The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 89

SECTION 5 DICEMIEK 3, 1SO AMUSEMENTS ANE FINANCIAL 3 MUSIC, pp. 1, 14 ART, p. 4 ABOUT THE HOME, pp. 8, 9, 10, 11 INTER RADIO, pp. 1 4, 1 5 MOVIES, pp.

1, 2, 5 DANCE, p. INTERNATIONAL, pp. 6,7 FINANCIAL, pp. 12, 13 THE THEATER, pp. 1, 3 Jean Sibelius at 85 Remains Aloof But Appreciative of World Acclaim MUSIC: Pianist Rudolf Firkusny To Give First Louisville Recital At Memorial Auditorium Thursday By WILLIAM MOOTZ, Courier-Journal Staff Writer i 'Z" I I h.iiiiuuji By ANNE MARIE SNELLMAN, Associated Press Writer given at 8:30 Wednesday evening and at 3 o'clock Thursday afternoon, is: Second Symphony 1 Perl Concerto for Piano, Violin -and Violoncello Op.

Beethoven undertow. Choreographic Episodes for Orchestra Schuman Three German Dances Mozart Tickets for the December 6 and 7 concerts are available at. the Louisville Philharmonic Society offices, 830 S. Fourth, JAckson 1289; and at Shackleton's Box Office, 621 S. Fourth, WAbash 1318.

Gardencourt Recited Mabel Ritch, contralto, will sing the following program this afternoon at 4 at Gar-" dencourt. Her accompanist will be Doris Owen. HELSINKI, Dec. 2. Jean Sibelius, Finland's secluded immortal of music, celebrates his 85th birthday, next Friday like the hero of an ancient saga aloof but appreciative of the world's acclaim.

Taciturnity and seclusion have been the hallmarks of his later years. Interviewed concerning his anniversary, he said simply: "It cannot be denied that it gives me a certain satisfaction to see that my friends all over the world are remembering my 85th anniversary. I have been told that my music in these days will be played in a great number of concerts, which I of course shall be very interested to listen to over the radio." Official Concert Even the folk of his native land have found Sibelius detached about efforts to show their appreciation. When he recently received the Government's invitation to at-4 tend the gala official concert of his music in Helsinki which will mark the birthday, he replied with quiet humor: "I do not reply by a categorical no to the invitation." But on the other hand, he has so far made no promise either. Of his music, his interests and personal life, Sibelius insists, silence is golden.

He believes that if people are not able to un-dertand his music, there is no chance of making them understand through anything he says. "It is impossible exactly to express one's thoughjs through words," Sibelius told a friend. "It can be done only through music." And then there is an undeniable hint of pleasure as he adds: "I am glad that also young people nowadays are interested for my music. Previously, it was mainly my own generation who understood' it." Happy Family Life Sibelius spends the entire year at his villa "Ainola," in the midst of a wood about 20 miles from the capital. Among those who know him, his family life is described as one of unusual harmony and understanding.

His beautiful, fragile white-haired wife, who also comes from a family of artists, completely understands her husband and his artistic character. "It is rare to see something so beautiful in life as the relations between my parents," says their eldest daughter, Mrs. Eva Palo-. heimo. The villa "Ainola" is built in genuine Finnish style.

The walls and ceilings both library and dining room are made of rounded, unsmoothed tree trunks. The library walls are covered by. books to the, ceiling and with comfortable soft furniture. The drawing room is elegant in Gustavian style with magnificent antique furniture. And in the midst, stands Sibelius' grand piano.

Sibelius displays marvelous vitality for his years and has retained his health with great success. He is interested in everything that occurs in the world. The daily newspapers are brought to him each morning and he reads them before arising. He also constantly listens to the radio. Predominating all his days is his love for music.

He has no other interest, no hobby. Sibelius lives in his own world of imagina- tion. He has a friendly and amiable manner, but has grown away from much interest in the social world where in his younger days he was known as a charming entertainer: Visited U. S. Twice His music, always immensely popular in Finland, has grown in interest recently, because of attention to the jubilee celebration.

It is in his music that his career can best be traced. His first works were based on purely national themes, principally chosen from Finland's epic "Kalevala," but he gradually altered from a personalized emphasis to a universal level, quite independent of con- temporary musical movements, and in some ways, more abstract. Of his seven symphonies, the second is the most popular in Finland, and the one which secured his fame. Of his shorter works, "Finlandia" 'Is of course the one most inextricably bound into his own life and that of the country. "Finlandia" was first performed in 1899, the last composition in a group of six given at a benefit for journalists whose newspaper writings had been suppressed by the Russian Czar's Government.

