Music

Ossip Gabrilowitsch, who is a conductor of prominence, appeared here again last week as a pianist, while Jose Iturbi, who is a pianist of prominence, showed up during the same period with a baton.

My guess is that Gabrilowitsch is better able to undergo the rigors of swift change than the young Iberian.

Take, for instance, the way Iturbi has with the Mozart of the pianoforte. Seated at a Baldwin, Jose is as understanding a Mozartean as you could wish to hear. Standing up, though, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in front of him and the pomp and circumstance of a Carnegie Hall audience in back, Iturbi’s idea of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” is not mine, the orchestra’s or, I suspect, Mozart’s.

Maybe his Schumann of the “Rhenish” Symphony is authoritative. I wouldn’t care particularly. But that gets us into the oh, so debatable field of program-making.

Gabrilowitsch, self-effacing as ever, played three more Beethoven sonatas with Albert Spalding, violinist, to wind up their cycle of three Town Hall concerts. The “Kreutzer” piece was among these last, and for once Spalding was at a technical peak, so that what resulted from the cooperation of the pair were memorable performances, replete with balance, clearly etched melodic lines, eloquence in the best of traditions.

STILL INSTRUMENTALISTS

Nathan Milstein and Gregor Piatigorsky, unmindful of the Iturbi precedent, remained a violinist and a ‘cellist respectively, and, in these capacities, played thrillingly the Brahms double concerto with the Philharmonic – Symphony, Hans Lange conducting.

Each a virtuoso, their ensemble was unimpeachable, and the rapport between soloists and orchestra an admirable phenomenon.

RAVEL’S ‘LA VALSE’

One of the more gifted violinists in the Boston Symphony informed me the other day that despite Serge Koussevitzky’s valiant espousal of Ravel’s “La Valse,” audiences remain deaf to the composition’s unusual worth — its splendid exposition of an abstraction on the waltz, a sort of apotheosis of the dance form itself–and, to be still more brutal, audiences seem unaware even of its surface loveliness.

This must be disposed of as just another of those mysteries. In any case, the rendition of “La Valse” during the last visit of the Boston will remain a high light thereof, even though on the same program might have been found a “first performance in New York” of Nicolai Berezowsky’s 2nd Symphony, a work which is highly derivative when it is not boring, and easily forgettable when it is.

MUSIC TODAY

Philharmonic-Symphony, afternoon, Carnegie Hall.

Verna Osborne, soprano, afternoon, Town Hall.

Opera Surprise Party, evening, Metropolitan Opera House.

Benefit, Jewish Home for Convalescents, evening, Carnegie Hall.

Pius X School Choir, evening, Town Hall.

N. Y. Chamber Music Society, evening, Hotel Plaza.

Eddy Brown and Clarence Adler, evening, Roerich Hall.

Medieval Music, evening, New School for Social Research.

‘PURE IN HEART’ FRIDAY

Instead of opening Wednesday at the Longacre Theatre as originally scheduled, John Howard Lawson’s “The Pure in Heart” will have its premiere on Friday.

CHANGES IN ‘MEN IN WHITE’

Changes in the cast of “Men in White,” as some of the players enter the forthcoming production of “Gentlewoman,” will take place tomorrow. Luther Adler will take Morris Carnovsky’s role, Robert H. Gordon will assume Mr. Adler’s part and Ian M. Wolfe will take over that of Russell Collins. Other replacements will be Gerritt Kraber for Lewish Leverett, Robert Harper for Mr. Kraber and Herbert Ratner for Elia Kazan.

BELLE DIDJAH RECITAL

Belle Didjah will appear in her first dance recital of the season this evening at the Forrest Theatre. She will introduce her new Oriental Suite, a cycle of dances which she developed during a recent trip through the Orient. Features of the suite will include Bedouin Lady, Cafe Dancer, Arabian Dandy, Yemenite Chant, and others. The music has been supervised by Joseph P. Girlando.