Music and Maestros: The Story of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (Minnesota Archive Editions) PDF
Preview Music and Maestros: The Story of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (Minnesota Archive Editions)
Music and Maestros THE STORY OF THE MINNEAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The Story of the MINNEAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA THE MINNEAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA IN 1952 AWARDED A UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FELLOWSHIP IN REGIONAL WRITING UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, MINNEAPOLIS MUSIC AND MAESTROS BY JOHN K. SHERMAN Copyright 1952 by the UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Permission is hereby granted to reviewers to quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. PRINTED AT THE LUND PRESS, MINNEAPOLIS Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 52-11107 London • Geoffrey Cumberlege • Oxford University Press A cknowledgments T HE making of this book has been as much a search as a writing assignment, and the search in great measure has involved a rifling of many memories, whose owners have willingly turned over the contents thereof. Without the generous help of the more than eighty persons I have talked to or corresponded with during the past five years, this history would have lacked much of its factual content and its store of incident. Most bountiful and reliable repository of knowledge about the Minneapolis Symphony has been Carlo Fischer, who more than any other today merits the title of "Mister Orchestra" in the Twin Cities. Mr. Fischer played with the Symphony at its first concert in 1903 and has been a musician, manager, writer, and statistician for the organization for most of the years since. His long experience and willing spirit have made him more than merely an aid in gathering the facts; he has been virtually a col- laborator, and ever on call. Other veterans of the orchestra, including Karl Scheurer, Her- man Boessenroth, Al Rudd, William Muelbe, and Henry J. Williams, have supplied much valuable information. Of particu- lar importance have been the recollections of the orchestra's V Music and Maestros early years passed on to me by William MacPhail, Sr., Eva Blan- chard (who worked in the Symphony office in the first decade), Hamlin Hunt, Stanley R. Avery, and the late Richard Czer- wonky, who led me to one of my most exciting "finds"—an unpublished autobiographical sketch by Wendell Heighten, or- chestra manager in the second decade. Mrs. Elbert L. Carpenter has been most gracious and helpful in furnishing data on Mr. Carpenter's youthful years and his work with the orchestra, and other members of the Carpenter family have been equally cooperative. Among the Symphony board members who have told me much of interest and value are John Pillsbury, Sumner T. McKnight, Carl W. Jones, and C. O. Kalman, the latter supplying "eye- witness" documentation on St. Paul's musical life and its early relationships with the orchestra. Past and present orchestra managers, Mrs. Carlyle Scott and Arthur J. Gaines, have filled in much office and backstage history, as has Frank A. R. Mayer, publicity director. Donald Ferguson, program annotator, and Samuel C. Gale, son of Harlow Gale, have furnished me with important data. I am also indebted to the three Minneapolis conductors I have known for their kind help on biographical questions and for their exposition, during the course of many conversations, of their interpretive ideas. For the Verbrugghen chapter I had recourse especially to the good memory of Jenny Cullen and the gracious and painstaking aid of Madame Henri Verbrugghen. Research into the Minneapolis Symphony's "pre-history" had firm support and rich sources in Louise Chapman's detailed chronicle of Minneapolis music in the nineteenth century. I bow in gratitude also to Eloise Shryock, Byron Morgan, and Karl Heckrich, to Eleanora Eckstrom and Anna C. Harmsen, daugh- ters of Ludwig Harmsen, and to Frank J. and Eugene Danz, sons of Frank Danz, Jr. Ferdinand P. Schultz's thesis on "Music in the Pioneer Days in the Twin Cities Area" contains authori- tative material I have freely purloined. Willoughby Babcock at the Minnesota Historical Society and Gladys Wilson of the Min- vi Acknowledgments neapolis Public Library never once turned down a request for hard-to-find information, I have drawn liberally on the writings and memories of past and present critics, including those of Frances Boardman and Grace Davies. The reader will note that I have made the critics and their opinions an integral part of the Symphony story. This has put me to the necessity of quoting the earlier Sherman instead of relying on the later Sherman's fading and sometimes non- existent memory of specific concerts — a seemingly vain ma- neuver for which I hereby make apology. Finally my gratitude, a large share of it, goes to the University of Minnesota's Committee on Regional Writing, which provided the original idea and a financial incentive for the book, and to the staff of the University of Minnesota Press for their ministra- tions on the manuscript. To all the other many friends and helpers whom space forbids listing, I express most sincere thanks. JOHN K. SHERMAN Minneapolis August 15,1952 VII This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents HOME-GROWN BEGINNINGS 3 Emil Oberhoffer "WE WANT AN ORCHESTRA" 37 MUSICIAN AND LUMBERMAN 66 ORCHESTRA-ON-WHEELS 90 REIGN OF THE PATHETIQUE 117 Henri Verbrugghen ORCHESTRAL CRAFTSMAN 151 Eugene Ormandy WHISTLING IN THE DARK 195 Dimitri Mitropoulos ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP 227 WARTIME AND LEAVE-TAKING 264 ix
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