The Russian Symphony Orchestra Society (also known simply as the Russian Symphony Orchestra ) was founded in 1903 ( 1903 ) in New York City by Modest Altschuler , and functioned for fifteen years.
62-712: Oscar Levant described the orchestra as having constituted "a school for concertmasters "; among its members were Frederic Fradkin (concertmaster of the Boston Symphony ), Maximilian Pilzer (concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic ), Ilya Skolnik (concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony ), and Louis Edlin (concertmaster of the National Orchestral Association ). Film music conductors Nikolai Sokoloff (who
124-711: A 1910 production of Shakespeare's The Tempest and a series of performances in the 1910–1911 season which repeated these pieces and added As You Like It , The Merry Wives of Windsor , Macbeth , and Sakuntala . Besides a broader variety of New York performances, the orchestra toured extensively. Although they had already toured in December 1907, when the New York Times mentions them traveling to "Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Madison, Wis. and other cities," bringing along pianists Ernest Hutcheson and Ernest Schelling , their 1908 touring plans extended as far as
186-402: A Russian dance by Eduard Nápravník and the symphonic suite Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov ; The Times of January 24 that same year mentions their second concert as including Wieniawski's Souvenir de Moscou and reviewing a later concert in the series mentions a performance of "'The Cliff' by Rachmaninoff," presumably the same piece as The Rock . For the 1904–1905 season,
248-521: A broader public than could usually attend orchestra concerts. Through arrangements with working people's organizations such as the Wage Earners' Theatre Leagues, a family of four to attend as cheaply as a total of 50 cents, the equivalent of about $ 16 in 2023. Each concert was on a different theme: Russian, French, Italian, Slavic and Scandinavian, German and Wagner, Symphony, Pop, and International. Late that summer, concertmaster Nikolai Sokoloff quit
310-662: A composer. The same reviewer panned Alexander Glazunov 's Third Symphony , which had its American premiere on this occasion: "[W]hat Russian music the conductor's of the more cosmopolitan orchestras have left for the Russians to put down on their programmes as given 'for the first time' may have been rejected rather than overlooked." Apparently undaunted by that criticism, the orchestra announced two days later that its concert of January 17 would feature American premieres of Rachmaninoff's Spring cantata and Jean Sibelius 's Karelia overture, though apparently Rimsky-Korsakov's Antar
372-601: A concert that included a very different interpretation of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 , which they had premiered in 1901 and which had meanwhile become a "celebrated" and much-played work. After discussions with the composer, Altschuler had sped up the tempi and his reading of the piece had "radically changed". The concert also featured two American premieres of pieces by Anatoly Lyadov — Kikimora and Volshebnoye ozero (The Enchanted Lake) , both written in 1909—Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture , and several songs sung by German baritone Alexander Heinemann . The December 1 concert featured
434-524: A few recordings, some of which are considered to be examples of perfect technique and musical elegance. The discs of the Chopin Études Op. 25, Nos. 6 & 11 recorded for RCA Victor in 1935 and Schulz-Evler 's arrangement of Johann Strauss II 's Blue Danube Waltz , also for Victor in 1928, are legendary among pianists and connoisseurs. His piano roll of Schumann 's Papillons Op.2 and 1935 recording of Schumann's Toccata Op.7 are considered some of
496-657: A heart attack at his Beverly Hills, California , home at the age of 65. Levant's body was discovered by his wife, June, when she called to him for an interview with Candice Bergen , who was then working as a photojournalist. Bergen had shot photos of Levant on a previous visit, one of which was published in her memoir, Knock Wood . Levant is interred in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Actor John Garfield used Levant as
558-490: A joke. Kieran praised Levant as having a "positive genius for making offhand cutting remarks that couldn't have been sharper if he'd honed them a week in his mind. Oscar was always good for a bright response edged with acid." Examples include "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin," "I think a lot of [conductor/composer Leonard] Bernstein —but not as much as he does," and (after Marilyn converted to Judaism when she married playwright Arthur Miller ), "Now that Marilyn Monroe
