Klarinet Archive - Posting 000367.txt from 2000/01

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re:Von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 12:08:27 -0500

Ken Wolman wrote:
>
> I can't confirm this with specific names, but I have heard that several
> Jewish musicians--instrumentalists and opera singers--simply refused to
> work with VonK even though all his recordings carried lots of prestige.
> I THINK he wanted Richard Tucker for something but Tucker flatly refused
> to work with him.
>
> Reports I read on Opera-L suggest that Karl Boehm made Von Karajan look
> like a member of the UJA by comparison. He's supposed to have made a
> dinner comment (while under the affluence of incohol, no doubt) to Terry
> McEwen, the late director of the SF Opera, that (I paraphrase) "We
> didn't get all them, more's the pity," referring to the Jews. McEwen
> told him he would never conduct at the San Francisco opera again, as
> great as he was.
>
> Ken

Whe VonK conducted the Met orchestra there were enough
players in that group who took the opera off (The Ring)
that a lot of subs were called in. I was called but also
chose not to play with him.

I did work with Boehm and while he was supposed to have been
a Nazi pig, I find it hard that he would make that comment
to McEwen even when in his cups. Besides, I have heard that
same comment attributed to other players including
Hermann Prey.

I got a wonderful story on this subject from Uri Toeplitz,
former first flute with the Israel Philharmonic. They were
in San Francisco on a tour sometime in the 1950s and
Elizabeth Schwartzkopf was also in town for a recital of
some sort or maybe she was working the opera. Well,
Toeplitz told me that a number of the players from the
IPO went to Muir woods to see the big trees and Schwartz-
kopf was there. She greeted some of the players who
she knew from earlier days and was apparently very sweet
to all of them, including those she did not know from
her work.

Later, another member of the orchestra (who she did not
know) was behind her and overheard her answering a question
put to her by one of her companions; i.e., "How did you
know those men to be Jews?" Her answer was, "You
can tell by just looking at them."

Like VonK, Schwartzkopf was a member of the Nazi party
but denied it until someone pulled up her application
card from 1939 or so.

--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net

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