With strings attached- Reminiscences and reflections, 2nd edition, enlarge

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

308-309

text excerpt

It must have been in 1932 or 1933, before Vienna had awakened to the acuteness of the Nazi menace; Josephine Baker, the Negro star from Paris, was drawing packed houses at the premier night club of the capital; the Social-Democratic Arbeiter Sinfonie Konzerte were playing all the advanced symphonic works which later were labeled “Entartete Kunst” (Degenerate Art) by the Nazis; /Szigeti gave a recital under my management featuring this then much-discussed work with the famous “Blues” movement. / In all my long managerial experience, this was the first time that such a “bagarre” developed at a recital in venerable Musikvereins-Saall After the Blues, hoots and cries of “Negermusik!” and “Pfui” from the few Nazi provocateurs back of the orchestra stalls soon developed into a free fight, in the course of which the rowdies were ejected. Little did we realize that incidents like these, which we minimized then-they were repeated nightly at Josephine Baker’s performances too- were all part of the Nazi master plan: to lump all exotic, advanced art- Stravinsky, Picasso, Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Kandinsky, Marian Anderson, whatever it might be- together as “Negroid” and discredit it as unworthy of the Aryan.

excerpt from 'With strings attached- Reminiscences and reflections, 2nd edition, enlarge' pp. 308-309 (204 words)

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