CINCINNATI YEARS 1921

CINCINNATI YEARS 1921 - 1924

With the enthusiastic advice of Mr. Sturm to go to Cincinnati, we all became inclined to travel that route. The "we" in this case included Karl Young, the very talented pianist, who was my school mate and who I had the good fortune to have as my accompanist a number of times. Events focused on the decision to go to Cincinnati and the time for departure arrived. Family good-byes were said and the two Karls were off to the "races" via the "Big Four" train line. Some five hours later we were pounding the streets in downtown Cincinnati, looking for overnight lodging. The Metropole Hotel was our choice. From there we started to asses the possibilities of the Conservatory. Karl Young wanted to explore first the Cincinnati College of Music, the rival of the Conservatory. Finally, we decided on the Conservatory in the Mt. Auburn section of the city. We were fortunate in finding lodging in a very good boarding house ($10 a week for room and board - the meals were excellent) run by a Mrs. Haacke. Now I had to decide on a teacher. To my disappointment I discovered that Mr. Tirendelli was no longer there (scuttlebutt had it that he was relieved of his post because he had chased too many young girls around the grand piano) and I had to rethink my options, which one of three to choose, Mr. Ten Have, Mr. Ribaupierre or Mr. Perutz. I visited and talked with each and finally decided on Perutz, the new faculty member from Poland and a former pupil of Carl Flesch. We got along very well and he soon had me working on technical matters as well as on repertoire. I was assigned to a second year harmony class plus a class in analysis because I had had private tutoring in basic harmony from my violin teacher in Toledo. My first year in Cincinnati was entirely financed by my parents, a real sacrifice for them and for which I am retrospectfully grateful. Mother knew how to economize, a technique she had learned from her German background, and I tried to spend sparingly. The school year went by rapidly enough and the end of it found me playing the TorAulin concerto in a concert by students of Mr. Perutz. Karl Young was my accompanist at the piano. He had done so brilliantly that he was allowed to graduate with honor at the end of the year with a collegiate diploma. As a result, his eyes were set on advanced study in New York where he spent the next several years studying with Carl Friedberg.

The Summer of 1923 seems to have slipped by almost unnoticed. Soon it was time to return to Cincinnati for my second year at the Conservatory. Again, my home away from home was the Haacke boarding house, this time with a new roommate, Francis Wolfe, a 'cellist in the main movie theater downtown. He was a native of Columbus, Ohio and engaged to a southern girl attending the Conservatory. They were married at the end of the school year and moved to a farm in Tennessee where he swapped jobs and became a tiller of the soil. To get back to the Fall of 1923, inside word came through Mr. Burnett Tuthill, the manager of the Conservatory, to audition for Fritz Reiner, the much talked about conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony. Tuthill even told me the name of the audition piece, "Don Juan" of Richard Strauss. I worked like mad on that piece and then had the temerity to play the audition for maestro Reiner. The consequence was that I was accepted at the age of 19 and placed in the second violin section of this orchestra. Reiner was in his second year as conductor and had already imported many German musicians from Europe. I shall never forget my utter surprise when, at the first rehearsal, the verbal directions were in German. I had to learn, but fast, "Bitte, Buchstabe A anfagen" etc. Soon I had grasped the essentials of the foreign communication verbalizations and the new season was launched for me. There were two out-of-town concerts before the season opener in Cincinnati which were in Louisville and Indianapolis. On the program was the Tannhauser Overture and the Tschkowsky Violin Concerto played by a fine violinist, Ruth Poselt, who later became the wife of Mr. Burgin, the concertmaster of the Boston Symphony. The Tannhauser Overture I shall always remember because it was the very first composition rehearsed in my new role as a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The school year 1923-1924 was replete with rich experiences what with my symphony duties (rehearsals were mornings at ten o'clock and concert pairs on Friday afternoon and Saturday night) and my student responsibilities at the Conservatory. I had to prepare my graduation recital which consisted in part of no less a test piece than the great Chaccone for violin alone by J. S. Bach. Somehow the year end found me in the graduating class with a Collegiate diploma with a violin major. Earlier in the Spring, I had become acquainted with Bernard Fritsch, an elderly German violin maker and repairer from whom I bought an old Italian violin, a Nicholas Galiano which I liked very much. Through this contact I had many conversations with Mr. Fritsch regarding study in Europe and specifically at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany where his daughter had studied violin. My parents had come down from Toledo to attend my graduation recital and had also met Mr. Fritsche. They were duly indoctrinated with his "sales pitch" for study in Leipzig. The bug took hold and before we realized it, dad and mother were making plans to go to Germany with me in the Fall of 1924. More of that later. In the meantime, I must relate a most fateful story concerning two girls, Christine and Maxine. Christine Colley was a young high school student from Dayton, Ohio who came to Cincinnati every week to study with Audre Ribeaupierre. She was a very gifted violinist and was scheduled to perform the Mozart A Major Concerto with the Conservatory orchestra. Just a week or so before this concert I met her on the street in front of the Conservatory and expressed my disappointment at not being able to hear her play with the orchestra, citing a conflicting symphony rehearsal as the reason. It was a chance meeting with this vivacious, beautiful, blue-eyed young girl and marked the very first words we had together. Little did I know that Fate would bring us together years later and we would become man and wife.

In the Spring of 1924, I became acquainted with Maxine. It occurred at the Haacke boarding house where I lived. One of the roomers was a young woman with a two year old child who needed a baby sitter several afternoons a week. The baby sitter was a young German girl whose name was Maxine Zeder. After seeing her come and go for a number of weeks, I had occasion to speak with her from time to time. Eventually we became friends and toward the end of the school year, took rather long walks together in the Clifton area of the city near the University. I discovered she was born and raised in Munich, Germany and named Maximiliana Empfenzeder. However, for practical purposes, she shortened the name to Maxine Zeder. She and her mother had recently immigrated to the U.S. Her accent was delightful. She was a pianist and was continuing her studies at the Conservatory. After I left Cincinnati for home in June 1924, it was only natural that a pen pal relationship would develop for the next months between us.

Through my roommate, the 'cellist Francis Wolfe, I was hired to play in Lakeside, Ohio Summer Chatauqua Orchestra. Francis had played there in previous Summers and recommended me to the director, Grant Connell who had a music school in Columbus, Ohio Lakeside was a religious community of Methodist persuasion and nightly programs were presented to which the orchestra played a half hour introduction. Every afternoon the orchestra became a band and played a 1 1/2 hour concert in the park overlooking Lake Erie. The pianist doubled on the bass drum so the only part open to me was the 2nd horn which I played on the E flat melophone. I learned quickly that only 3 or 4 notes were needed to play most parts, the tonic, supertonic and leading tone so I was able, with a little practice, to wrap myself around those notes and not do too bad a job. One rehearsal of this band was held before the first concert which sufficed for the whole season. The orchestra, on the other hand, rehearsed every morning and gave 3 or 4 full concerts during the Summer season. During all this time my parents were planning and getting ready for the big event in the Fall, the voyage to Germany with Berlin as the goal. Berlin because, in talking with Otto Sturmer, head of the Toledo Conservatory and a native of Germany, it seemed more logical to go to Berlin at this particular time since it was the musical hub of all Europe. The teacher recommended was Willy Hess who was the first teacher at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik.