NET Festival; 139; George Szell: One Man's Triumph

Good evening, I am James Day speaking for any tea and public television. On July 30 of this year, George Sell for 23 years, the musical director of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, died at the age of 73. Our program tonight is in tribute to this remarkable musician and what he has added to the musical life of our country. In a moment, you'll be seeing Maestro Sell in a unique film portrait, prepared in 1966 for the Bell Telephone Hour. The film showing Maestro Sell at work with the orchestra is the only one of its kind produced

with the conductor who reigned with a kind of magisterial authority over the musical destiny of the Cleveland Orchestra for two decades, building it into one of the half dozen greatest ensembles in the world. The film, including Mr. Sell, felt was the greatest. More recently, in addition to his work with the Cleveland Orchestra, Maestro Sell had also been active as senior music advisor to the New York Philharmonic. One man's triumph for that is the title of the film, was hailed by Time Magazine and by Saturday Review as the best ever made on any musician. At the end of the film, I'll be talking briefly with its producer, Nathan Crow. For the moment, let me simply acknowledge any tease deep gratitude to the many who made

gave their permission for the rebroadcast of this film over public television. First, to the members and management of the Cleveland Orchestra, to local for and to the national office of the American Federation of Musicians, to Irving Colloden, who wrote and narrated the script, to violinist Raphael Durian, to Henry Jaffey, and Jaffey Enterprises, the executive producers, and of course to the American telephone and telegraph company who originally sponsored the broadcast. Their gift has honored both the memory of George Sell and public television. This is Irving Colloden, music editor to the set of review, inviting you to an hour in a musical life that began publicly nearly 58 years ago when George Sell, prodigy of the piano, made his first appearance on a concert stage in Vienna, age 11. Music has been his life ever since, as pianist, as conductor, composer pianist, and eventually only as conductor.

Twenty years ago, he settled in Cleveland to make the orchestra of this city, quote, second to none, unquote. How well he has succeeded is now known worldwide. In the hour that follows, you may very well see and hear how this has been brought about. Mr. Sell begins work for the season's opening concert with Brahms Academic Festival overture. Ladies and gentlemen, as every year, when I return to Cleveland, I'm very happy to be with you again and looking forward to making music with you again. My favorite orchestra, as I may say, I would like to extend a happy welcome to the new members of the orchestra and to express the hope that their association with us will be a pleasant and the last thing long. And now I don't want to talk any longer because you will hear me talk plenty during this season, but I'm very anxious to hear your sound again. So let's start now with the Brahms overture, a rough place to just let's see how much or it falls automatically into place.

Politics, it has been said, is the art of the possible. The art of conducting might be described as the politics of the impossible to make a hundred men play like one. The method depends very much on the one man whose expectations must be satisfied. Some practice flattery, some persuasion, some intimidation, to complete conductor practices all three. With George Sell, one is reminded of Tuscanini saying, in life democracy, in art, aristocracy. Sell's pursuit of the impossible presumes that his function is not to be satisfied, that his charter of office is the right to be difficult, that his also leadership is to demand of all more than any individual could achieve on his own.

Ask for something. May I say something, you play it now absolutely 100% rhythmically with tappam, tappam, tappam, but at the same time it has a little bit of a pedantry about it. Couldn't we just make tappam, tappam, tappam, not too much space, not demonstrating how with me to be playing it? Just naturally. Pappam with a little more resilience, the rhythm. Before C1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9. The third and fourth form of the tappam coming in in good time and preparing a good crescendo.

Shadows, shadows, long form, long form, almost a little too long. The third and fourth form of the tappam, the third form of the tappam, the third form of the tappam. So it, the last chord still comes to my ears late in the beginning.

I can't get into the next tempo, really, with the orchestra completely together. D, let a D. Make the crescendo very gradually, build it so up to become right to the climax where it should be, not the soon. D. That does it, that is absolutely the solution, now it is clear. That little bit of a break before the last long chord

does a lot of good. We know where we stand and have something to go by here in the strings with these 16th passages. Now the next spot, let the F. Oh, please, don't your change me in your very last note. No vanishing acts, please. Yes. If you want it. Go on, go on, go on. Don't sustain a lump of sound, don't have note with the parts of each quarter inside it.

