THE MICHIGAN DAILY FAGS! THE MICIGAN DALY..A. i 1 Concerts Will Feature Varied Musical Works By BARBARA GOLDBLUM The May Festival Audiences will be treated to a varied musical fare this season. Overtures, symphonies, suites, tone poems, operatic scenes and choral compositions, representing the works of 21 composers of the classical, romantic and contemporary periods will be played. The compositions are representative of ten countries including Switzer- * * * * land, Austria, Russia and Norway. IN ALL TWENTY FIVE works will be performed, over half of which have never been played before a Festival audience. The new selections vary as greatly among themselves as does the whole pro- gram. There is a contemporary American work, Swanson's "Short Symphony," Mozart's "Exultate, jubilate," a motet; Roussel's "Le Festin de l'Araignee," selections from Nicolai's "Merry Wives of Wind- sor" and the Czardas from "Die Fledermaus" by Strauss. For the first time in May Festival history, Wagnerian duets will be sung: Act I Scene III from "Die Walkure" and the Night Scene from "Tristan and Isolde." In the final concert Haug's Passacaglia and Coleridge-Taylor's Willow Song are newcomers, in addition to an aria from Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment"-Chacun le sait, an arietta from Gian-Carlo Menotti's contemporary opera "The Telephone" and a suite from "Die Fledermaus." * * * * THE FIRST CONCERT will present a performance of the second suite from Ravel's ballet, Daphnis and Chloe. The score of Daphnis and Chloe was divided into two suites which can be enjoyed fully apart from the stage effects of the ballet. Friday evening "The Damnation of Faust" by Hector Berlioz will be performed. * * * * "THE DAMNATION" was originally composed in Berlioz's youth as Eight Scenes from Faust; following faithfully the poem by Goethe. The music from the Eight Scenes was so mature and clearly imagined that Berlioz later utilized it all in his full length cantata. He is the unrivaled master of orchestration and this. work is a veritable masterpiece. This is the fourth presentation of the Damna- tion of Faust at a May Festival. The program of the final concert consists solely of operatic arias and songs by Patrice Munsel, with the exceptign of Sibelius' Fifth Symphony and the Haug Passacaglia. The former work has none of the elements that bid for immediate popularity but it is full of deep feeling. Like most of Sibelius' music the Fifth Symphony is serious but not dull. Novaes Rises from Prodigy, To Outstanding Woman Pianist Svanholm To Appear On May 3 Tenor To Sing Wagner Concert Set Svanholm, who made his musical debut as a baritone, and later become the leading drama- tic tenor of the Metropolitan and San Francisco Operas, will enter- tain :May Festival audiences on Saturday, when he appears in an all-Wagner concert. The son of a minister, who early taught him to play the organ, Svanholm first earned his living as a schoolmaster and choirmas- ter., HE ENROLLED in the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm as a baritone and graduated to make his debut as Silvio in "I Pagliacci." After several seasons as a bari- tone, he decided that his voice was moredsuited to tenor roles. He made his second debut as a tenor at the Stockholm Opera in Verdi's "Aida." Svanholm first appeared in America in 1946 when he took the Metropolitan Opera House by storm with his performance of Siegfried, which critics hailed as "superb" and "unparalleled." It was not until two years later that he made his recital debut in\New York's Town Hall. Although Svanholm is most f a- mous for his Wagner roles, he need not be typed exclusively as Wagnerian. He has a wide variety of roles at his command because of his many years with the Stock- holm Opera. However, his crea- tive zest for Wagner's roles and his deep understanding of their' texts combines with the tremend- ous "staying power" of his voice to make him an expert in these most difficult of operatic roles. The handsome, blond singer is an unusual personality around an opera house-a star with no up- stage mannerisms and much mo- desty. Blessed with an inexhaustible supply of tact andgood humor, his only trace of artistic temperment is his insistence on the tradition of having a big, juicy apple hand- ed to him by a friend immedi- ately after each performance. This he devours thirstly before attend- ing to any of the business of hand- shaking, accepting congratulations or removing make-up.; -Daily-l R±eid THE BEST BUY--Gail W. Rector, Assistant to President of the Choral Union Administrative Staff, shows Festival bound student where remaining seats are. * * *. * Festival Weekend Product Of Behind-the-Scenes Plans - By MARILYN FLORIDIS Although music lovers from all over the country -come to Ann Arbor to attend the four-day con- cert season of May ,Festival, little thought is given to the tremen- doushplanningnand organization which goes into this musical weekend. Planning for the annual event is directly