Sounds

U.S. orchestras last week tuned up to provide a fanfare of al fresco first nights. The open-air concert season was on.

In Washington, Tchaikovsky's turbulent Fourth Symphony surged across the water from a WPA-built barge moored near the Potomac River's edge, while 10,000 Washingtonians sat on benches, sprawled on the grass, lolled in canoes on the river. Hans Kindler's National Symphony had begun its "Sunset Symphonies." Other summer openings followed in quick succession: Manhattan's Stadium concerts, an open-air series by the Philharmonic-Symphony; the Cleveland Orchestra's roofed-over summer series, in the huge, airy Public Auditorium; Philadelphia's warm-weather nights of symphonic music in willow-fringed Robin Hood Dell. Others were still several weeks ahead: the Chicago Symphony's six-week season in rustic Ravinia on Chicago's North Shore; Chicago's free Grant Park concerts (for which the Chicago Federation of Musicians is putting up $48,000); Detroit's Belle Isle nights of music; Boston's Esplanade concerts, following the springtime "Pops"; summer music at the fusty, 69-year-old Chautauqua (N.Y.) assembly; others in many a U.S. city.

There were also some war casualties: New England's famed Berkshire Festival abandoned because of gas rationing, rubber shortage); summer opera at Colorado's ghost town, Central City (abandoned Because of tire and bus shortages); the Portland (Ore.) Midsummer Night concerts (Army regulations restrict the size of audiences).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.