620-479: A kinescope recording of the broadcast made so that he could assess his performance. Levant married actress Barbara Woodell in 1932. The couple divorced in 1933. In 1939, Levant married singer and actress June Gale ; they had three daughters, Marcia, Lorna, and Amanda. Levant talked publicly about his neuroses and hypochondria . Levant became addicted to prescription drugs and was committed to psychiatric hospitals by his wife. In August 1972, Levant died of
682-470: A model when creating the character of troubled genius Mickey Borden in the 1938 film Four Daughters . Levant was the inspiration for the neurotic, womanizing pianist Henry Orient in Nora Johnson 's novel The World of Henry Orient (1964). In April 2023, a play about Levant's life written by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright premiered on Broadway. The play, Good Night, Oscar , premiered at
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#1732783169317744-510: A piece on Ancient Greek themes, using music from Anton Rubinstein, Mendelssohn, Chopin , and Grieg . The performance alternated Allan's dances with straight orchestral performances. A concert a week later featured Rachmaninoff as a guest conductor for the American premiere of his Isle of the Dead and as a soloist on his Piano Concerto No. 2 . Further performances with Allan followed, with
806-549: A program consisting largely of American premieres of Russian pieces: Alexander Glazunov 's Symphony No. 8 , composed roughly two years earlier; arrangements of Russian folk songs by Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov , and Rimsky-Korsakov; and Mussorgsky's " Great Gate of Kiev ". The program also featured the American debut of young Russian violinist Lea Luboshutz (listed at the time as Laya Luboshiz ), who received eight curtain calls for her solo on Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto . She
868-466: A relationship with Vasily Safonov . Rachmaninoff was engaged as a guest conductor and piano soloist for concerts of his music performed on April 7–8, 1906, and Safonov's former pupil, pianist Joseph Lhévinne , was brought over to make his American debut; both were in their early thirties at the time, as was composer Vasily Zolotarev , whose Rhapsodie Hébraïque was also performed that season at Safonov's suggestion. Rhapsodie hébraïque , presented on
930-469: A request by Aaron Copland to play at the Yaddo Festival of contemporary American music on April 30 of that year. Successful, Levant began composing a new orchestral work, a sinfonietta . Levant made his debut as a music conductor in 1938 on Broadway , filling in for his brother Harry in sixty-five performances of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart ’s The Fabulous Invalid . In 1939, he
992-474: A series of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin , as well as the American premiere of Rachmaninoff's Fantasie for two pianos , featuring Marie Cracrost and Raymond L. Havens, and Alexander Glazunov 's From the Middle Ages . After a transcontinental tour, they came back to New York that summer to offer a series of eight concerts at Madison Square Garden in late June and early July, aimed at
1054-683: Is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her.” Levant appeared in feature films, starting from the 1920s until the mid-50s, often playing a pianist or composer. He had supporting roles in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers ; An American in Paris (1951), starring Gene Kelly ; and The Band Wagon (1953), starring Astaire and Cyd Charisse . Oscar Levant regularly appeared on NBC radio's Kraft Music Hall , starring singer Al Jolson . He not only accompanied Jolson on
1116-582: The Belasco Theatre and starred Sean Hayes , who received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance. Good Night, Oscar was a fictionalized version of a true event in Levant's life, when he was given a four-hour furlough from a psychiatric hospital to allow him to appear on The Tonight Show . Another example of his repartée: Joseph Lh%C3%A9vinne Josef Lhévinne (13 December 1874 – 2 December 1944)
1178-564: The Ben Greet Players on a Carnegie Hall performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream incorporating Mendelssohn 's incidental music, a performance that was repeated at Lake George on August 30 and at Carnegie Hall on New Year's Day 1910. These performances constituted the first time Mendelssohn's music was performed in conjunction with the play in the United States. The two groups collaborated further, including
1240-758: The Imperial Conservatory in Moscow under Vasily Safonov . He made his public debut at the age of 14 with Ludwig van Beethoven 's Emperor Concerto in a performance conducted by his musical hero Anton Rubinstein . He graduated at the top of a class that included both Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin , winning the gold medal for piano in 1892. In 1895 Levin won the Second International Anton Rubinstein Competition held in Berlin, emerging as