governed by a board of 12 directors, but a five man ad- ministrative unit makes up a "be- hind the scenes" working group for the University Musical Society. * * * CHARLES A. SINK heads the staff as president, and assisting him are Mary K. Farkas, secre- tary to the president; Deanne Smith, bookkeeper and cashier; Gail W. Rector, assistant to the president, and Lester McCoy, as- sociate conductor. Such tasks as planning an ex- tensive rehearsal schedule for Choral Union, orchestras and guest artists, contracting for the artists, selling tickets for per- formances and procuring scores for the chorus, orchestra and conductors parts all fall on the shoulders of this working team. Rector even remembers a per- formance of Mozart's "Great Mass" in 1948 when orchestral parts had to be manually copied from original manuscripts by the administrative staff because no or- chestral parts for the Mass were available. FURTHERMORE, arrangements for all large choral works heard in May Festivals must be made about a year before their performance in order to make sure that some of these rare scores can be obtained from the publishers. Another group which has long received little notice in May Fes- tival preparation is the Univer- sity Musical Society Orchestra, made up of faculty members and students from all branches of the University. This group goes through several weeks of extensive rehearsal with Choral Union to provide them with an instrumental background until the Philadelphia Orchestra comes to take over a short time before the Festival. And, of course, no survey of May Festival organization would be complete without mentioning Cho- ral Union's diligent practices starting in January for the big choral works they present during the Festival. Rehearsals get par= ticularly thick and furious when the guest artists start arriving and constant practice sessions must be arranged to perfect a proper bal- ance between chorus and soloists. All of the before hand effort is rewarded, however, when the musical weekend finally arrives, and the walls of Hill Auditorium ring with round after round of ap- plause for the beautiful music. May Marks High Point For Chorale When the University Choral Un- ion takes part in the Festival on May 2 and 4, they will be hitting one of the high spots of their sing- ing years. The two performances of Han- del's Mesisah in December and the chorus' appearance each spring at the May Festival are its main events of the year. IMMEDIATELY after the Mes- siah performances, January 1, Lester McCoy, Associate Conduc- tor of the University Musical So- ciety and conductor of the Mes- siah, begins training the chorus for the spring festival. This training lasts until two weeks or ten days before the festival when Thor Johnson, who conducts the chorus for the event, takes over. Regular con- ductor of the Cincinnati Orches- tra, he has just enough time af- ter his concert season ends to come to Ann Arbor to rehearse final matters of interpretation with the fully trained choir. When the festival is finished, the chorus begins on the Messiah again, starting the cycle anew. * . . FOR MANY YEARS the choral group has ben partial to the Mes- siah and to date have given the Handel work in its entirety forty times. The oratorio's importance in the history of the'organization is pointed out by the fact that the choral union came into being be- cause of it. Founded in 1879 when a spon- taneous movement in the church choirs united them into a large group, they were first called the "Messiah Club." Their intent at this time was to sing only cho- ruses from that score. After a few months, however, the partly social,. partly musical group expanded. Singers in addi- tion to those who had originally been in. the church choirs were taken in and the club's repertoire was expanded to include other works. Altogether there have been nearly sixteen thousand members in the Union during its 73years of existence. Today they are scat- tered all over tie world. Several family traditions have come into being as many members have fathers or mothers and even grandparents who have sung in the chorus. DISC REVIEWS: Stars Perform On New Records By VIRGINIA VOSS and TOM ARP Guiorar Novaes Brazilian pianist Guiomar Novaes will close the Sunday afternoon festival concert with Beethoven's fourth Piano Concerto, and, if a recent recording she has made of the work is any indication, it should be a nearly definitive performance. With the Vienna Symphony conducted by Otto Klemperer, Miss Novaes has done a brilliant but never bombastic job of interpreting one of Beethoven's most delicate piano concertos. Her polished pianism is especially effective in the subdued dia. logue between the piano and orchestra which prevails during the second movement. And the recording is excellent throughout. Technical progress in the record industry is especially evident in the improvement of piano recordings, and this one is as clear and vibrant as any now on the market. * * * * Eugene