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SUPPLEMENT
VOL. LVI, No. 114
A1N .-1RiC",,MICHIGAN, SUND'lAX', 2APiRIt., .t 946
May Festival ill Climax Musical Sed
ason
AII-Brahnis
Program Will
Be Presented
Kapell Will Play
D Minor Concerto
This year's Festival program marks
the second consecutive year in which
an all-Brahms program has been pre-
sented.
The solo spot for the concert has
been given to William Kapell who
will play the Concerto No. 1 in D
minor for piano and orchestra at
2:30 p.m. Sunday.
First Appearance
A top flight concert artist, the
23-year-old pianist will be presented
in Ann Arbor for the first time.
A native of New York City, Kapell's
musical ability was first noticed when
he won a contest open to children of
the Settlement Schools in the city
after only six weeks of study under
Dorothea Anderson LaFollette.
Wins Town Hall Award
In later years of study at the Phila-
delphia Conservatory and Juilliard
Graduate School, as a pupil of Olga
Samaroff Stokowski, he won several
awards including the Town Hall En-
dowment Series Award in 1942. The
award is made each season to an ar-
tist not over thirty years old who has
given the most notable recital of the
previous year in New York's Town
Hall. Kapell was the youngest musi-
cian ever to win the award.
July of that year marked his first
appearance in New York at the Sta-
dium Concert, he played with the
Philharmonic-Symphony in the Sov-
iet-American Concerto of, Ar am
Khatchatourian. Performance of this
work at Boston's Symphony Nall the
next year was so sensationally su-
cessful that Serge Koussevitsky re-
engaged him for five more perform-
ances.
Appeared With Twenty Orchestras
Since the 1943-44 concert season
Kapell, in nation-wide concert tours,
has appeared with twenty. of the
country's major orchestras. After an
appearance with the Philadelphia
Orchestra in 1944 he signed a prece-
dent-breaking contract with them
for three years. In 1945 he made an
extensive tour of the Australian con-
cert -stages, presenting twenty-six
programs in all.
One of the numbers in Kapell's
program, the Academic Festival Ov-
erture, will be repeated from last
year's program. Other numbers on
the Sunday afternoon program,
which traditionally contains a sym-
phony and concerto, are the Sym-
phony No. 4 in E minor and the
Concerto No. 1, which Kapell will
play.
Youth Chorus
To Participate
Children To Sing 12
American Folk Songs
The children of the fifth and sixth
grades in Ann Arbor Public schools
will deck themselves out in their best
bib and tucker this year once again
to participate in the May Festival
concerts.
380 children compose this year's
Youth Festiyal Chorus, which, under
the direction of Marguerite Hood,
will sing a group of 12 American folk
songs
The children are chosen propor-
tionally from each school accord-
ing to its enrollment. Tryout con-
tests are held, and the children with
the best singing ability are chosen
to be in the festival. Those who do
not participate in the Chorus, work
at school on a performance they
give for the other students.
The children begin rehearsing for
the concert the first of March. They
rehearse half an hour each day in
their own schools. Later they rehearse
collectively several times each week.
The Youth Festival Chorus,a reg-
ular feature of the May Festival since
1913 when the first Festival was held
in Hill Auditorium, has drawn much
favorable comment.
In addition to vocal talent, the
Chorus has always been recogniz-
ed for the discipline among the
children. There is always a murmur
of approval in the audience about
Ornandy Will Conduclt
Philadelphia OrchesItra
Symphony To Participate in May Festival
Programs for Eleventh Consecutive Year
MAY FESTIVAL PROGRAM
Six Concerts -Four hays-/1May 2, 3, 4, .
TIHE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA PLAYS IN ALL CONCERTS
Making its eleventh annual visit
to AnnArbor, the Philadelphia Or-
chestra, under the direction of Eu-
gene Ormandy, will again participate
in each of the six concerts of the May
Festival Series.
The Orchestra claims the dis-
tinction of being older than the
Declaration of Independence,.hav-
ing as its direct origin a group
of musicians who gave concerts
in the great Pennsylvania city as
early as 1757. The present orches-
tra was founded in 1900, and has
had only four permanent conduc-
May Fesivl
Aims Giver,
BDr. Sink
For the fifty-third consecutive sea-
son the University Musical Society
presents to the members of the Uni-
versity in particular, and to the
public in general, the annual May
Festival.
