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2 the Conductor Spreads His Wings (1930–38) In the spring of 1927, George Szell was on the staff of the Berlin State opera and beginning his tenure as professor at the Hochschule für Musik. At the same time, an American orchestra, the St. louis Symphony, was searching for a new conductor. By the time Szell became a leading candidate in that search, he had become musical head of the German opera House in Prague. the St. louis Symphony was looking forward to celebrating its golden jubilee fiftieth anniversary season in 1929–30, but all was not well. the orchestra faced artistic and financial crises. It was in the throes of finding both a new conductor and a new manager. With the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the orchestra’s Board of Control (as its governing body was then called) questioned whether to continue or to go out of business after the 1929–30 season. In March 1927 the board voted not to renew the contract of the incumbent conductor , rudolf Ganz, and he resigned. there was general agreement that the music critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, thomas B. Sherman, was justified in his negative opinion of Ganz’s conducting. He described it as producing ragged ensemble and unblended sound, and he also pointed to Ganz’s “drillmaster” interpretations, which lacked “subtle differentiation of dynamics and rhythm which give a soul to an orchestra.” to clinch his argument, Sherman referred to a statement by richard Strauss during his 1921 musical tour in America: “there is no such thing as a good or bad orchestra—there are only good or bad conductors.”1 the board named William e. Walter manager on March 7, 1927.2 to Walter fell the responsibility of finding a permanent conductor. Instead of accepting the recommendation of noted conductors or the decree of the omnipotent Arthur Judson, then the most powerful concert manager in America, Walter invited candidates to guest conduct in St. louis. they came not for one or two weeks but for a mini- 24 . chapter 2 mum of four weeks. this provided the orchestra with a measure of stability and the opportunity for serious evaluation of each candidate. Walter had, in effect, carte blanche in the scouting and hiring of candidates. the board would eventually vote on which conductor to engage permanently. It was a foregone conclusion that the new conductor would be european; the only remaining choice concerned which nationality. thus Walter selected one conductor from each of several countries, omitting the United States as a matter of course. A European in St. Louis (1930, 1931) two seasons and six guest conductors later, Szell came on the scene.3 In the spring of 1929, with a Spanish, Italian, and British conductor already engaged for the next season, Walter traveled to Germany, where he observed more than two dozen conductors. Szell’s Figaro and Boris Godunov at the Berlin State opera convinced Walter that his search was at an end. He described Szell as “a musician in a very deep sense and a man of wide culture besides. for a young man—he is only thirtytwo —he has a sound reputation. He should do well in America.”4 Szell’s programs sparked considerable interest. He gave numerous local premieres and both conducted and played the solo part in Mozart’s A Major Piano Concerto, K. 488. each program included a twentieth-century work: Szell’s own youthful Variations on an original theme (1916); ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917); Hindemith’s Concerto for orchestra; and the suite from Kodály’s opera Háry János (1925); and Gershwin’s An American in Paris (1928). young, with only opera positions under his belt, and trained in the German School, Szell showed a particularly wide range of repertoire. that his programs included the works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Wagner, and Weber is not surprising. More unusual then—and even generations later—was Szell’s knowledge of french music. His bold self-confidence in tackling such an idiomatically American work as the Gershwin, however, was also remarkable, if not audacious. Szell’s Variations and his appearance as piano soloist were calculated to present him as a musician of depth and scope and an instrumentalist of concert caliber. from the start, his programs were devised to impress, with major works such as tchaikovsky ’s fifth Symphony and Beethoven’s Seventh, and to keep St. louis aware of his prestigious opera...

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