The Sibelius range as a composer has RUDOLF FIRKUSNY, the celebrated Czech pianist, currently on his eighth consecutive tour of the United States and Canada, will be heard in Louisville for the first time when he appears in recital Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m. at Memorial Auditorium. His concert is the second in the Community Concert series. Acclaimed by audiences on three continents, Firkusny was heard in New York's Carnegie Hall on November 18, where, with the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting, he gave the first New York performance of the new. Martinu Concerto No.

3, a work dedicated to the pianist. Later in the season, Carnegie Hall will see him again as soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His program: Fantasy in minor, K. 475 Mozart Sonata in minor. K.

457. Mozart Sonata in minor Chopin Three Czech Dance. t.n- Furiant Polka Medved Two Excursions Calypso Honkv-Tonk Three Movements from Petrouchka Stravinsky Russian Dance At Petrouchka Carnival Night of Firsts "First performance" is the keynote of the second pair of subscription concerts of the" Louisville Orchestra Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon in Columbia Auditorium. The Second Symphony of George Perle, faculty member of the University of Louisville, is the commissioned work of the program and will be given its world premiere under the young composer's direction. Another exciting "first" for local music lovers will be the Concerto for Piano, Violin and Violoncello by Beethoven.

The Triple Concerto is seldom heard in- any concert hall, and as far as can be ascertained has never been performed in Louisville. Another Premiere For the first time in his career Robert Whitney, musical director of the society, will appear in the dual role of soloist and conductor. He will conduct the Beethoven from his place at the piano keyboard. Edwirt Ideler, concertmaster of the orchestra, and Grace Whitney, principal cellist, will collaborate with Whitney in the solo parts. William Schuman's "Undertow," Choreographic Episodes for Orchestra, also will receive its Louisville concert premiere.

This work was recorded by the Louisville Orchestra in its first recording session two weeks ago. It was cut on one side of an LP record with the composer conducting. "Judith," which the orchestra commissioned Schuman to write last season, was recorded on the other side under Whitney's direction. The complete program, which will be Little Theater Will Present 'The Heiress' For Four Performances Beginning Tomorrow 3 I iiHMIH-Mlirfar f-litte VSf trh JfcC Rudolf Firkusny On eighth tour of U. S.

Ferguson and Mrs. Evelyn Drain, soloists. Henry William Myers will present an organ recital of Christmas music next Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the St. Paul Methodist Church.

Robert Crone will present his pupil, Kaye Brown, in an organ recital next Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Church of the The Kentucky Home School Glee Club will give its 25th Anniversary Christmas program at the Woman's Club Auditorium on December 17 at 4 p.m. The University of Louisville School of Music will present its annual Christmas Carol Program at Gardencourt on December 16 at 4 p.m. Band Clinic Next Thursday; Friday and Saturday, the Kentucky State Band Clinic will be held on the campus of Western Kentucky State College, Bowling Green. This year's Kentucky All-State High School Band will perform under the direction of Howard F.

Brown, supervisor in the City schools of Nashville. Woody Herman will be! present as guest conductor. Dance Recital William Pickett, well-known Louisville baritone, will assist Jean Tachau Haas, dancer, in recital next week end at the Playhouse. The program will be given at 8:30 p.m. Friday and at 2:30 p.m.

and 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Pickett will sing compositions by Handel, Moffat, Bacon, Haydn and Wolf. Cincinnati Program The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Thor Johnson, conductor, with Rudolf Serkin as piano soloist, will perform the following program next Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon in Music Hall in Cincinnati: Svmphonv No. 8 Haydn Svmphonic Metamorphosis of The mas by Weber Hindemith Concerto No.

2 in B-flat Major Brahms Items for the music column should reach The Courier-Journal by noon Wednesday preceding the date of publication. MUSIC CALENDAR Dee. ---Mabel Hitch, contralto: 4 p.m.. Gardencourt. Louisville Orchestra.

Robert Whitney, conductor: George Perle. composer-conductor; S.30 p.m., Columbia Auditorium. Louisville Orchestra. Same program. p.m..

Columbia Auditorium. 7 Rudolf Firkusny, pianist: 8:30 p.m.. Memorial Auditorium (Community Concert). William Pickett, baritone, with Jean Tachau Haas, dancer: 8:30 p.m.. Playhouse.

