Word: adler
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Once a Musicians' Union man was asked if a harmonica was a musical instrument. "Certainly not," he answered. "It's a toy." But what about Larry Adler? "Oh." said the union man, "he's a freak...
Today, Larry Adler is a paid-up member of the Los Angeles local, and widely recognized as a harmonica virtuoso. But he has had his political troubles, stemming from his famous libel suit against Hester McCullough, who tried to have him barred from a Greenwich, Conn, concert hall because she said he was associated with too many Red-front organizations. The case ended in a hung jury, but ever since then, Adler has had difficulty getting engagements in the U.S. He went to live in London with his English wife and three children (who are U.S. citizens). The British love...
...British film Genevieve-although for U.S. consumption his name was left off the credits. The Manchester Guardian's Neville Cardus compared him to Paganini: "It would be hard to prove that anybody playing any instrument in the world of music today plays with more than Mr. Adler's art and virtuosity...
Last week, for the third year in a row, Larry Adler played a new work, written for harmonica and orchestra, at one of London's Promenade Concerts (see above). It was Harmonica Concerto, Op. 46, by British Composer Malcolm Arnold. Its three movements were by turns rollicking, somber and flamboyant, and its playful use of percussion brought a roar of approval from the crowd. After that, Adler repeated another piece written for him, Vaughan Williams' Romance (first performed in 1951), the only work that London "prom" goers ever insisted on hearing twice...
Wornout Horn. Germans and Austrians began to eye Americans with new respect, but the orchestra played through some hard months: Conductor Adler got his discharge; so did half of the orchestra at about the same time. It limped along, periodically hit by transfers and discharges...