Spring & Summer

Music is no longer a seasonal business. When spring darkens the great auditoriums, it also throws open the stadia and amphitheatres which now dot the country. In the U. S. May brings with it Festivals Weeks everywhere; June, July, August bring symphony concerts and opera al fresco. In Europe, more and more cities and villages are bidding for tourist trade with musical programs.

For spring and summer music-seekers, the following list tells where, when, what in the U. S.:

May. The major May Festivals are:

Rochester, N. Y., May 1-4, Community Music Festival. Racial and other groups in songs, dances, church and secular choruses.

Cincinnati, May 7-11, Biennial May Music Festival, Frederick Stock musical director; Cincinnati Symphony and such soloists as Florence Austral, Schumann-Heink, Paul Althouse, Dan Beddoe, Lawrence Tibbett in such works as Mendelssohn's St. Paul (oratorio), Bach's Magnificat, and a Wagner program.

Harrisburg, Pa., May 9-11, Mozart Festival, five programs including the Mozart C minor Mass.

White Plains, N. Y., May 9-11, Westchester Festival, Albert Stoessel, musical director; community choral singing featured.

Bethlehem, Pa., May 10-11, Bach Festival at which Bach's Passion According to St. Matthew and Mass in B Minor will be given. Dr. J. Fred Wolle directs the Bach Choir, members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, distinguished soloists.

Spartanburg, S. C., May 14-15, 34th annual Music Festival at Converse College. Programs will include Mendelssohn's cantata, Walpurgis Nacht. Soloists: Georges Barrere, Louise Lerch, Dorothy Flexer, Gina Pinnera, Frederick Jagel.

Ann Arbor, Mich., May 22-25, 36th annual event under the auspices of the University of Michigan; programs furnished by the Chicago Symphony under Frederick Stock. Soloists include Sophie Braslau, Richard Crooks, Richard Bonelli, Edith Mason, Lawrence Tibbett, Efrem Zimbalist, Josef Hofmann. Evanston, III., May 27-June 1, 21st annual Chicago North Shore Festival. Orchestral favorites, a few novelties, the Bach B minor Mass comprise the programs, interpreted by artists including Cyrena van Gordon, Efrem Zimbalist. Josef Hofmann, Edith Mason, Alice Mock. Other May festivals are at Emporia, Kan., Bangor, Me., Springfield and Lynn, Mass., Keene, N. H., Newark, N. J. June opens the summer opera season at St. Louis--light opera favorites such as The Chocolate Soldier, The Bohemian Girl. On June 22 begins the famed summer season at rustic Ravinia Park, near Chicago, with Impresario Louis Eckstein giving a classical repertoire with Metropolitan Opera stars until Labor Day. July. The twelfth season of outdoor concerts at Lewisohn Stadium, The Bronx, N. Y., starts July 5, lasting until August 30 under Conductors Willem van Hoogstraten and Albert Coates. On the Pacific Coast, "music under the stars" will be heard in the Hollywood Bowl under the batons of Directors Bernardino Molinari and Eugene Goossens. In Europe, London's Covent Garden opera season is now under way. It lasts until June 28. Two "Ring" cycles are being given, as well as Meistersinger, Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Rosenkavalier, Don Giovanni, Tosca, Butterfly, Turandot, Girl of the Golden West, Manon Lescaut, Otello, Norma, Gioconda, Boris. Conductors are Bruno Walter, Robert Heger, Vincenzo Bellezza. Chaliapin heads the singers. The Paris music season, at its height from now through June, includes a series of performances at the Champs-Elysees Theatre by the Turin Opera Company, conducted by Tullio Serafin of the Metropolitan. Germany's offerings are endless. In Berlin, beginning May 19, operatic activities include Wagner, Strauss and Mozart cycles, festival concerts under the direction of Conductors Furtwaengler, Kleiber, Klemperer, Walter; guest appearances of the Scala Opera of Milan under the direction of Toscanini. In Munich, the usual Wagner & Mozart Festival takes place from July 23 to August 31 at the Prince Regent and Residence Theatres. Musical events in Vienna and lower Austria from June 2 to 16 include ballets and serenades by the Vienna Philharmonic under Franz Schalk and Clemens Krauss; a concert by a choir of 8,000 in front of the City Hall; operettas of Strauss, Suppe, and Offenbach; church concerts in Modling (near Vienna) featuring Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. The Salzburg Festival, August 4 to 30, calls in the assistance of the Vienna Philharmonic. Beethoven's Fidelia, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Strauss's Rosenkavalier are all listed for performances as well as orchestral and sacred concerts.