When the Chicago Symphony got undressed in the street
OrchestrasFrom a reminiscence by Chicago psychologist Dr Gerald Stein:
… The (1972) tour occurred before player contracts guaranteed proper dressing rooms, comfortable hotel lodging, and the kinds of auditoriums that made the group shine.
Jadwin Gymnasium, the program’s site in Princeton, offered no adequate facilities to allow the entire band to change clothes in private.
The ensemble found itself in street clothing in the back of a partition, separating them from the area in front of the screen where they would perform. Presumably, the barrier was also intended to reflect some of the sound produced by Solti and Company toward the patrons sitting on bleachers forward of the ground-level stage.
Matters worsened when the CSO members realized incoming spectators witnessed them removing their regular attire and donning the formal wear retrieved from the nearby wardrobe trunks. Indeed, those ticket buyers occupying the top of the audience risers on the screen’s opposite side saw over the partition. They received more of a show than they paid for.
You would think that was bad enough, but it wasn’t.
The program began with Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. The Mahler followed. During its second or third movement, the gymnasium’s cooling system started, sounding out at full blast.
At the movement’s end, Solti walked off the podium with a sharp “click, click, click” from his shoes against Jadwin’s floor. The headman appeared more than angry when talking with nearby facility personnel.
It was clear he did not intend to do battle with the giant fans murdering his effort, Mahler’s composition, and the Chicago Symphony’s art….
What happened next? Read on here.
Good for Solti.
Wonderful story from the orchestra’s glory days.
According to my beloved former colleague, the late great Richard Ferrin, Solti at some point screamed “Somebody turn off that bloody kitchen!”
Piggybacking on the title would be too much of a cheap shot, even for me. Plus, these days the undressing does not take place in the street, but in more private venues (LS, who is not undressing as far as we know, needs to maintain plausible deniability for any inappropriate undressing taking place in the highest echelons).
When are we going to officially hear from JS on recent disciplinary actions (not related to undressing)? When will the public know?
Completely irrelevant to the point at hand like virtually all of your comments.
Give him some credit. He did not mention the name Muti explicitly, which for him shows considerable restraint! (irony off)
Your posts are getting more and more cryptic, and your track record is pretty dismal, for all your salacious innuendoes over the years, you have not brought a single piece of concrete fact, much less evidence, to the table.
At this point, no one can keep track of whom you’re accusing of what or when or how or why….
A great artist especially in Strauss and Wagner, certainly no equivalent to him today.
Certainly no equivalent to his singers today…
How did the CSO even get booked into a gymnasium?
Supertitle machine at Muti’s CSO Aida a few years back made a terrible whine. Concert stopped, machine turned off, concert continued. Remaining performances occurred without supertitles. There was a printed libretto all along which made me wonder why we needed supertitles anyway.