Show NEWS THIS WEEK by LEMUEL F PARTON J EW YORK meeting francesco Mali piero at a party in the royal danielli in venice soon after the world war I 1 thought he was one of the most charm Mali alidier piero ing and brilliant was person and at the same to remember time te most cryptic men I 1 had ever seen there was in the company another italian musician a famous conductor who was the lion ot of the evening I 1 have forgotten his appearance pe ve arance and his name but everything about signor signer Mali piero is vividly remembered on the way home in a gondola I 1 asked the conductor for an appraisal of signor signer Mali Mall piero as a musician there was considerable condescension fles cension in the reply was gifted but erratic it was even hinted that be was unsound in some deeply subversive sense but my virgil eagerly agreed that the signor signer was a most extraordinary human personality As recently as four years ago a Mali piero opera threw the royal opera house of rome into a tumult of howling and cat calls mussolini banned it as inimical to the faith and sound teachings of the new italy but by this time Mali Mall piero had become a world famous musician and he was soon restored to favor this status is unquestioned as his symphony Elegia ca was given its first performance j 0 outlaw of in in new york with music now john Barb irolli Is s lionized conducting for many years critical opinion discounted him as somewhat of an outlaw and disturber now it has caught up with him as it did with stravinsky and richard strauss both the fire bird and salome were met with cat calls when they were first produced critics note some mysterious enervating erva ting influence in Mali pieros new symphony it may be an afterthought but the explanation seems clear as I 1 recall my conversation with him his face saddened and he seemed ten years older when I 1 mentioned the war for his ballet he be had bad written of the struggle of a soul hurling itself into the struggle for liberty only to find oblivion and death the war had been to him a tragic and devastating experience he said it had profoundly shaken both his art and his life never again would the suave flu enches or banalities of music have meaning for him he was impelled to a deeper search this disillusionment was sublimated in irony he was suspected of slyly sabotaging suspected of the grandiose new sabotage in n italian state it new opera vf was in in march 1934 that his opera e ra the fable of the exchanged sons with the text by luigi dello all but caused a riot in the royal opera house so far as I 1 could learn at the time there was no brash heresy in the work but as elaborated by the text a subtle hint that ultimate truth is forever elusive and supreme power dead sea fruit that of course is dangerous doctrine in a totalitarian state and it was quickly and savagely resented the next day il II duce forbade another presentation sen tation Mali piero is a poet and a mystic of dominant presence with sharply cut roman features and hair brushed back in a thick pompadour he fie is at the same time extraordinarily gracious friendly and unassuming he lives in a quaint stone villa forty or fifty miles from venice centuries old rambling and tumble down cut in the stone door lintel there is a latin text to the obscene all things are obscene that was his answer to the critics of one of his operas the art of living en grosses him as much as the art of music and he studiously main has gift for bains a relation friendship ship of courtesy with animals dignity and friendly intimacy with the creatures in his retreat he has a gift for friendship with animals and thinks that much of the trouble of mankind is due to its insensitiveness ti veness to the subhuman and superhuman perli pe uman his music is apt to range into those zones he was born in venice in 1882 beginning his violin studies in his sixth year his father was a political exile and the family was in germany for many years wagner was a cro crashing shing strain of modernity which profoundly affected his work 0 consolidated news features service |