Thank you. Thank you. It's not quite. It has to be a little bit more sarcastic. It's a student song with a very silly, funny text, and the stack out of should be a little bit exaggerated.

There is nothing in the score to suggest that this passage is sound sarcastic, but it isn't a text of the German-coloured song called the flip-slide or fuck-song, which Brahms uses this point. And it is clearly in the head of Mr. Sell, who is thinking about the upperclassmen, say derisively as a freshman. It means simply that a conductor must know not only what is on the printed page, but what was in the composer's mind. Only a bit of information perhaps, but the kind that gives music character, the kind of character stimulating to players as well as to listeners. It's not too far seeing that you're with a channel upbeat. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Please, gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, the old trick so that nobody starts applauding here.

And since most audiences are listening with their eyes rather than with their ears, the safest thing is to keep your bow in this position so that ever in a blind man, blind this person can see there's some more to come. Aren't you playing the high A? Please make it very, very clear and cross out the E. Last from the end, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9 from the end. I would like to start tomorrow morning with a back barling from Chateau.

The more you familiarize yourself with the piece, the less difficulties we'll have here. It is quite tricky. Thank you very much. Quite tricky is a moderate phrase for a work which until a few years ago was considered far out and impossibly difficult for all but very few violinists and audiences. Albert Berg, best known for his opera, but sick, based a whole concerto on the sound of the open strings of the violin and proceeded to weave a fascinating web of tone from them. Cells background as a pianist, as well as his celebrated ability to translate an orchestral score into keyboard terms at sight, makes it possible for him to work with his soloist from the piano in his rehearsal studio. And at the same time, cue him in the orchestra's entrances.

It is a mark of a steam for his audience that cell has chosen this challenging work for the opening concert and accompaniment to his concert master that he has selected him as soloist. Though he sits at the conductor's left, the concert master is his right hand man, his intermediary, and line of command to the rank and file. Russian-born, American-trained, Raphael Drujan earned his stripes with ten years in Minneapolis before coming to Cleveland in 1960. Here we are. Thank you. Thank you.

I think it should be a little more attached here. He's a skeleton, though. You will say he didn't put any dogs in it. Yes, but if he's a skeleton, though, it is implied that it has to have an articulation that can be construed over the skeleton. No, he wants us to be imaginative in the direction of their thinking. Not just robots who execute the order. That little dialogue penetrates further into the necessity for a conductor to know more than meets the eye. Eric died before this concerto was performed in 1936, meaning that he probably never saw the printed score or was able to amend a marking which needed it.

The skill conductor plays it correctly, as written, to well-informed conductor plays it right, as it was meant to sound. You know, I need to say that because I know you don't like the word, but this should be downright, I thought, out of knowledge of the environment and landscape. This should be downright sentient. I'm old enough now. Let's get a stab at the problem here. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

While in New York in 1939, Mr. Sell discovered that his European orchestra had been suspended, teaching and young people have always appealed to him, and he joined a faculty of the man of school. Louis Lane, who began with him as an apprentice in Cleveland, is now associate conductor of the orchestra. Columbia has asked me to record two not very well-known symphonies by very well-known composers later this year, and one of them is the first symphony of Mendelssohn, which has a particularly interesting problem that I'd like to ask your opinion on. That is that Mendelssohn wrote two-third movements for symphony.

And the question is, the point is that Mendelssohn wrote originally a minuet, which is in itself original enough, being in 6-4 time. But later on when he conducted the symphony five years after he wrote it in London, he apparently became dissatisfied with the minuet because he then orchestrated and in the orchestration to some extent recompose the famous skirt so from the octet. And in his performances, he used the skirt so which of course we have in the orchestrated form. And with this in mind, the question is, should we follow Mendelssohn's own example? Should we follow his first impulse or should we follow his decision when he was four or five years' moment? Exactly. Now look, Louis. Since you are conducting a record in which there will be a label, Louis Lane conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. The decision has to be yours.

