Rodziński, Artur, 1892-1958

Artur Rodzinski was born in Spalato, Dalmatia (now Croatia), in 1892. He studied music in Lwów, Poland before taking a law degree in Vienna. While in Austria, Rodzinski studied composition with Joseph Marx and Franz Schreker, conducting with Franz Schalk, and piano with Emil Sauer, a Liszt pupil. Rodzinski started as a choral conductor and then made his conducting debut with Ernani at the Lwów Opera in 1920. Leopold Stokowski invited Rodzinski to visit Philadelphia in 1925. He was a sought-after guest conductor during the 1930s, appearing with the N.Y. Philharmonic in 1934 and 1937, notably with Rose Pauly in one of the most celebrated performances of Strauss' Elektra. Rodzinski led the N.Y. Philharmonic from 1942 to 1947, and the following year he directed the Chicago Symphony. In later years, Rodzinski made guest appearances in Latin America and in Europe. He settled in Italy where he continued to conduct opera to great success. In Florence in 1953, he gave the first performance outside of Russia of Prokofiev's War and Peace. Rodzinski died in Boston in 1958.

Rodzinski was the conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. He had apparently known Alma Mahler in Vienna at some point before his move to the U.S. in 1925.

Artur Rodzinski was a Polish conductor who spent many years in the United States.

Biographical Note

Artur Rodzinski was born in Spalato, Dalmatia (now Croatia) to Hermana Jozefa Rodzinski and Jadwiga Wiszniewski Rodzinska on January 2, 1892. Hermana, a Polish surgeon in the Austrian Army, was transferred to Lvov (formerly Lemberg and Lwów), Poland around 1897. Rodzinski's mother, Jadwiga, was a musician. At age 6, Rodzinski learned to play the piano and at age 15 was a page-turner during concerts in Lvov. In 1917, he served in the Austrian Army on the Russian front until he was wounded. After serving in the military, he married Ilse Reimesch, a German pianist. Rodzinski earned a law degree at the University of Vienna and took advanced musical classes at the Vienna Musical Academy with Joseph Marx and Franz Schreker in composition; Franz Schalk in conducting; and Emil von Sauer in piano. Returning to Lvov, he continued his music lessons with Jerzy Lalewicz. In 1918, Ilse gave birth to a son, Witold Rodzinski. To support his family, Rodzinski played the piano in a cabaret run by Marek Windheim and later as a piano accompanist for visiting singers and instrumentalists.

Rodzinski began as a choral conductor before making his debut as an orchestra conductor in 1920 at the Lwów Opera with Ernani . In 1921, he was employed with the Philharmonic in Warsaw (Filharmonia Narodowa) and became the first conductor of the Warsaw Opera (Teatr Wielki w Warszawie ). In the ensuing years, Rodzinski introduced Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Wolf-Ferrari’s I gioielli della madonna, and Ravel’s L’heure espagnole .

In November1925, Leopold Stokowski invited Rodzinski to visit Philadelphia, where he made his debut as a conductor in the United States with the Philadelphia Orchestra on November 15, 1925. In 1926, Rodzinski was a guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and was later appointed assistant conductor with a signed contract through Concert Management Arthur Judson. Rodzinski made his debut in New York with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducting the premiere of a Miaskovski symphony. During the following three years in Philadelphia, he was in charge of the opera and orchestral departments of the Curtis Institute of Music, where Ilse taught piano.

Rodzenski left Philadelphia to become the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1929. During the next three years in California, he guest conducted the Hollywood Bowl, the Young People’s Concert Series, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1933, Rodzinski became a United States citizen.

In September 1933, Rodzinski became the conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra for the next ten years. Under Rodzinski, the Cleveland Orchestra became a leading virtuoso ensemble as he directed important performances such as the American premiere of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mzensk District on June 31, 1935. Additionally, he conducted the Cleveland Orchestra for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) national broadcasts and for Columbia Records sound recordings from 1939-42. During Rodzinski’s summer breaks, he often stayed at White Goat Farm in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, farming and raising goats. He would later sell his goats around 1941 to raise bees. In addition, during his breaks, Rodzinski worked as a guest conductor for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1934 and 1937. Other guest conductor positions between 1936-38 included the Salzburg Festival, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, appearances in Budapest, Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, and at Los Angeles’s Hollywood Bowl. He was the first American conductor to lead the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1937, upon Arturo Toscanni’s request, Rodzinski assembled and trained the National Broadcast Corporation’s (NBC) new symphony orchestra.