1302-510: The Polish composer Emil Młynarski . However, the unrest in Russia at that time prevented Rachmaninoff from visiting America, scuttling his planned April 7 performance. Instead, violinist and composer Émile Sauret was featured, performing Antonín Dvořák 's Violin Concerto in A Minor . The same concert included two pieces by composer Anton Arensky , who had died on February 25. By the end of
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#17327831693171364-458: The Times had high praise for soloist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler 's February 7, 1907 performance of Anton Rubinstein 's already well-known D Minor Concerto (No. 4) , though suggesting that the orchestra "show[ed] a lack of rehearsal with the pianist." The fifth of six concerts that season on February 28, featuring a return by pianist Josef Lhévinne, consisted entirely of Russian pieces performed for
1426-573: The West Coast . Their tours could involve large numbers of performances. For example, a newspaper from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania shows the orchestra performing four separate concerts (at 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.) on a single Wednesday in September 1911. The programs were each entirely different, and the music ranged from Beethoven through Richard Wagner , Verdi and Puccini to Sibelius and Scriabin. The orchestra began
1488-709: The 1906 season, the Russian Symphony Orchestra was an established part of the New York music scene. In all, the New York Times counted six New York premieres by the Russian Symphony Orchestra as such in 1906, and three more by the New Music Society. On May 25, the Society announced that Altschuler would be retained as Director for three more years, with Russian Ambassador Baron Roman Rosen continuing as honorary president. Looking forward to
1550-493: The 1906-1907 musical season, the Times counted them among the city's major orchestras, along with the New York Philharmonic , New York Symphony Orchestra , Peoples' Symphony Concerts , and Sam Franko 's American Symphony . The 1906-7 season saw an appearance by pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin under the direction of his (and Altschuler's) conservatory teacher Vasily Safonov . An anonymous New York Times review praised Scriabin's playing, while finding him immature as
1612-573: The 1910s with a premiere of a different sort. After a January 1 Carnegie Hall reprise of their Midsummer Night collaboration with Ben Greet, on January 20 their second performance of the new decade introduced dancer Maud Allan to the New York audience. Although American-born, Allan had begun her dancing career in England and Europe, and this was her first American appearance. Like Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller , Allan choreographed for herself, using existing classical pieces. On this occasion she danced
1674-494: The American premiere of Robert Kajanus ' Finnish Rhapsody , a return of Rachmaninoff's The Rock (which they had played in their second concert ever), and the return of violinist Kathleen Parlow performing the abovementioned Wieniawski concerto. The final concert of the season, February 16, featured several solo vocalists (including Nina Dimitrieff ) and a 65-voice women's chorus, the St. Cecelia Club, for Altschuler's own arrangement of
1736-659: The March 17, 1906 concert featured the first American performance of the young Reinhold Glière 's Symphony No 1 in E-flat major, Op. 8 (composed 1900) as well as American premieres of pieces by César Cui a Cossack dance by Alexander Serov , who had died 35 years earlier in an era when Russian music had little currency in America, and 'a new concerto for violin, by Mlinarski," presumably the Concerto in D minor (composed c. 1897) by
1798-456: The NBC radio and television game show Who Said That? . Levant hosted a talk show on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles from 1958 -1960, The Oscar Levant Show , which was later syndicated . It featured his piano playing along with monologues and interviews with guests such as Fred Astaire and Linus Pauling . Full recordings of only two shows are known to have survived, one with Astaire, who paid to have
1860-542: The Russian Revolution, they moved to Berlin in 1907. There Lhévinne gained a reputation as one of the leading virtuosi and teachers of his day. They were declared enemy aliens at the outbreak of World War I and became trapped there. They had lost what money they had saved in Russian banks in the 1917 Revolution and were unable to perform in concerts due to the war. They endured years of hardship, surviving on
1922-504: The Russian Symphony functioning as the group's orchestra. A first Carnegie Hall concert originally scheduled for February 19 apparently never occurred, because the New York Times refers to a March 10 concert as the group's first; another concert took place April 2, 1906. The most prominent pieces at that first concert Edward MacDowell 's Indian Suite and Second Concerto (hardly "new": although only in his forties, MacDowell