I'll be very happy to give you my ideas on the problem, but I don't expect you to follow my advice. Besides, I don't even know whether my opinion will include a very definite advice. I think I can give you only the pros and cons. First comes the question that you change the key of this sad movement into a key which is key or a sad movement symphony. This period is a little unusual. The second consideration is that you introduce into a very early, almost childhood work, a movement which is really, I might say, a mature masterpiece. Although written only two years later. Some composers mature very fast. Now, after that comes, again, a wood come, a finale, and for the listener, we lapse into the earlier style. So, I don't know what to advise you to do except to follow your own instinct.

You have the advantage of having a stronger third movement if you take this, and you have perhaps a little more homogeneity if you stick to the original. Can I go any further without influencing you? Well, probably not. Since Mendelssohn himself seemed to be of two minds. I'll be very curious to see what decision you will make eventually, but I don't want to be responsible for it. And if you don't mind, I have a scheduled session with a young conductor. Excuse me. I hope you agree with me in that conducting isn't just this. Well, this is a final stage after very much conscientious and arduous preparation. I hope you agree with me. You see, we're not talking about school. Sales apprentice program was established long before it became a fashionable foundation enterprise. Young conductors with MR, Jimmy Labine, Stephen Forman, and Michael Cherry.

Usually the best approach to school meetings, school playing, is, and I think this was invented by Kodai to hear the two part inventions. By Bach played the wrong way around what is in the right hand, playing the left hand, and vice versa. For the simple reason to get the student used to the idea that what is underneath inviting does not necessarily sound underneath. Yes. I think this is a very, very good idea. Then, of course, next step are Bachovas, because they move slowly, and you can wait and check whether you have the right notes. Then come string quartets. These are pretty difficult at times if you want to reduce them literally. You see, this discipline of reading scores, playing scores, or using them on the piano, is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary to know pieces well and to be able to check whether one really knows them well or to have another person, a competent person,

but it's only a means to an end, the end is for you to be able to reproduce, to perform this with an orchestra. On the basis of complete and intimate knowledge of the substance in every detail of the score, and there is where that comes in which is commonly called stick technique. Now, I'm going to ask one of you to go to the piano and try to start a piece with a difficult start. Do you want to conduct?

I know everybody likes it. How much easier do you come back to before? I'm just going back to you just to listen to the others. Would you like to start? Oh, you'll have to start at two of the minutes. Two of the messy beginnings. Be able to fix and disrupt the one. So let's see. Here's a one man orchestra which of course makes things a little less complicated. The ensemble problem will be under. We'll still have it. Out of long experience, I'll tell you. The shorter your down beat will be. The more precise the attack will be. It's an old rule. Your up beat can be a little bigger than the down beat. If you do. One. This, I mean about an inch. An inch of a very incisive stopped beat will evoke the response there. They'll get the orchestra into action.

Don't forget that the preparation in playing and in conducting is the most vital thing. Every piece of music should start inside the player before he plays the first note. If you want to drive a nail into a wall, you can't do it like this. You'll never, you'll never manage. There will be a preparatory motion necessary if you want to sew a ball. You have to have a wind up otherwise you can't sew the ball. And it's the same thing with the music attack. Very good. This will do its purpose absolutely except that the character of your very short down beat didn't see very incisive. With the good orchestra it will do its duty. If it serves its purpose, I remember Charles starting it with himself. With a very different, he had always, you know, he was a bit cosied outwards.

I don't know whether you have seen that on this photo. And he had this sort of calf's eye look, not very suggestive, but he was a cat star. And therefore emanated all the suggestions you could wish for. And she would do. And... And the bowling. To eight blues. Yes. But you, not being a cat star, could perhaps make this down beat a little bit more snapping. Would you snare? Yes. And... If your cheeks start to tremble the moment, you do this. And it was incisive enough. The... The total fifth. Do you also wish like that? Would you like me to conduct it, would you like me to play now? I think it would be a good idea if you would be playing.

