Wallenstein, Alfred, 1898-1983

Cellist and conductor Alfred Wallenstein was a prodigy on his instrument, and later became the principal cellist in two of America's finest orchestras. As a conductor, he made music over the radio on a regular basis, using that "podium of the air" to perform neglected works and those written by contemporary composers.

Wallenstein could boast of a distinguished lineage: his Austrian father was a descendent of Count Wallenstein, who played a crucial role in Europe's seventeenth-century political arena. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Los Angeles. At age eight, Alfred was given a cello by his father and began lessons with the mother of composer Ferde Grofé. Following further studies with Julius Klengel, he made his debut in Los Angeles and swiftly gained a reputation as a child prodigy. After touring the country through the Orpheum theatre network, he returned to California and, at the age of 17, was appointed to the San Francisco Symphony. Subsequently, he was engaged by the famous dancer Anna Pavlova to perform as solo cellist in a South and Central American tour.

In 1919, Wallenstein joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming that ensemble's youngest member. Engaged by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1922, Wallenstein traveled back to the city of his birth to perform under Frederick Stock, often as featured soloist, and to take up a teaching position at the Chicago Musical College. In 1929, Arturo Toscanini engaged Wallenstein as principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, a post he held until the Italian conductor's departure in 1936. There, too, Wallenstein was frequently presented as soloist in many of the most important cello concertos. From Toscanini, he also received the advice that he employ his exceptional musicianship as a conductor rather than remaining an instrumentalist.

In 1931, therefore, Wallenstein entered the conducting phase of his career by directing for a radio broadcast. The year following, he was appointed leading conductor for the Hollywood Bowl and, in 1933, he began conducting his own Sinfonietta on New York's radio station WOR. In 1935, he was made the station's music director.

Wallenstein held to the high road in matters of musical quality with both his Sinfonietta and the Symphony of Strings. Many neglected masterworks were revived and newly composed works were given a hearing, given exposure to audiences numbering in the hundreds of thousands. In addition to his regular orchestral programs, he undertook several special series. One, heard on Sunday evenings, was devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Another, heard Saturday evenings, offered the operas of Mozart, some of which were not familiar to American audiences. A third series presented contemporary American choral works and yet another featured pianist Nadia Reisenberg in the piano concertos of Mozart.

Wallenstein's guest appearances included those with the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and the NBC orchestras. Columbia Records issued several Mozart works with Wallenstein directing his Sinfonietta. In 1943, he returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic as its music director, a post he held until 1956. In 1968, he joined the faculty at the Juilliard School of Music, becoming head of the orchestral department in 1971.

During the latter part of his conducting career, Wallenstein often accompanied some of the world's most distinguished artists, such as Artur Rubinstein and Jascha Heifetz.

"Then, in 1931, he began trying his hand at conducting. His first chance came, in the great condiction of almost all conductors, through a last-minute indisposition of the regular conductor. It was a WOR radio program, and it attracted the company's attention to him."

Portrait of Alfred Wallenstein (1898-1983), who was an American cellist and conductor. A descendant of Albrecht von Wallenstein, Alfred was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He joined the San Francisco Symphony as a cellist at the age of 17 and later played cello with both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He eventually became the principal cello of the New York Philharmonic under Toscanini in 1929. It was Toscanini who advised Wallenstein to become a conductor. He conducted the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and from 1943 to 1956 he was musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. After he retired, he taught at the Juilliard School in New York, where he died at age 84.

Alfred Wallenstein, the conductor, cellist, classical music pioneer on radio and former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, died Tuesday while working at his desk in his Manhattan apartment. He was 84 years old.

Beginning his career as a cellist who occupied the first-chair positions for both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic (under Arturo Toscanini), Mr. Wallenstein became one of the first American-born and educated symphonic conductors to achieve national prominence.

He was a participant in radio in its early years and broke new ground in bringing classical music to it, beginning in 1926 with three cello recitals for station WGN in Chicago. Later he became known to a nationwide listening public through the broadcasts of the "Wallenstein Sinfonietta," which he organized for the Mutual Network's WOR in 1933. Indeed, his early programs are believed to be the first classical programs commercially sponsored on radio. He also was well known as the conductor of the NBC Symphony and the conductor of NBC's "Voice of Firestone" programs.

Series of Bach Cantatas

As music director of WOR from 1935 to 1945, Mr. Wallenstein presented a series of Bach cantatas on the Sundays for which they were composed (1938 to 1940), all 26 of Mozart's piano concertos (1939), seven Mozart operas (1940), a lieder series featuring Elizabeth Rethberg (1941) and the premiere of hundreds of modern works by European and American composers.

He took particular interest in American composers. "We have a large percentage of excellent raw talent here waiting to be utilized," he once said, adding, "We have the orchestras, the audience, the technical equipment to insure good performance, so my aim is to find a place for contemporary as well as well as classic music." Among the composers who benefited from his encouragement was Morton Gould.

In 1942, Mr. Wallenstein received radio's Peabody Award for "pioneering in a quiet way for good music and encouraging and originating various unique broadcasts."

In 1943, he was appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a post he held until 1956. During his tenure he built the orchestra into one of the nation's major ensembles, broadened the range of its performances in the Los Angeles area and started young people's concerts in a project integrated into the public school system. Chose Cello Over Bicycle

Although he was born in Chicago, he grew up in Los Algeles. Given his choice of a bicycle or a cello at the age of 8, he chose the musical instrument and was sent to study with the mother of Ferde Grofe, the American composer.

He was soon playing in public and by the age of 15 was touring the Orpheum vaudeville circuit billed as "The Wonder Boy Cellist." In the winter of 1916, he played with the San Francisco Symphony and the following year was engaged to tour Central and South America with Anna Pavlova, the ballet dancer.

By 1920 he had saved enough money to go to Leipzig, Germany, where he studied cello with Julius Klengel and, apparently, undertook tentative medical studies at the same time. He returned to this country in 1922 and became principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Frederick Stock.

In 1929, Toscanini selected him as principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, and Mr. Wallenstein remained with the orchestra until Toscanini resigned in 1936. Meanwhile, Mr. Wallenstein had begun to conduct and in the summer of 1932 appeared at the Hollywood Bowl as both conductor and soloist.

In the years after he left the Los Angeles Philharmonic he pursued a number of activities - music director of the Caramoor Festival from 1958 to 1961, conductor of the Symphony of the Air (the former NBC Symphony) in seven Beethoven concerts at Carnegie Hall in 1961, guest conductor of major orchestras in the United States and Europe and a member of the Juilliard School faculty beginning in 1968. His last conducting appearance in New York was with the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall in 1979.

Mr. Wallenstein's wife, Virginia, a pianist whom he married in 1924, preceded him in death, and they had no children.

Name: Alfred Franz Wallenstein
Race: White
Age: 42
Birth Date: 7 Oct 1898
Birth Place: Chicago, Ill., Cook County
Residence Place: Holmdel, Monmouth, N. J.
Registration Date: 15 Feb
Registration Place: N. Y. C., New Jersey, USA
Employer: Station W O R, 1440 Bwy, N. Y. C.
Weight: 170
Complexion: Light
Eye Color: Hazel
Hair Color: Brown
Height: 5'' 8"
Next of Kin: Virginia Wallenstein