In accordance with well-estab-
lished tradition, six concerts will
be provided. The Philadelphia Or-
chestra will participate for the
tors throughout its long career:
Fritz Scheel, Carl Pohlig, Leopold
Stokowski and the present music
director, Eugene Ormandy.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, in
1899, Ormandy came to this coutrly
at the age of twenty-one, with a
reputation as a child prodigy, having
become a music professor when he
was seventeen years old. His career
in America began with an unobtru-
sive position as a back-row violinist
in a small orchestra, after which he
progressed rapidly from concert-
master, to assistant conductor, to
permanent conductor of the Minne-
apolis Symphony, and finally to the
podium of the Phiadelphia Orees-
Noted especially for lhis pheno-
menal memory, Ormandy conducts
all his concerts without a score.
Ile has endeared himself to his
listeners by constantly building his
programs with his favorite axiom
in mind ---. "My audience must
have one thing to buni." He there-
by ta.kes his audinces int a ind
of partnership with him, choosing
music of well-laoved and classical
reputation as well as music of
more modern and popular appeal.
The orchestra which he now con-
ducts has an exceptionally youthful
membership, 20 per cent of the play-
ers being less than 30 years old. It
makes one of its most enthusiastical-
ly received appearances yearly at the
Children's Concerts and the Concerts
for Youth, designed for listeners be-
tween the ages of thirteen and twen-
ty-five ,years.
Immediately after the Festival the
Orchestra will go on a one-month
tour throughout the Pacific Coast,
where it will appear for the first
time since 1937.
Rosalind Nadell
To Perform tin
May Festival
Rosalind Nadell, versatile young
mezzo-soprano of radio, concert and
opera, will again be featured at this
year's May Festival.
Miss Nadell has achieved success
in a very short time. Beginning her
musical training at the piano when
she was nine, she was lured into a
singing career when she heard Grace
Moore sing in the movie, .One Night
of Love" three years later.
Born in Philadelphia, Miss Nadell
was fortunate in coming to the at-
tention of Mme. Marian Szekely-
Freschl, the eminent Philadelphia
teacher, who trained the singer until
she was ready for her first audition.
Because of her ability to sing both
contralto and mezzo-soprano parts,
Miss Nadell has mastered an exten-
sive repertoire including the roles of
Carmen and Mercedes in the opera
"Carmen," Delilah in "Samson and
Delilah," Amneris in "Aida" and
others.
In 1943 she won the Marian An-
derson Award for her concert work.
She has sung with the New York
City Center Opera Company and
made her Broadway debut as Juno
in "Helen Goes to Troy." In this
year's appearance at Ann Arbor,
Mist Nadell will include in her rep-
ertoire Prokofieff's cantata, "Alex-
ander Nevsky" in which she was the
soloist for the American premier
performance.
Thursday, May 2, 8:30
Soloist: Jussi Bjoerling, Tenor
EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor
Symphony No. 5 ...................... Sibelius
"Ah ! Fuyez douce image" from
"Mallon" ........ .... Mas n t
Flower Song from "Carmen"............Biet
Jussi Bjoerling
"The Perfect Fool" ...................... Holst
"Che gelida manina" from "La
Boheme".........................Puccini
"E lucevan le stelle" from "Tosca" . ....Puccini
Mr. Bjoerling
"Daphnis and Chloe," Suite No. 2.......Ravel
Friday, May 3, 8:30
Soloists:
Nathan Milstein, Violinist
Ruth Diehl, Soprano
Jean Watson, Contralto
William Hait, Tenor
Nicalo Moscona, Bass
UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION
ALEXANDER HILSBERG and HARDIN
VAN DEURSEN, Conductors
Requiem Mass ........................Mozart
Choral Union and Soloists
Hardin Van Deursen, Conductor
Concerto for Violin in D Major,
Op. 35 .:. . .....................Tchaikovsky
Nathan Milstein
Alexander Hilsberg, Conductor
Saturday, May 4, 2:30
Soloist, Anne Brown, Soprano
FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS
ALEXANDER HILSBERG and
MARGUERITE HOOD, Conductors
Overture, '"The Bartered Bride" .......Smetana
American Polk Songs.