In 1934, Rodzinski divorced Ilse and married Halina Lilpop Wieniawsk in Warsaw, Poland, on July 19th. In 1936, he was decorated with the Polonia Restituta by Count Potocki. He was awarded, in 1938, an honorary music degree from Oberlin College and a Diplôme d’Honneur in France for his program of Polish music at the Paris International Exposition. In 1940, the Polish Relief Concert requested Rodzinski’s services, which resulted in a free concert to support the war around 1942.

In December 1942, Rodzinski signed a contract to be the music director of the New York Philharmonic. He appointed Leonard Bernstein as his assistant conductor the following year. Rodzinski conducted broadcasts for CBS with the New York Philharmonic from 1944-46. On January 23, 1945, Halina gave birth to Rodzinski’s second son, Richard (Riki). In 1946, Rodzinski sold White Goat Farm to Arthur Percival and bought an old golf course in Lake Placid, New York. Renaming Chubb Hill to Riki Hill, after his son, he started building a house. After difficulties in the terms of renewing his contract, he resigned from the New York Philharmonic in February 1947.

Rodzinski spent the next eleven months as the conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and opened their season at the Ravinia Festival on October, 7, 1947. In 1947, the film “Carnegie Hall,” was released. Rodzinski made a cameo appearance. In 1948, he directed Tristan, starring Kirsten Flagstad in her first concert in the United States after the war. Conflicts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s management would end Rodzinski last permanent position as a conductor.

After leaving Chicago, Rodzinski, often traveling with his family, served as a guest conductor in the United States, Latin America and Europe. In November 1948, Rodzinski suffered his first heart attack in London, which canceled his schedule until the winter of 1949. He gave a performance in Los Angeles before conducting the 1949-50 season of the Havana Symphony Orchestra. During mid-season break, he conducted at a spring festival in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. The Havana Symphony Orchestra management asked Rodzinski to be their permanent conductor, but when the musicians disbanded, the conductor was without an orchestra. His next engagements, managed by Sociedad Musical Daniel, were in Argentina at the Teatro Colon, Uruguay and Brazil.

Sociedad Musical Daniel, using their European contact Felicitas Keller, arranged work for Rodzinski in Europe. In 1951, he debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, followed by concerts in Venice, Naples, Los Angeles and Panama. In January and February 1952, Rodzinski performed at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze. Later that year, he started recording for Radio Audizioni Italia (R.A.I.) broadcasts, which continued through 1958. Additionally, Rodzinski conducted at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze during the 1952 Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In September, Rodzinski performed at the Biennale di Venezia. He returned to New York to record with Remington Records for several weeks before returning to Florence, where he suffered an internal hemorrhage. Rodzinski recovered to conduct Prokofiev’s War and Peace at the 1953 Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first time the opera was performed outside of Russia. After spending the summer in Lake Placid, he returned in September 1953 for a three month engagement in Naples at the Teatro San Carlo. During that time, Rodzinski also performed Wagner’s Tannhäuser in Florence. Programs followed in Brussels, Milan, Torino, and Rome.

In 1954, Rodzinski conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra for the Westminster Recording Company. Additionally, he performed with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, on Radio Italiana di Roma broadcasts and at Teatro alla Scala. In September 1954, and again in 1956, Rodzinski recorded in London with Westminster. Upon his return to Italy, chest pains caused him to cancel his engagements until December 25, 1954. He then conducted the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra at the Teatro Argentina, but had to cancel the second program due to bronchitis. He recovered to perform in Florence, Rome, Torino, and with the R.A.I. ensemble.

During 1955-57, Rodzinski spent many hours performing on R.A.I. broadcasts between other concerts and resting. He conducted Tristan at the 1957 Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. During September 1957, Rodzinski recorded with Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd. (EMI) in London, but he then fell into a brief coma, an illness that caused him to reschedule the completion of the work. In April 12, 1958, Rodzinski conducted the annual concert for Pope Pius XII at the Vatican, sponsored by R.A.I. Rodzinski returned to the United States in September 1958. On November 10, 1958, Rodzinski gave his last performance of Tristan at the Chicago Lyric Opera. Just seventeen days later, on November 27, 1958, Rodzinski died of heart failure in Boston, Massachusetts.

