February 14th- 20th: Eastman Philharmonia, Isaac Stern, Demolition on Gibbs Street

Sixty years ago this week, the members of the Eastman Philharmonia were approaching the end of their landmark three-month tour.  The days in in mid-February found them in Kiev, where they spent four full days altogether, and then moving on to Leningrad for their last scheduled performances.  Exactly at this time the Eastman Philharmonia and their accompanying entourage were joined by Mr. Hamilton B. Allen, Theater Editor for the Rochester Times-Union, which at that time was one of Rochester’s two daily newspapers.  Mr. Hamilton was with the orchestra in Lvov and Kiev, and wrote several articles about the orchestra members’ activities in that part of the USSR, copies of which are preserved in scrapbooks in the Sibley Music Library vault.  His stories read as though deliberately worded for an interested but general readership that would inevitably include readers who were not not well versed in matters of classical music and performance.  Mr. Allen’s observations on logistics of travel in the Soviet Union were no doubt read with interest at this time when the realities of the Cold War meant that comparatively few Americans would ever journey behind the Iron Curtain. Mr. Allen’s reporting also underscored the ever-present realization that these young musicians were doing something that no other academic orchestra from the U.S.A. had ever done, a point that had already engendered a huge amount of pride back home in Rochester.  One item of happy news that Mr. Allen shared was that two separate couples had announced their engagements during the tour.

As has been the case all along, the most vivid details of life during the tour have come from the travel journal of bassoonist Richard Rodean, BM ’62, MM ’64.  Reading Mr. Rodean’s entries, one can appreciate the numerous ways that Philharmonia members were taking advantage of the opportunities to further themselves as musicians: seeking out music shops to expand their personal libraries with scores and recordings that were difficult to obtain back home; meeting and conferring with other instrumentalists and members of other orchestras whenever possible; and attending performances whenever time permitted.  In addition, Philharmonia members regularly used whichever other acquired language(s) at their disposal to bridge the language barrier; in Mr. Rodean’s case, that was German, and he appears to have used it effectively in several destinations throughout the tour.  While in Kiev, Mr. Rodean met with the bassoon instructor from the city conservatory and visited with the bassoon students.  When the Eastman Philharmonia gave a concert later that evening, one of the students attended the concert and made a gift of music to Mr. Rodean, a gesture that the latter deeply appreciated.  Mr. Rodean also recorded that Dr. Fennell concluded the Philharmonia’s last rehearsal in Kiev by conducting the orchestra members in the closing bars of “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition “. . . just to be able to say we played it in Kiev.”  Also in Kiev, several members of the Philharmonia attended a performance of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, which was just then travelling on tour; the concert featured featuring Mstislav Rostropovich as soloist in Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra; both orchestra and soloist left a huge impression on Mr. Rodean.  He also commented on the orchestra members’ manner of entering and leaving the stage in a “totally uniform” manner (“It was all done very formally”), so different from American orchestras’ practice of the musicians entering the stage at will and warming up on-stage. The following morning, members of the Leningrad Philharmonic attended the Eastman Philharmonia rehearsal.

On February 17th the Philharmonia members flew to Leningrad.  Immediately upon arrival, Mr. Rodean sought out a music store to continue his music acquisitions.  The following morning he spotted composer Dmitri Kabalevsky at breakfast; the renowned composer happened to be a guest in the same hotel at the very same time.  Sightseeing in Leningrad included all of the major sites: on February 19th, the Fortress of Peter the Great;  St. Isaac’s Cathedral; the Decembrists’ Square (today known as the Senate Square); the Palace Square (which is the city’s central square); the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral; and then on February 20th, spending the bulk of the day at the Hermitage.  As he had done in other cities, Mr. Rodean recounted taking a walking tour on his own to explore the city of Leningrad.

The Eastman Philharmonia gave three concerts in Leningrad—on the evenings of February 19th, 20th, and 21st.  These were the last scheduled performances of the tour, the orchestra’s farewell to their Russian audiences.  Next stop:  Moscow.