Thirty Men

Usually, when a symphony orchestra plays Mozart, half the musicians retire to the wings for a smoke. Last week Cleveland heard the debut of a new orchestra, playing Mozart with all its musicians on stage. Reason: at full strength it had only 30 members, just about the number that Mozart wrote for.

The new group, which called itself the Cleveland Little Symphony, were all members of the 92-man Cleveland Orchestra, who found themselves with time on their hands at season's end. They banded together as a profit-sharing cooperative. To lead them, they got Theodore Bloomfield, one of Conductor George Szell's bright young (24) assistants. (When he conducted a chamber orchestra in Manhattan last December, the New York Times pontificated: "Theodore Bloomfield is a find.") Verdict of Cleveland critics after last week's Mozart program: the Little Symphony was also a find.

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