William Pickett, baritone, with Jean Tachau Haas, dancer; 2:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Play-. house. 10 Benjamin Owen, pianist; 4 p.m.. Gardencourt.

10 A Civic Orchestra. Joseph Horvathi conductor: 3:45 p.m.. Y.M.H.A. Auditorium. 10 Messiah.

Kenneth Osbrink, director; 8 p.m.. Walnut Street Baptist Church. 10-11 Holy Name Band and Choral Club. Father Joseph Emrich, director; 8:30 p.m.. Memorial Auditorium.

1-1J Louilville Orchestra, Whitney, conductor: Making Music Series and High School Matinee; 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.. Memorial Auditorium. 11 Messiah. Edward Barret, director; 8:30 p.m..

Memorial IS Christmas' Musicale, Lillian Carpenter, director: 8 p.m.. Seward Hall, Louisville Municipal College. 15-18 Menotti's The Old Maid and The Thief, and Puccini's Gianni Schicehi. opera Mil presented by the U. of L.

School of Music. Moritz Bombard, director; 8:30 p.m.. Playhouse. 17 The Old Maid and The Thief, and Gianni Schicchi: 3 p.m.. Playhouse.

17 Robert Crone, organist; 4 p.m., St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 17 Messiah. Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Irey.

directors: 7:45 p.m.. Fourth Avenue Methodist Church. 17 Messiah, Donald Winters, director; 4 p.m.. Alumni Chapel. 17 Hamblen's Babe of Bethlehem.

Edward Clark, director; 8 p.m.. Beargrass Christian Church. 10 Christmas Concert. Male Hi eh Band and Glee Club; 8 p.m.. Memorial Auditorium.

24 Carol Service. Irey, director; 7:30 p.m.. Fourth Avenue Methodist Church. 24 Carol Service, Harry William Myers, director: 7:30 St. Paul Methodist Church.

Fear additions er corrections to this calendar, call the Music Information Burean, AMherst 2421. Courier Journal was the hub of early day buccaneering and which serves as the background of the movie, "Double and to the inland Haitian fort erected by slave labor in the 18th Century. Five Pirates. No Less Murray's knowledge of historic pirates was given a vigorous workout for "Double Crossbones," inasmuch as the film includes no less than five famed buccaneers in its cast Henry Morgan, Captain Kidd, Black-beard, Long Ben Avery and Ann Bonney, best known woman pirate leader. "People who like pirate stories will be in for some surprises when they see this film," said the pirate expert.

"They'll find out those heroes of old weren't what they're cracked up to be. Captain Kidd, for example, was actually one of "the most overrated pirates in history. The enormous treasures he is supposed to have captured were a fallacy. He took a modest booty from one merchant ship, was captured in the terrible Captain Kidd Sommi Dei 1 Handel-Bibb Rarh My Heart Ever Faithful Ich bin eine Harfe: Du bis so junff Erich Wolff Seli go Nacht: Waltz de Chopin Marx Scene from Die Walkure Wagner To the Queen of Heaven Nightingale Lane Barnett The Unforeseen Scott On A March Day Duke La men to Du pare La Sarabande Tn Pourauoi: Le Sourir Messiaen Foudrain" Carnaval Holy Name Concert The Holy Name Band Hind Choral Club, now in the 11th year of its organization, will present a concert at Memorial Auditorium on December 10 and 11 at 8:30 p.m. Father Joseph Emrich is director of the 140-voice chorus and the 60-piece band.

Among the composers represented on the program will be Verdi, Gershwin, Bizet, Sibelius and Offenbach. Vocal soloists will be Molly Yunker and Gerry Fisher. Chorus Messiah The Louisville Philharmonic Chorus will present its third annual performance of the Christmas portion of Handel's Messiah at Memorial Auditorium on December 13. The program is made possible by the co-operation of the Musie Performance Trust Fund and the Shackleton Piano Company. No admission will be charged.

Soloists will be Patricia Ann Lynch, soprano; Gertrude Anderson, alto; Stewart Sellers, tenor, and Felix McKay, baritone. Jack Rogers will be organist. The chorus and members of the Louisville Orchestra 'Will be under the direction ot Edward Barret. Program Notes The University of Louisville Madrigal Singers, under the direction of Dr. Claude Almand, will sing for the Beechmont Woman's Club at the Iroquois Branch Library Thursday at 1 p.m.

