Show NEWS THIS WEEK by LEMUEL F PARTON EW YORK meeting francesco 1 at i a party in the royal daniea in venice soon atter after the world war I 1 thought he was one ol of the most char charm M Mali Mal piero spiero ing and brilliant was person and at ze the sarr sabr isil to remember ti ame me most cryptic in men en I 1 had bad ever seen there was in the company another italian musician a famous c conductor on ductor who was the lion of the evening I 1 have forgotten his appearance pe arance and his name but everything about signor signer Mali piero is vividly remembered on the way home in a gond gondola ola I 1 asked the conductor tor for an appraisal of signor signer Mali piero as a musician cian there was considerable condescension in the reply Mali piero was pitted gifted but erratic it was even hinted that ho he was unsound in some deeply subversive sense but mi my virgil eagerly agreed that the signer was a most extraordinary human fluman pe personality As recently as four years ago a Mali Mall piero opera threw th the e 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 piero had become a world famous musician and he was soon restored to to favor this status Is unquestioned as 89 his symphony was given its first performance outlaw of 1 n new york with music now john Barb irolli Is a lionized conducting for many years critical opinion discounted him as somewhat of an outlaw and disturber now it has caught caugh tup 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 Mall 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 Fan tea lie he had 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 lie ile said it had profoundly shaken both his art and his life never again would the suave flu enches or banalities of music nave have meaning for him ile he was impelled to a deeper search tills this disillusionment was sublimated in irony he was suspected of slyly sabotaging suspected of the grandiose new sabot sabotage a ge in in italian state it new opera was in ahto march 1934 that 1 his op era 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 po power dead sea fruit that of course is dangerous doctrine in a totalitarian state and it was quickly and savagely resented the next day it 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 pompa pompadour dour he 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 th the obscene b all things are obscene that ahat 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 i gift tm for t bains a relation friendship ship of courtesy with animals dignity and friendly intimacy with the creatures in his bis retreat he has a gift tor for friendship with animals and thinks that much of the trouble of mankind is due to its In ti veness to the subhuman and superhuman pe his music is apt to range into those zones ho he was born bom 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 crashing strain of modernity which profoundly affected his work 0 consolidated news features service |