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1984-468: The U.S. debut of Canadian-born violinist Kathleen Parlow ; the New York Times reviewer described her performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto as a "remarkable achievement" and praised her "unexpected authority", and would have equally high praise for her "consummate technical accuracy...beauty of tone...spirit...[and]fire" when she returned to play Henryk Wieniawski 's Violin Concerto No. 2
2046-575: The better. During his stay, he met and became friends with George Gershwin . From 1929 to 1948, Levant composed the music for more than twenty movies. During this period, he also wrote or co-wrote numerous popular songs that made the hit parade , the most noteworthy being " Blame It on My Youth " (1934), now considered a standard. Levant began composing seriously around 1932. He studied under Arnold Schoenberg and impressed Schoenberg sufficiently to be offered an assistantship (which he turned down, considering himself unqualified). These formal studies led to
2108-522: The dancer performing her signature Visions of Salomé , among other pieces. On April 4, the orchestra played a benefit for Russian immigrants at the Waldorf-Astoria , featuring several musical soloists as well as ballet dancers Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin . The 1910–1911 season featured five Carnegie Hall concerts interspersed with numerous out-of-town shows and followed by a 20-week national tour. Their New York season began November 17 with
2170-504: The definitive performances of these works. In the words of Harold C. Schonberg : "His tone was like the morning stars singing together, his technique was flawless even if measured against the fingers of Hofmann and Rachmaninoff , and his musicianship was sensitive." Lhévinne made a number of piano rolls in the 1920s for Ampico , a collection of which were recorded and released on the Argo label in 1966. Lhévinne also recorded three times for
2232-419: The favoured pianist in a group of thirty-three candidates with his performance of Rubinstein's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major. In 1898, Levin married Rosina Bessie , a fellow Moscow Conservatory student, a pianist and winner of the gold medal for piano in her year. The two began to give concerts together, a practice that lasted until his death. Faced with antisemitism and the political turbulence of
2294-444: The first time in America, although they were not recent works. The orchestral introduction of Mussorgsky 's The Fair at Sorochyntsi and Rubinstein's Caprice Russe were both by composers who had died before the turn of the century. Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov 's Iveria Suite (1896) and Alexander Scriabin 's First Symphony (completed 1900), while also not particularly recent, were at least by then-living composers, and Scriabin
2356-698: The first to use a celesta in concert performance in the United States. Among many Russian pieces given their American premieres that season was Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan ; the fourth concert of the season consisted entirely of works that had never before been presented in New York: Vasily Kalinnikov 's first symphony , Anton Arensky 's suite "Silhouettes", and excerpts from Modest Mussorgsky 's opera Khovanshchina . The next year, their six Saturday night concerts at Carnegie Hall were supplemented by three "popular price" concerts there on Sunday afternoons. The orchestra formed
2418-657: The following February 2. The concert was also the American premier of Stravinsky's Feu d'artifice ( Fireworks ). who had grown up largely in San Francisco and had become a professional musician in Europe. Starting four days later, they provided accompaniment for two-week run of Maeterlinck 's tragedy Mary Magdalene at The New Theatre . This was the world premiere of that play, and the first U.S. performance of any Maeterlinck play. A January 19, 1911 concert featured German-Polish pianist and composer Xaver Scharwenka as
2480-434: The last two days of 1905, was based on secular Jewish melodies that the Times characterized as "the musical equivalent of Yiddish ." Pianist Raoul Pugno also participated in the season as a soloist, playing Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto . Now expanded to 90 musicians, the orchestra was becoming an increasingly professional affair with, as the Times put it, "soloists of the first rank." Another of those soloists
2542-454: The orchestra along with about half a dozen other members. The orchestra's management claimed that this stemmed from Sokoloff's anger over what he perceived as another musician's flirting with Sokoloff's wife; Sokoloff insisted that the split was "purely and simply a matter of business." Karl Klein, son of Bruno Oscar Klein , was appointed to replace him. Oscar Levant Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906 – August 14, 1972)