Alan Shulman was a composer, cellist and arranger. Born in Baltimore on June 4, 1915, his early studies were with Bart Wirtz (cello) and Louis Cheslock (harmony) at the Peabody Conservatory.

In 1928 the family moved to New York, where Shulman played in the National Orchestral Association under Leon Barzin. He received a New York Philharmonic Scholarship, studying cello with Joseph Emonts and harmony with Winthrop Sargent. From 1932-1937, he attended the Juilliard School where he was a fellowship student, studying cello with Felix Salmond and composition with Bernard Wagenaar. While still a student, he composed music for the American Children's Theatre production of Hans Christian Anderson's The Chinese Nightingale (1934). He continued his studies of cello with Emanuel Feuermann, and of composition with Paul Hindemith.

Shulman was the cellist of the Kreiner String Quartet (1935-38). Later, he and his brother, violinist/conductor Sylvan Shulman, co-founded the Stuyvesant String Quartet. During the 1940s and 1950s this group was noted for its performances and recordings of contemporary quartets of Bloch, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Malipiero, Hindemith and Kreisler, among others. In 1941 they played the American premiere of the Shostakovich Piano Quintet at Carnegie Hall (on a bill which included Benny Goodman), and recorded it for Columbia Records.

Simultaneously with his Kreiner Quartet activities, Shulman was arranging and performing classical themes in a jazz style with an ensemble consisting of string quartet, bass, guitar and harp. The group, called the New Friends of Rhythm, recorded for RCA Victor and sold 20,000 records in 1939 and 1940. They recorded with Buster Bailey for Victor before World War II, and with Maxine Sullivan for International Records after the war.

Shulman was a charter member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini from 1937-1942, served in the U.S. Maritime Service from 1942-1945, and rejoined NBC from 1948-1954. While in the Maritime Service, he taught orchestration to Nelson Riddle, who went on to write celebrated arrangements for Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat "King" Cole. After NBC disbanded the Symphony in 1954, he helped form and manage the group's short-lived successor, the Symphony of the Air.

During the 1930s and 1940s Shulman was active as an arranger for Leo Reisman, Andre Kostalanetz, Arthur Fiedler and Wilfred Pelletier's Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air. Later, Shulman worked with opera singer Risë Stevens, producing "crossover" arrangements for her which she recorded from 1945-1947.

Shulman's first successful composition was Theme and Variations for Viola and Orchestra, which received its première over NBC in 1941 with Emanuel Vardi as soloist. The piece was recorded several times and is in the repertoire of most American viola soloists. Among his many successful compositions are the Suite on American Folk Songs (one movement of which, Cod Liver 'Ile, was recorded by Jascha Heifetz); Waltzes for Orchestra, premiered by the NBC Symphony with Milton Katims conducting; Threnody (For the Fallen Soldiers of Israel), premiered by the NBC String Quartet in February, 1950; Rendezvous, written for Benny Goodman and recorded by Artie Shaw and Richard Stoltzman; and the Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, premiered by Leonard Rose with the New York Philharmonic under Dimitri Mitropoulos. His Suite Miniature for Octet of Celli was written in 1956 for the Fine Arts Cello Ensemble of Los Angeles.

In the 1950s, Shulman wrote popular songs with entertainer Steve Allen and arranged for Skitch Henderson, Raoul Poliakin and Felix Slatkin. During the 1960s and 1970s, Shulman was busy in recording and television studios, and composed teaching material and works for band including Three Faces of Glen Cove, Interstate 90, The Corn Shuckers and Mazatlan, and arranged for singer-songwriter Cris Williamson's debut recording on Ampex Records.

Shulman founded the Violoncello Society in 1956 and was President from 1967 to 1972. He was cellist of the Philharmonia Trio (1962-1969), the Vardi Trio, An Die Musik (1976-1977), and the Haydn Quartet (1972-1982). Shulman taught cello at Sarah Lawrence College, Juilliard, SUNY-Purchase, Johnson State College (Vermont) and the University of Maine. He was made a Chevalier du Violoncelle by the Eva Janzer Cello Center at Indiana University in 1997. Shulman died on July 10, 2002.

Sources: Margaret Campbell. "Shulman, Alan." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/52906 (accessed September 22, 2011).

"The Music of Alan Shulman." http://capital.net/com/ggjj/shulman/index.html (accessed September 22, 2011).

Epithet: conductor