All right. In order to make sure that that is a bad ensemble possible even at this piano stage, I have two players here and they'll follow your beat exactly. And we'll see whether they are together. With one qualification, they are both excellent musicians. And may, as excellent orchestras are doing, be able to play together not because of, but in spite of becoming a cat star. Don't try to help me. Cut off quickly. Now, I would wager anything you say that this way, you won't be too precise. The first place try to get to hold the thermata a little bit higher so it isn't down here. The... Cut off with an upward motion. You must realize that it is of the essence in what direction you cut a thermata off because of the way you go on after the thermata.

Both, as the rhythmical pattern and as the speed relationship. So... Since you have to start your next speed down. Since it's a down beat, it's essential that you cut the thermata off upwards, so as to be ready to connect the down beat. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll do a few spots of the Beethoven fifth. Now, at the beginning, you know, I feel we should return to our old way of doing it, but perhaps with one little modification to make that gap after the thermata, a little less abrupt into a little smaller so that you don't play it. Ta-tah-tah-ta, tah-tah-tah-ta, tah-tah-tah-tah-ta, just a little longer cut off. not too snatty a cut off, but it's makely the same. Gentlemen, it is getting a little bit slow, if this response is not immediate, if that

little eighth rest is what should I say, a fraction of something too late. It forces us almost imperceptively into a slower tempo, and by the time we have played four, eight past, it is a different tempo. So you have to be there, and very close to the sound. It's more from the beginning, and it's a twist tempo, one. One more.

I don't know where he's in. I don't know where he is. I don't know where he is. Tough, knowledgeable, skilled in this craft, Mr. Zell has learned through abundant experience,

not all of it pleasant. That fine music making is more than a game of follows the leader. Aristotle is not dictatorship. When he refers, as he did a moment ago, to our way of doing things, he is engaging a motion as well as pride, generating participation as well as obedience. Tired? Just can't just be the good one. I can't do better than to repeat this truism I think I said yesterday west aren't there

to waste but to be based for the next entry to prepare and to be ready for it and to listen what's going on around you and to bring your next entry in so it makes sense and connects. To be ready with your brace is your ambushure everything is your general attitude. No use if I want to explain too early it's too you know two pointed 40 simmers back from the double bar. Here's the loose...

... roof. There's a loose... a lie. Suspense. No quesendo. Suspense. Quick quesendo yet. Behold! Behold! One piano. Two.

Then one fourth and two fourths. Yes, these repeated downbows have to be longer. About 50% bow, 50% re-treat, but the power is very uncomfortable, very difficult to do, but the only way to get it off. Now, this I will not do now. As well as posing the unpleasant question. The experienced conductor has to be able to provide a persuasive answer. Here's a solution as a quicker second stroke of the bow on the reprieve, so the both chords ring loud and clear. Now, just a few spots of the second movement. Main at the beginning, which we haven't got yet. Too much action. Too much. Too much. Right to flow again. Out.

That was very nice, but let's not leave it to chance. Let's make sure that we start it this way without attack. What a 16th. That was a 16th.

Yes, this can be only effective to tell you the open sea of a maximum. The double bases have no open note, except those few who have the extension team. Right? Can we do that one small letter A? Nicely separating the two seas.

Thank you. Not too loud now, the e-flat. You see, that's good. Any more, the bassoons are bound to sound a little ridiculous because they cannot possibly match that.

Besides, they don't want to force, since they are aware of an intonation problem. Just what you gave now will make it that we can balance it nicely. Let's do it. You have this thought about this critical thought about one bar before the crescendo bar. Now, this was fine, we don't have to repeat this. I would like to have just the 40th cemo bar where it says in the middle of a tempo primo that's good.

Should be that nice, also, if I don't wait another extra bar for you. It's not bad for you, it's not bad. I have a few spots in the sketch, I don't have to go through it. It's not bad, it's not bad, it's not bad, it's not bad, it's not bad, it's not bad.

All work in no play makes a dull orchestra. Now, the work has been done and the play is at hand. The concert performance toward which all the effort has been directed for days past, putting together all the details, listening with one ear to themselves and with the other to the sound around him, keeping the music in the line of vision to the conductor with one eye and on the stick out of the corner of the other. Cells objective is to make of the mathematics of Beethoven's finale, his quarters have ace and sixteenths, dots and rests, a living, glowing pulse of music. It's not bad, it's not bad, it's not bad, it's not bad.

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