A program of Christmas music will be presented at the New Covenant Presbyterian Church, 37th and Broadway, next Sunday at 4 p.m. Walter Harper will preside at the organ, and he will be assisted by Mrs. Vern Special to The employed in England and the U. S. for instruction in naval history.

Actually, Murray's own life reads like a movie script for one of Hollywood's heroes. As a combat pilot in World War he shot down nine enemy planes and was decorated with the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre with palms. Joining the British Navy in 1919, he served on all types of ships from armed merchantmen to aircraft carriers. He was in on the raid on Dieppe in World War II, the evacuation of Dunkirk and the invasions of the Solomons, Gilberts and New Guinea. Ships on which he served were torpedoed four times, bombed and sunk once.

Wide Experience His interest in the history of piracy has led him on three pilgrimages to trace down legends at actual locales, including trips to Cartagena, a city sacked several times by marauders of the Spanish Main; to Tortuga, the island north of Haiti which if 0 Alan Napier portrays s4 Jean Sibelius Is he doing an eighth symphony? been very His production includes also many lieder, contatas and a violin concerto. In 1910 and again in 1914 he visited the United States, His last published work, "Tapiola," a symphonic poem, was finished in 1927. Whether Sibelius has finished an eighth symphony is not known, nor whether he is still busy at composition. Even members of his family profess ignorance on this score. The question is frequently raised, but th answer remains alone with Sibelius th taciturn.

On the birthday next Friday, Sibelius three daughters and his grandchildren will be at "Ainola" to extend their congratulations and to have family luncheon with tht) professor. The composer's favorite dishes rich hors d'ouevres which servants have been preparing for days salmon and a sweet of service berries will comprise the repast. And then coffee, and for the professor, th cigars which friends in many corners of th world have sent to Sibelius each birthday for some years. enough to give him the aid he needs. Faithful Rollo has been working daytimes doing a great deal of the painting himself.

This, I understand, he is not supposed to do. Sometimes I think members of the Littl Theater Company do not realize what back-aching work goes into these productions. If they did I am sure more would come out and help. Of Course, I am really a fine one to talk," but then hammers, saws and paintbrushes are something I do not know how to handle. I guess I am like the majority, I want to act too.

That's bad, I know, and the backstage crew probably hates me for it. In The Cast "Pop (director Boyd Martin) has been tearing out what little hair he has left working with us at rehearsals swearing that we aren't giving him a chance to help us because we didn't known our lines when he thought we should. But each one in the cast of nine, except a few, has a lot to say and all of it is important. "But I am sure 'The Heiress' will mak a great impression. Even if we have seemed disinterested to Pop, we have worked very hard trying to convey what he wants to get over in the play.

Monday night will tell the tale." addition to Mrs. Meeker and Wriftht the cast of "The Heiress" will include Mrs. Dorothy Reese, Mrs. Mavis McGhee, Josef Dignan, Mary Virginia Manby, Dorothy Dillon, Marie Smith and Herbert Seigel. Mrs.

Frank von Allmen is production chairman and Mrs. Pryor Phelps is wardrobe mistress. Brobks of New York has supplied the costumes. Because of the length of the play the customary coffee interlude will be omitted for this production. -i-.

the foppish Henry Morgan 'sit' I -Sc: the unwomanly Ann Bonney ll'ti 111 il! JHIi. i rMrPf. Mti i i i Included on. the program at the next pair of concerts by the Louisville Orchestra, Wednesday and Thursday, will be Beethoven's Triple Concerto, with Edwin Ideler, left, and Robert and Grace Whitney in the solo parts. Yourself History's Famed Pirates Were Ham THE Little Theater Company, following up its tradition of trying to give Louisville, for the' most part, plays which its playgoers otherwise would not have the change to see, will present "The Heiress" at the Playhouse for four performances beginning tomorrow night at 8:30.

"The Heiress" will have Mrs. C. Kenneth Meeker in the title role, a part played originally by Wendy Hiller in the New York production and later interpreted by Olivia De Havilland in the William Wyler screen version. The play was suggested by Henry James novel, "Washington Square." It is in seven scenes depicting the blighted romance of a plain and shy young woman of the sheltered 1850 s. A Difficult Role Mrs.

Meeker, who played the herofne in "Street Scene" during the 1945-46 season of the Little Theater Company, is said to find the role of Catherine Sloper one of the most difficult she has ever played. The strange domination of the father over the girl whom he resents because her mother died in giving her birth occupies so much of Catherine's playing time that Mrs. Meeker says it is extremely difficult to rise to the dominating mood she finally achieves when she defies father. Then, too, Mrs. Meeker declares she gets so fascinated by Norman C.

