Word: orchestra
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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When Conductor Eugene Ormandy first announced the trip to England, wise guys in his Philadelphia Orchestra cracked, "Oh yeah?" They had been hearing about such tours for years, and the trips never came off. No big U.S. orchestra had been to Europe since Arturo Toscanini toured with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony in 1930-and lost $250,000 doing it. Last week, to the wise guys' surprise, they were actually barnstorming through Britain...
...scant applause. Most were watching the royal box, where Queen Elizabeth was just making her own arrival. But an hour later, when Ormandy had brought Brahms's Symphony No. i to a resounding end, the applause came heavy and this time it was all for Ormandy and the orchestra. And when he finished the program with Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, the white ties in the three-guinea stalls shouted bravos, while the galleries stomped and whistled. Ormandy beamed & bowed ten times, finally ended shouts of "Encore" by launching into God Save the King.* Then the musicians dashed...
Wrote Violinist Schima Kaufman, doubling as a correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer: "The hard-boiled orchestra members, who have played for every sort of celebrity from Presidents down, melted at her graciousness...
...popular London press was more intrigued with money matters. Headlined the Daily Mirror: WORLD'S GREATEST ORCHESTRA IS HERE-MUST IT BE A FLOP...
...Said Lord Beaverbrook's astonished Evening Standard: "Here at last is a foreign orchestra that can play God Save the King, although nearly two centuries have passed since it ceased to be the American anthem...