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2604-491: The orchestra reduced its Carnegie Hall season from six performances to four, and began taking on other performance opportunities. At Carnegie Hall, they continued to present notable soloists: the debut of Mischa Elman (19 years old at the time), a return by Josef Lhévinne, and also an appearance by Alexander Petschnikoff . After a November 16, 1908 tryout in New Haven, Connecticut , on February 11, 1909, they collaborated with
2666-514: The orchestra, now expanded to 85 musicians, performed six concerts at Carnegie Hall , featuring works by a broad range of Russian composers, including a violin concerto by Julius Conus . The Times summarized the season as "resplendent with novelties," and praised their "enthusiasm" and the "absorbing interest" of their selected material, but was critical of the technical quality of their performances, particularly in comparison with their initial series of concerts at Cooper Union. That season, they were
2728-526: The piano with classical and popular songs, but often joked and ad-libbed with Jolson and his guests. This included comedy sketches. Their individual ties to George Gershwin —Jolson introduced Gershwin's " Swanee "—undoubtedly had much to do with their rapport. Both Levant and Jolson appeared as themselves in the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945). In the early 1950s, Levant was an occasional panelist on
2790-525: The poor income from a handful of students. After the war they were at last free to leave Germany, and in 1919 emigrated to New York City in the United States. Lhévinne continued his concert career and also taught piano at the Juilliard School . Regarded as one of the supreme technicians of his day by virtually all of his more famous contemporaries (even Vladimir Horowitz admired his pianistic command), he never achieved their level of success with
2852-427: The public. He may have made his excellence look and sound too easy, but he also enjoyed teaching more than performing. He settled into a life of concert tours and teaching. Lhévinne spent time each summer starting in 1922, at Bonnie Oaks , relaxing from public life and sometimes teaching young musicians. He died suddenly in New York, from a heart attack in 1944 a few days short of his 70th birthday. Lhévinne made only
2914-482: The regular panelists on the radio quiz show Information Please . Originally scheduled as a guest panelist, Levant proved so quick-witted and popular that he became a regular fixture on the show in the late-1930s and 1940s, along with fellow panelists Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran and moderator Clifton Fadiman . "Mr. Levant," as he was always called, was often challenged with musical questions, and he impressed audiences with his depth of knowledge and facility with
2976-400: The revolutionists and the government. Although his troubles were compounded by an injury to a finger, his January 27, 1906 performance featured Anton Rubinstein 's Fifth Concerto, and drew a very favorably review from the Times . In late December 1905, Altschuler and others announced the formation of the New Music Society of America, soliciting "serious new work" from American composers, with
3038-579: The soloist on his own Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor , as well as the American premiere of the Introduction and Wedding Procession from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel ; the concert also featured Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve Suite and the American premiere of a waltz that Tchaikovsky had written for The Nutcracker but omitted from the final version, and closed with Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave . The February 2 concert featured
3100-536: Was Giuseppe Campanari , a baritone associated with the Metropolitan Opera . The chaos of the Revolution of 1905 prevented sending scores from Russia for the orchestra to accompany Campanari on arias from Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Queen of Spades ( Pique Dame ), and the performances were almost canceled. The only known copy of even the texts of the arias that could readily be found in New York
3162-445: Was a German translation. The situation was finally rescued by "a little music store on Canal Street " which had held the relevant scores in stock, unsold for about a decade after they had been purchased from a Russian tenor in need of cash. Pianist Josef Lhévinne likewise had an extremely difficult time escaping the turmoil of revolution in Moscow to come to New York to play with the Russian Symphony and others, facing danger from both