Wright's fierceness, as Dr. Sloper, the father, that she completely forgets what line comes next. Of course, all this has happened during" the past weeks of steady rehearsing. Mrs. Meeker expects to tell a different story after the dress rehearsal this afternoon.

Another thing that is annoying to "so con- Actors! Boston, and was hanged in chains in England not for piracy, but for the murder of his first mate, William Moore." Murray further pointed out that Henry Morgan was really a foppish lady's man who turned against pirates when he was appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica and died in bed in Port Royal. Blackbeard, the English sea veteran disclosed, wasa real "ham." He carried no less than eight pistols at a time, stuck hemp under his cap and lit the ends when he went into battle, making a ludicrous but frightening sight as the smoke curled above his head. Long Ben Avery wasn't so ruthless, after all. When he captured the daughter of the Mogul of India, he made an honest woman of his captive by marrying her. And the female pirate, Ann Bonney, wasn't a siren, but actually looked like a man, standing over 6 feet in height and weighing around 215 pounds.

Buried Treasures Murray regrets this deglamorizing of famous pirates, but because a technical adviser's job is to present the facts, to tear the robes of fiction from their life stories. "Anyway, they're romantic enough without them," he added. However, the commander's advice on still-undiscovered booty is much more heartening. Millions in gold, silver and-, jewels still remain hidden, he declared. Somewhere near Trinidad lies the loot of Lima taken by Portuguese freebooters.

Millions lie beneath the sands somewhere on island of Cocos, off the west coast of South America. Henry Morgan's loot lies buried on the isthmus of Panama and in the Dry Tortugas. On Oaks Island in the province of Nova Scotia, searchers are still digging for a fabulous treasure whose existence has already been proved by evidence brought up from a depth of 100 feet benejath the surface. "But if you want to dig for buried treasure," advised Murray, "you don't even have to leave the borders of. the U.

S. There's a fortune buried by Jean LaFitte somewhert in the vicinity of Galveston, Tex." Mrs. C. Kenneth Meeker Has "Heiress" title role scientious an actress as Mrs. Meeker is that the cast hasn't been able to get on the stage for rehearsals.

That mysterious realm has been completely taken over by the stage crew, which up to Friday night hadn't seemed willing to relinquish it. "There are not enough backstage workers," Mrs. Meeker explains. "The faithful few that are assisting Rollo Wayne who has designed a gorgeous setting are not it lit' vv4 Robert Barratt as Hope Emerson plays t'l 'ft i Pi' VS wiMnnifiwraiMiii iiiiiii i- i riiiiiinn i -nun i i-M-l nimii i HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 2.

Did you ever quake in your sea boots, fancifully speaking, at the legends and deeds of such historic captains of the skull and crossbones as Captain Kidd and Henry Morgan? Did you, in your youth, suffer nightmares about pirates boarding your bed with cutlass in teeth and black patch over one eye? Would you be terribly disillusioned to learn, at this late date, that those infamous brigands of the Spanish Main were ham actors, fops, phonies and loudmouths. Word of An Expert That they were and you can take the word of a man who has devoted his life to following the sea and its lore. He is Lt. Com. K.

D. Iain Murray, recently retired British naval officer, now a resident of Studio City, where he is putting his learning to use as a technical adviser for the movi-js. Bearded and rakish in a seagoing way, Commander Murray has recently been at work on a movie titled "Double Cross-bones," Universal-International's Technicolor film starring Donald O'Connor. The commander looked as much like a pirate as anyone in the movie, yet he never got in front of the camera. He is the man behind the beard, behind the scenes, so to speak.

So typically 18th Century, was his beard that make-up expert Buddy West-more used it as a model for other beards in the films. A Home In The West This 54-year-old expert on naval history, from Phoenician days to modern times is not exactly a newcomer to movie making, having appeared in Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve" while he was a wartime engineering officer aboard a British destroyer. Following his retirement last year after 29 years of naval service, he brought his bride, Grace, a former officer in the Wrens, to Southern California where he has set-up permanent residence. Building model ships as a hobby brought Murray his first movie assignment, when the studio art department used his models to guide construction of 18th Century pirate ships. He has built more than 150 model ships, two of them now being in museums in Europe with dozens of others.