Festival Youth Chorus
Marg uerite Hood, Conductor
"Ritorna vincitor" from "Aida" ...........Verdi
"Voi 1osapete" from "Cavalleria
Rusticana"......................Mascagni
Anne Brown
Finlandia ............................ Sibelius
Excerpts from "Porgy and Bess"......,Gershwin
Miss Brown
Scherzo and Nocturne from "Midsummer
Night's Dream" ................ Mendelssohn
"Till Eulenspiegel" . . .................. Strauss
Saturday, May 4, 8:30
Soloist: Bidu Sayao, Soprano
EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor
Symphony No. 40, G minor ..........Mozart
"Batti, batti" from "Don Giovanni". .. Mozart
"Ali, non credea mirarti" from
La Sonnambula" . ..,...... . .. Bellini
Bidu Sayao
Soliloquy.......... ..................Rogers
Dos cantares populares ..............Obradors
"Lundu da Marchese de Santos". . . . Villa-Lobos
"Il faut partir" from "La Fille du
Regiment" . ....... . .......... . .... Donizetti
Miss Sayaco
"Pines of RomeP'.....................Respighi
Sunday, May 5, 2:30
Soloist: William Kapell, Pianist
ALEXANDER HILSBERG, Conductor
All-Brahms Program
Academic Festival Overture
Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, for Piano
and Orchestra
Maestoso
Adagio
Rondo: allegro non troppo
William Kapell
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Allegro non troppo
Andante moderato
Allegro giocoso
Allegro energico e passionato
Sunday, May 5, 8:30
Soloists: Rosalind Nadell, Contralto
Salvatore Baccaloni, Bass
UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION
EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor
Overture and Venusberg Music from
"Tannhauser".. ........ .,...... ..Wagner
"Son imbrogliato" from "La Serva
Padrona".......................Pergolesi
"Ragazze che son" from "Le Astuzie
Femminili" . ...................... Cimarosa
"Madamina" from "Don Giovanni".....Mozart
"Udite, tutti" from "Il Matrimonio
Segreto"................ ........Cimarosa
Salvatore Baccaloni
Cantata, "Alexander Nevsky". .....Prokofieff
Choral Union and Rosalind Nadell
Six Concerts
Will Be Given
I Four Days
Annual Series Will Be
Presented May 2-5
Climaxing the musical season, the
fifty-third annual May Festival will
be presented by the University Musi-
cal Society May 2 through 6 in Hill
Auditorium.
As in previous years, six concerts
wil be presented in the four days and
the Philadelphia Orchestra, under the
baton of Eugene Ormandy, will par-
ticipate in all of the programs. Alex-
ander Hilsberg, former concert master
of the orchestra, will be heard here
for the first time as associate con-
ductor. He will direct the orchestra
Friday evening, Saturday afternoon
and in the all-Brahms program Sun-
day afternoon.
Eleven Soloists Featured
The Festival will feature eleven
solo artists, the University Choral
Union, under the direction of Hardin
Van Deursen, and the Festival Youth
Chorus, directed by Marguerite Hood.
Bjoerling At Opening Concert
The 1946 May Festival will
open Thursday, May 2 with Sibelius'
Fifth Symphony. Jussi Bjoerhing, lyr-
ic tenor, will highlight the first con-
cert with arias by Bizet and Puccini.
The second concert at 8:30 p.m.
Friday, May 3 will feature Nathan
Milstein, violinist, in Tchaikovsky's
Concerto for Violin in D Major. Mo-
zart's Requiem Mass will be sung
during the first half of the program
by the Choral Union and four guest
soloists; Ruth Diehl, soprano; Jean
Watson, contralto; William Hai,
tenor; and Nicola Moscoona, bass.
Youth Chorus, Anne Brown
The Youth Chorus, conducted by
Marguerite Hood, will make its an-
nual Festival apearance in the Sat-
urday afternoon concert. The chorus,
composed of children between the
ages of 5 and 10 from the public
schools of Ann Arbor, wil sing the
tone poem, Finlandia, by Sibelius.
Anne Brown, Negro soprano who
gained fame through her role in
the Gershwin operetta "Porgy and
Bess" will include excerpts from the
broduction among her selections in
the afternoon concert.
Bidu Sayao, Brazilian soprano who
was forced to cancel her appearance
at last year's festival because of ill-
ness, will be heard this season at
8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3. The
Philadelphia Orchestra will open the
evening concert with Mozart's Sym-
phony No. 40 in G Minor.
All-Brahms Concert
The Orchestra will be heard in an
all-Brahms program Sunday after-
noon with Alexander Hilsberg con-
ducting. William Kapell, prominent
young pianist, will play the Con-
certo No. 1 in D minor. The Academic
Festival Overture which was played
last year will be repeated and the.
orchestra will conclude the concert
with Brahms' Fourth Symphony.
The concluding concert of the Fes-
tival will be presented at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday and will feature Rosalind
Nadell, contralto, and Salvatore Bac-
caloni, bass. Highlight of the pro-
gram will be the cantata "Alexander
Nevsky" by the modern Russian
composer Prokofieff. The work, which
will bring the Festival to a close, will
by sung by the Choral Union and
Miss Nadell.
May Festival
Began in 1894
The May Festival, which hasnbe-
come a traditional music event at
the University, was begun by acci-
dent in 1894, as a result of an at-
tempt at economy by the Board of
Directors of the University Musical
Society.
