Triumph for Thibaud

In Paris, about 20 years ago, three good friends recorded Schubert and Beethoven trios. Their performances are still definitive in chamber music. Pianist Alfred Cortot and Violinist Jacques Thibaud were France's two most distinguished instrumentalists. Spaniard Pablo Casals was the world's most famed cellist.

Before the war they split. Cortot, a collaborationist, became Vichy's secretary for music. Casals, a fiery Spanish Loyalist, hid out in France during the war, performed at Loyalist benefits. Now 70, he has announced that he will never play publicly again until Spain is liberated from Franco. Jacques Thibaud, less politically minded than either, gave concerts in Vichyfrance, but also performed clandestinely in Switzerland and Spain. In France, aging Jacques Thibaud is regarded with somewhat the same mixture of admiration and affection that U.S. audiences feel for Thibaud's close friend, Fritz Kreisler.

Last week, in Manhattan's Carnegie Hall, slim, courtly Jacques Thibaud, looking much younger than his 66 years, made his first U.S. appearance in 15 years. In the audience were Violinists Fritz Kreisler, Mischa Elman and Nathan Milstein. Concertgoers used to the opulent Russian-style fiddling of Heifetz and Milstein had to pay sharp attention to Thibaud's delicate and smaller tone, but the effort was worth it. Thibaud played the violin solo in Lalo's melodious, tricky-rhythmed Symphonie Espagnole with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra. He had to come on stage six times to take bows.

After a two-month tour of the U.S., Thibaud will return to Paris and his U.S. protege, 23-year-old Arnold Eidus of The Bronx. Eidus won the Thibaud International Competition for violinists last month. Says Thibaud proudly: "There were in this competition five Frenchmen, six Hungarians, three Hollanders--and one American. The American win. Such chic, such champagne in the tone. And technique! He never miss a note. It made me nervous. . . . You Americans, you don't know what talents you have."

Thibaud is gloomily sure that the great Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio will never play together again. "I have not been very lucky with my fellows," says he. "They have become politician. Cortot very bad, Casals a little mad."

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