Word: stokowsky
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When Leopold Stokowski is not making curious things happen, they are often being made to happen to him. Last week the picturesque maestro's Mexican tour continued in an ornate fuss & feathers of insult and apology. He had already scared the wits out of Oaxaca with a rendition of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture with offstage sound effects of cannonading (TIME, May 29). Last week it was something else...
...Stokowski had been engaged to conduct the Mexico Symphony Orchestra in a broadcast in memory of the torpedoing of the tanker Potrero del Llano, which led to Mexico's entry into the war. One of the numbers programmed was La Mort, whose composer is kindly, snowy-haired Manuel Ponce, a Mexican Indian whose Estrellita is one of the most popular songs of all time...
...Furious Being. At the rehearsal Stokowski discovered the orchestration was only for piano and string quintet, sent out a call for the composer, meanwhile attempted to proceed. When Ponce arrived, Stokowski erupted in French. He semaphored and windmilled. His elderly victim commented later: "What a surprise ... a furious being, wildly gesticulating at me . . . very rude. ..." Stokowski adjourned the rehearsal until 7:30 a.m. on the day of the broadcast...
...Leopold Stokowski, asked to do Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, figured he would give his Oaxaca, Mexico audience the works: real church bells, real rifle fire, dynamite blasts to simulate cannon. The local police chief, unaware of the concert's esthetic goals, rounded up the sound-effects shooters and blasters, had them safely behind bars by the time Stokowski beat out the last...
Last week a chastened Stokowski gave a bang-up performance of Brahms's St. Anthony Variations. Cooed Novedades: "At last Stokowski presented us with a program that gave both the orchestra and himself a chance to show what they can do with some good music...