The Musical Society had been pre-
senting a yearly concert series for
fifteen years. Each season the closing
program featured the Boston Sym -
phony Orchestra.
In 1894, after the usual climax
had been announced, it was learned
that the orchestra could not appear.
Boston also maintained a special
traveling orchestra known as the
Boston Festival Orchestra, and it
was engaged to play at the con-
cluding concert. Since one of the
CHARLES SINK ...
president of 'U' Musical Society
eleventh time, and will be heard
in all of the concerts. The Univer-
sity Choral Union, organized in
1879, will be heard in two pro-
grams; and the Festival Youth
Chorus, organized in 1913, in one
of the matinees.
Distinguished soloists, both vocal
and instrumental, will take part.
Symphonies, other orchestral works,
arias, choral works, etc., will char-
acterize, the several programs. It is
hoped that music-lovers and lay-
men alike will find something in each
program in which they will be par-
ticularly interested.
The University Musical Society
is grateful to students, faculty, and.
to the public generally, for the
cordial reception with which its
efforts have been met during the
years.
It trusts that in spite of the serious
and complicated problems of the
day, the Festival of 1946 will not
only equal in cultural importance,
but may even exceed those of past
years, thus justifying the Society's
legend, suggested by its first Presi-
dent, Henry Simmons Frieze, "Ars
Longa Vita Brevis."
Charles A. Sink, president
University Musical Society
IIOLST, VILLA-LOBOS:
Haines Lands Representation
Of Contemporary Composers
Anne Brown
Will Feature
Torgy' Songs
Commenting favorably on the
amount of contemporary music to
be found on the programs for the
1946 May Festival, Dr. Edmund
Haines, instructor in composition at
the School of Music, cited the names
of Holst, Rogers, Prokofieff and Res-
pighi.+
"The hardest thing for an audi-
ence to face is a new style" Haines
asserted. The same condition pre-1
vails whenever a new style is intro-
duced in literature or in art, he con-+
tinued. There is certain to be a little
lag in bringing audiences to appre-
ciate a new idiom, but each period
will have its own means of expres-
sion, he said.
Tendency To Prefer Older Works
Asked about the tendency on the
part of audiences to prefer the old
masters, Haines pointed out that
when we listen to music of the past
we hear only the music that has
been good enough to survive the test
of time. "Since audiences hear a
little bit of everything that is being
done today, there is a natural ten-
dency to call it all trash if one part
of it doesn't live up to their expec-
tations."
There must be new music, he ex-
plained, because composers are work-
ing with a period which has never
come before. "Ears are prejudiced
because they are trained in listening
to certain types of sounds."
Experimentalists Will Win
In the battle between the compos-
ers and the critics of modern music,
the experimentalists will win out as
they always have, he asserted. There
is always an eventual audience that
will listen to the music if it is really
See HAINES, page 2
'ALEXANDER NEVSKY' CANTATA
Choral Union To Sing in Friday, Sunday Concerts
The University Musical Society
Choral Union will sing Mozart's "Re-
quiem Mass' in Friday's concert un-
der the direction of Prof. Hardin Van
Deursen, and the cantata "Alex-
ander Nevsky" Sunday evening.
Organized in the fall of 1879,
the Choral Union, then the Mes-
siah Club, was comprised of mem-
bers of the Congregational, Meth-
odist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal
churches. When the Club's name
few high school students to an eighty
year old tenor.
The group has performed an-
naully since it was organized, both
in the Choral Union series of con-
certs and in the May Festival. In-
cluded in its repertoire are almost
all the major oratories and operas
adaptable to concert performances.
The "Messiah" is presented each
year during the Christmas season by
the chorus and several prominent
He received his Bachelor Of Music
degree from Northwestern University,
did some graduate work at the Uni-
versity of Southern California, and
received his Master of Music degree
at this University. Before coming to
Ann Arbor he was conductor and mu-
sic instructor at Huron College, S.D.,
the University of Wyoming, and Al-
bion College.
In addition to his work in the
University, Prof.,Van Deursen is
Dean of Bay View Summer College
ANNE BROWN...
Negro soprano to sing at festival.
Anne Brown, American Negro artist
of both the dramatic theatre and the
concert stage, will include excerpts
from the George Gershwin operetta
"Porgy and Bass" among her selec-
tions at this year's May Festival.
It was in the leading role of "Bess"
that Miss Brown made her sensation-
al debut as a soprano soloist. The
critics' applause of her beautiful
voice and fine artistic musicianship
have since resulted in her appearances
as soloist with the NBC Symphony
Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski,
the New York Philharmonic, the Phil-
adelphia Orchestra at Robin Hood
Dell, and the Detroit, Toronto, Buf-
falo and other symphony orchestras.
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