San Francisco's Decision

San Francisco is a town where the symphony is taken as seriously as the ship loadings. So when veteran Conductor Pierre Monteux retired two years ago, the symphony board took pains to let subscribers have a part in picking his successor.

First the board announced a "season of discovery," during which nine guest conductors paraded their talents. Late this season (the "season of decision"), the board sent out ballots to thousands of symphony supporters. Last week, with the returns tabbed, San Francisco took the leap, handed Spanish-born Enrique Jorda, 42, a two-year contract. Conductor Jorda (pronounced Hor-dah) had led the balloting 3 to I.

San Franciscans were charmed by Jorda from his first guest appearance last season. They liked the vitality of his gestures, the warmth of tone he drew from the orchestra. Their hearts went out to him when his stiff collar popped open in a fiery Spanish number. Finally, his fondness for the lyrical touch and his romantic musical taste--he has revived rarely played Schumann and Dvorak symphonies--made him seem a logical successor to Monteux, who for 17 years had molded San Franciscan taste.

Jorda's performances have created excitement wherever he has appeared, but much of his career has been off the musical main stem. He was born in the Basque city of San Sebastian, and after studies in Paris became the youthful conductor of the Madrid Symphony (1940-45). In 1947 he moved to South Africa to be conductor of the Cape Town Orchestra. Except for a guest stint in Buenos Aires in 1944, San Francisco was his first stop in the Western Hemisphere.

Conductor Jorda is delighted with his new job, calls his orchestra "superb," and makes deep bows to Papa Monteux for assembling it. So far, he says, he has not troubled to ask what his salary will be: "That will be handled by my--what do you call it?--impresario."

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