<<  -- 6 --  Bill Newman    AFTER ANTAL DORÁTI

His music is part of his personality. 'Very much so.' Music you can listen to with a strong tonal base and plenty of colours? 'Yes, it is not eclectic, but has its own language. Partly Hungarian, which is where he came from.' But new music from various European countries nowadays abandons folk origins to become totally abstract, atonal, even serial. You suddenly wonder what has happened. Even in Hungary, the older composers have been replaced by the new young thinkers. 'If anybody there uses the Hungarian idiom, they say they are copying Bartók and Kodály. Even with Toni's compositions, they said he was leaning towards them, as he was their pupil. But he was only a pupil of Kodály, because Bartók never gave one single lesson in composition. He didn't want to explain the creative process in his own works.'

'In the next generation, composers like Matyás Seiber and Doráti both wrote "a little Hungarian", and are then labelled as coming from Bartók -- it is simply not true. Yes, there are many great talents in that whole Danube area. Then there was the Hungarian Revolution where so many left the country. They had to rebuild their stock, once more. But there is new talent, too.'

Musical Practices

'Toni was never still. He was the one person in my life who didn't waste a single moment. He was always planning, doing, thinking something. Also, on an aircraft he would compose, write, or make a little sketch. The busiest person, but he never lacked self control.' He always possessed this inner discipline, and his whole approach was systematic -- whatever he did. 'His basket of talents was so full that it was unbelievable what he was able to do. Once he was in a bad mood, and I would say: "You, must never complain. Everyday, you must say Thank You for what you have in your basket!" Bartók's last words before he died were: "Do you know, I am going with a full sack." He had so many plans -- so many ideas, still.'

'And Toni had so many plans for orchestras which he could do at any given moment. It's true. Every orchestra has its own potential, and he would say: "I'm just pushing the right button!" We had a wonderful experience when he took over the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC. After his first rehearsal at the Kennedy Center, we walked home the few minutes to the Watergate Hotel. In front were two trombone players, who did not see that we followed them. One said to the other: "I'm ashamed that I didn't always play like this -- like I do now for Doráti." The other replied: "Why -- it was never asked?"

'It was very significant, because he had just taken over. But he had this gift, and it was also amazing what he could achieve with less than good orchestras. I experienced this many times, and he had a spontaneous way of bringing a mood into the orchestra. For instance, one day Eugene Ormandy came to us. "Toni, you should come to Rotterdam." Why? "Because they have some extra money which they want to use for the improvement of the orchestra." OK, if you say so. Zinman was then the Chef. So, they called in Doráti, Jochum and Ormandy for building up this orchestra. Each of them came for a month. We came there, and stayed in Zinman's apartment. Zinman was working somewhere else.

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