Word: kurtz
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Khachaturian: Gayne (pronounced "guy-nuh") Ballet Suite (New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, Efrem Kurtz conducting; Columbia, 6 sides). The furious-paced, but sometimes silkily lush music for Khachaturian's ballet on Soviet collective farm life. The ballet, which is loud with the pounding rhythms of Armenian dances, won its 43-year-old Soviet-Armenian composer the Stalin Prize in 1942. Performance: excellent...
...Kurtz found only 700 subscribers on the books for a ten-concert season. Today 46-year-old Efrem Kurtz runs one of the most financially successful symphonies in the U.S. His orchestra earns 85% of its annual $198,000 budget at the box office and by radio contracts (most major orchestras are lucky to bring in 70% of their keep). The orchestra plays more than 70 concerts a year, many of which are broadcast...
...Efrem Kurtz was born in Russia, but after Pullman-jumping back & forth across the U.S. for nine years, as musical director of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he is accustomed to U.S. audiences. He believes in educating his listeners gradually. Says he: ''I exposed them, step by step, to better music than Strauss waltzes and Tchaikovsky. So we have gone from Victor Herbert to Aaron Copland, from Rachmaninoff to Shostakovich." He is one of the most relaxed conductors in the business, but believes that the waving of his long spidery arms helps both the orchestra and audience...
...Anchors. Kurtz is a pal of Missouri's Artist Thomas Hart Benton (who plays the harmonica in chamber music sessions with Kurtz). Kurtz, likewise an amateur in Benton's field, paints watercolors...
...beginning of each season, Kurtz packs in 20,000 Kansans for a free music festival (sponsored by a local drug chain) with soloists like Risë Stevens, Gladys Swarthout, Alec Templeton. Not above hoking a bit, Kurtz last fall led the band while Benny Goodman played Dizzy Fingers, then conducted an unrehearsed hot chorus of Anchors Aweigh...