Ormandy The Philadelphia Orchestra's re Second Symphony has an amazing Conductor Eugene Ormandy draw mere sounds; he makes it, if possib Rachmaninoff's symphony has+ (if one is sitting through it at a repertoire. The present recording a a new composition, with all the st desired. Family Shaped Violin Career For Milstein Renowned Russian violinist, Nathan Milstein, is a man shaped, not by destiny, but by his family life. At an early age, Milstein began to play the violin, not, as he read- ily admits, because he was drawn to it, but because his mother made him. Milstein, who will perform for the May Festival audience on Sat- urday, May 3, is heralded by the critics as a violinist "par excel- lence" and has enjoyed a bril- liant career on three continents. At the end of the current sea- son, the Russian-born virtuoso will have appeared 39 times as soloist with the New York Phil- harmonic Symphony in addition to numerous concert perform- ances. Milstein will perform the "Con- certo in A minor" by Dvorak on one of the world's most famed violins, the "ex-Goldmann Stradi- varius." Created by Stradivarius in 1716, the violin was brought to this countryseveralyas ragh o. cent recording qf Rachmaninoff's g amount of brilliance and depth. vs more from his orchestra than )le, a living thing. often been considered the longest concert) and dullest work in the nd performance make it seem like ublety and vibrancy that could be Ormandy's interpretation is, to say the least, impassioned. His skillful blending of the choirs and impeccable tempi should delight the most critical, and the richness and power he works ir(~t the bois- terious finale are enough to match almost any concert performance. Astrid Varney The 1951 Bayreuth Festival may have been a glorious thing, but a recording of the third act of "Die Walkure," with Astrid Var- nay and Sigurd Bjoerllngi s not up to Columbia's latest high-qual- ity releases. Miss Varney handles herself well, generally in the tradition of the greatest Wagnerian sing- ers. In fact, muffled as she is by the apparently poor record- ing acoustics of the Festspiel. haus, it may take a few moments to distingush her performance from those of Kirsten Flagstad at her height. However, Miss Varnay has not yet reached that point in her career. Her tones are admirably clear and brilliant, but an oc- casionally faulty intonation mars the overall effect. Very possibly, and most prob- ably, she will someday be hailed as one of the greatest Wagnerian Pianist Guiomar Novaes, one of the two featured instrumentalists who will appear in the 1952 Festi- val, has made a remarkable rise to prominence in the world of music since her first public appearance at the age of seven. A real child prodigy in her day, Miss Novaes entertained her Kin- dergarten friends by playing for them at the age of four. The Brazilian government be- came interested in her career af- ter her second tour of her native country and sent her to Paris to further'her studies. There, she was admitted to the Paris Conserva- toire where she was singled out for first honors from a field of 388 contestants. At 16 Mlle. Novaes made her debut as a mature artist and im- mediate success and extensive concert engagements throughout Europe followed. Although most of1 her concert tours have been in Europe and the United States, Mlle. Novaes has never forgotten the help given her by the Brazilian government. She is one of Brazil's most ardent am- bassadors and has done much for the educational and cultural growth of her native land. I the chorus. i I ths ontyseerlyer a: sopranos of her time. -= ., -r: p i THREE CHORAL fl featuring guest soloists NEWflY, DUEY, LONDON and DERMOTR i PERFORMANCES 11 PHILIP DUEY . ,.baritone i FRIDAY, MAY 2, 8:30 UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION THOR JOHNSON, Conductor PATRICIA NEWAY, Soprano ANTON DERMOTA, Tenor PHILIP DUEY, Baritone GEORGE LONDON, Bass "The Damnation of Faust," Dramatic Legend in Four Parts, Op. 24 . BERLIOZ CHORAL UNION AND SOLOISTS f i i SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2:30 ALEXANDER HILSBERG and SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2:30 THOR JOHNSON, Conductor UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION MARGUERITE HOOD, Conductors NATHAN MILSTEIN, Violinist FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS *,Overture to "Russian and Ludmilla" GLINKA Song Cycle from the Masters . . Arr. RUSSELL HOWLAND FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major . SCHUBERT INTERMISSION MACK HARRELL, Baritone GUIOMAR NOVAES, Pianist Overture to "Coriolanus," Op. 62 BEETHOVAN "Belshazzar's Feast" . . . , WALTON CHORAL UNION AND MACK HARRELL INTERMISSION *Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, for Piano and Orchestra . . BEETHOVEN GUIOMAR NOVAES ANTON DERMOTA . .tenor 11 *I I 'r Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, for Violin and Orchestra . NATHAN MILSTEIN Columbia Records DVORAK T~ A 'T1T~ Y~Y A ~Yw,~..rr ~ II