Y., “The Mighty Wurlitzer In Hi-Fi” and “Train Whistle Blues” packages won distinguished merit awards. Three other Sets won merit awards. At the Type Directors show, held St the Biltmore, N.Y., five Victor packages were honored while the American Institute of Graphic Arts packaging show, “Clia Cha Pops” was a prizewinner. All three shows are being toured through the U.S. and Europe. Robert W. Jones, manager of art and production, prepared the covers for Victor. Irving Mills laughs off intra-trade references that “now that Mitch Miller is coming over to run Mills Music for Jack Wrather we hear you (Irving) will become the new T a&r man at Columbia Records.” But that’s not outside the pale. Music publisher Mills has long been a pro in producing masters and selling them to other labels. This will be the National Sym¬ phony’s first trip outside the coun¬ try since its establishment 27 years ago. Mrs. Shouse emphasized that the orchestra had no endowment and owed its existence completely to the some 14,000 Washington sub¬ scribers who raise $250,000 every year. Mrs. Shouse said that, de¬ spite the lack of civic financial support, the orchestra was in the black. "The orchestra records for RCA and Westminster. The men (there’ll be 100 of them including 92 musicians, three stage¬ hands, the conductor, doctor and publicity representative) will travel in two charted planes. Despite the intense heat that is expected, the orchestra will not pass up any of the smaller countries. Whereas in some places it will be boiling hot, the men on other parts of the tour will have-to wear winter clothes. The orchestra will give a num¬ ber of children’s concerts during the tour. Every spring in Wash¬ ington, Mitchell conducts' a five- week series of free concerts for visiting highschool students In Washington. Series is sponsored by Mrs. Herbert A. May (Marjorie Merriweather Post). Orchestra re¬ turns to its home base Aug. 11 after playing its final concerts in Mexico.