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#17327831693173224-573: Was a Russian pianist and piano teacher. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing . Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was lay-VEEN . Joseph Arkadievich Levin (the name was altered in western Europe by a manager who thought "Lhévinne" more distinctive and less Jewish) was born into a Jewish family of musicians in Oryol south of Moscow. He studied at
3286-664: Was a rabbi. Levant moved to New York in 1922. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski . In 1925, Levant appeared with Ben Bernie in a short sound film, Ben Bernie and All the Lads , made in New York City with the De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film system. In the 1920s, Levant recorded with the Ben Bernie Orchestra. Levant traveled to Hollywood in 1928, where his career took a turn for
3348-405: Was again working on Broadway as composer and conductor of The American Way , another Kaufman and Hart production. He was a talented pianist and was well known for his recorded works of Gershwin, and numerous classical composers. During a time in the 1940s, he was the highest paid concert pianist in the United States. Also, at this time, Levant was becoming known to American audiences as one of
3410-456: Was already in his final illness at the time); the orchestra also performed Henry F. Gilbert 's Salammbô's Invocation to Tänith and Arthur Shepherd 's Overture Joyeuse . The second concert featured violinist Maud Powell as a soloist; works included George Whitefield Chadwick 's Melpomene overture, the premiere of a violin concerto by Henry Holden Huss , and premieres of pieces by David Stanley Smith and Frederick Converse . That season,
3472-473: Was an American concert pianist , composer, conductor , author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian, and actor. He had roles in the films Rhapsody in Blue (1945), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and The Band Wagon (1953). He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for recordings featuring his piano performances. He
3534-517: Was at Cooper Union Hall on January 7, 1904, and, according to Leonard Slatkin , featured works by Mikhail Glinka , Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , Henryk Wieniawski , and the American premiere of Rachmaninoff's The Rock . However, the New York Times of January 3, 1904 lists the program as consisting of the Overture from Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila , a baritone aria from Borodin 's Prince Igor , an intermezzo from Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov ,
3596-675: Was himself at one point the Russian Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster), Nathaniel Shilkret and Nat Finston were also Russian Symphony Orchestra alumni, as was trumpeter Harry Glantz . The orchestra also formed the backbone of the New Music Society of America , founded in December 1905. They performed the New York premieres of numerous pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff , Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Scriabin , including Stravinsky's first symphony (the Symphony in E-flat ) and The Firebird . The orchestra's debut public performance
3658-475: Was not the only notable female soloist to play with the orchestra that season: on February 13, 1908, cellist May Muklé performed Karl Davydov 's Cello Concerto No. 2 in A minor . 1908 also brought unprecedented recognition from Russia itself. The tsar granted the Order of Saint Stanislaus to orchestra president Frank Seymour Hastings in recognition of his promotion of Russian music in America. For 1908–1909,
3720-513: Was portrayed by Sean Hayes in the Broadway play Good Night, Oscar , written by Doug Wright . Levant appeared as himself in the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945). Levant was born in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, United States, in 1906, to Orthodox Jewish Max, a watchmaker, and Annie, who emigrated from Russia. Levant's parents were married by his maternal grandfather, who
3782-532: Was present for the occasion. That summer, Altschuler traveled to Europe to engage soloists for the 1907–1908 season, which began with a special concert November 10 at their largest venue to date: accompanying violinist Jan Kubelik at the New York Hippodrome . (A similar performance was given the following year, March 15, 1908.) Four days later they began their regular season at Carnegie Hall with Russian ambassador Baron Rosen in attendance, and with
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#17327831693173844-509: Was substituted for the Rachmininoff. The Times doubled down in its criticism: "[M]any of the things by the Russian composers that we do not know seem upon presentation hardly worth knowing. ... Antar ... is no symphony by any recognized definition of the term... This would be nothing against the music if it could win acceptance for itself as music, which it did not last evening." While continuing its skepticism toward recent Russian music,
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