[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 108 (Thursday, June 29, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9469-S9470]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        THE DEATH OF EFREM KURTZ

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise to report to the Senate 
the sad news of the death, in London, of the beloved American conductor 
Efrem Kurtz. He passed away at the great age of 95 after a career 
unequaled in the history of music in the 20th century, which he all but 
spawned. He was, of course, born in St. Petersburg in 1900, later 
moving to Berlin where he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, thence to 
Stuttgart where he directed the philharmonic there from 1924 to 1933. 
As a Jew, he left what was by then Nazi Germany. He became a guest 
conductor of the New York Philharmonic, the NBC Symphony, the San 
Francisco and Chicago Symphonies, and for the longest while the Kansas 
City Symphony. He was a guest conductor of many orchestras in Europe, 
Japan, Australia, Canada, Israel, the Soviet Union, and much of the 
rest of the world. But the ``International Who's Who,'' 1994-95, 
identifies him as American conductor, the term I used earlier. He was 
awarded a gold disc by Columbia Records after the sale of three million 
of his recordings with the New York Philharmonic alone. He was loved 
and admired the world over, but most especially here in the United 
States. We shall miss him even as we have the treasure of his memory. 
Our great sympathy goes to his beloved wife, Mary.
  In order that the Record might show the range of his achievements, I 
ask that there be included at this point the entry of Efrem Kurtz from 
``Current Biography,'' 1946, at which time he had just begun conducting 
the Kansas City Philharmonic. Finally, I would ask that a flag be flown 
over the Capitol in his honor and presented to his widow.
  The biography follows:

                     [From Current Biography, 1946]
       Kurtz, Efrem Nov. 7, 1900--Conductor.
       Address: b. c/o Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kansas 
     City, MO.
       One of the younger men who have been gradually 
     demonstrating their competence in the orchestral field is 
     Efrem Kurtz, permanent conductor of the Kansas City, 
     Philharmonic Orchestra. After an impressive debut in Berlin 
     in 1920 as a last-minute substitute, he became known as a 
     conductor of symphony, and as musical director of the Ballet 
     Russe de Monte Carlo, in Europe, South America, Australia, 
     and the United States.
       One of four children, all musical, Efrem Kurtz was born in 
     St. Petersburg Russia, on November 7, 1900. He is the son of 
     Aron and Sima Kurtz. His father, a storekeeper, loved music 
     but did not play an instrument. His mother, however, played 
     the piano, and his grandfather had conducted a military band 
     for Czar Nicholas I. Through his grandmother he is distantly 
     related to Mendelssohn. Young Kurtz received most of this 
     musical education at the conservatory in St. 

[[Page S 9470]]
     Petersburg, where he studied with Tcherepmine, Glazunov, and Vitol.
       In 1918 he was graduated from the Peter the Great High 
     School there, and from 1918 to 1920 he was a student at the 
     University of Riga. When the Kurtz family was later forced to 
     flee Russia because of the Revolution, the young musician 
     resumed his studies at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, with 
     special classes in conducting under Carl Schroder, and was 
     graduated in 1922. His first big opportunity has come in 1920 
     when at the last moment he was asked to substitute for Arthur 
     Nikisch as conductor of a recital by Isadora Duncan. A highly 
     successful debut brought the novice an immediate guest 
     contract for three performances with the Berlin Philharmonic.
       During the next several years Kurtz followed a heavy 
     schedule which took him to forty-eight German cities and 
     later to Italy and Poland. Then, in 1924 he was appointed 
     chief conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic and musical 
     director of the radio station servicing all southern Germany. 
     In these posts Kurtz remained for nine years, until the rise 
     of the Nazis to power. His activities, however, were not 
     confined to Stuttgart. In 1927, for instance, Anna Pavlova, 
     the dancer, heard his conducting and engaged him to conduct 
     her ballet company at Covent Garden. The ten-day season was 
     followed by a South American tour with the Pavlova Ballet, 
     during which period Kurtz also conducted symphony concerts in 
     Buenos Aries and Rio de Janeiro. The South American 
     engagement led to an invitation to wield the baton in 
     Australia, and the Australians were so enthusiastic that they 
     extended to him three separate offers to remain. Kurtz, 
     however, preferred to return to Europe. While permanent 
     conductor at Stuttgart he also filled engagements in Holland, 
     Belgium, and other European countries, and in 1931 and 1932 
     he conducted a series of Handel concerts at the Salzburg 
     Festival.
       In 1933 Kurtz, a Jew, left Germany for France. There, in 
     Paris, Colonel Wassily de Basil asked him whether he would 
     aid in an emergency by conducting the Ballet Russe de Monte 
     Carlo without rehearsal, and on the strength of his 
     performance appointed Kurtz musical director of the Ballet 
     Russe. This position the young conductor was also to occupy 
     for nine years, touring extensively throughout Europe, South 
     America, and the United States, and at intervals appearing as 
     guest conductor in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, with the 
     New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium 
     for several seasons, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, 
     the NBC Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit 
     Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and others. His ballet 
     work encompassed both the classical repertoire and new 
     choreographies some composed to the music of the great 
     symphonies. Although, unlike some balletomanes, he believes 
     that the latter should be included in the repertoire, or 
     ballets utilizing symphonic scores the Ballet Russe's former 
     musical director was on one occasion reported to have 
     remarked. ``Oh, I never see them. I keep my eyes closed. But 
     it is not so cruel to use the music that way, because it is 
     experimental. [Although] it is true that when I am conducting 
     something like Brahms's Fourth I do not want to see a Mickey 
     Mouse come out and cavort.''
       Kurtz has, however, written seriously of ballet. ``The 
     ballet as an art form,'' he said in 1941, ``offers to the 
     conductor problems which are inherent in the combination of 
     two heterogeneous elements: bodily movement and tone. The 
     ballet requires absolute synchronization of music and 
     physical movement, and in this synthesis lie the problems 
     peculiar to the ballet. . . .I am a conductor and a musician 
     first, but ever since the days when I was associated with 
     Anna Pavlova I have been impressed by the manifold 
     possibilities involved in the relationship of music and the 
     dance. If the conductor is sensitive to the problems 
     involved, he might very well come to the point where he 
     doubts his ability to preserve the highest standards of 
     musicianship while, at the same time, maintaining 
     interpretation, synchronizing the accompaniment to the 
     movements of the dancers, and fully expanding the 
     choreographer's ideas. . . .When one conducts classical 
     ballet, he must follow the dancer in finest detail. He must 
     be thoroughly conversant with the steps of the dancers; more, 
     he must have developed an intuitive feeling for equilibrium. 
     . . .All the problems involved in classical ballet are 
     pertinent to the modern with an additional important element. 
     As contrasted to the classical ballet which is merely the 
     projection of a mood, the modern is conceived for the 
     execution of a story. . . .Composer and choreographer have 
     produced the modern ballet in closest collaboration. Tempo 
     becomes a matter of a work's content, of a dance's very 
     essence. The dancer becomes the instrument of the 
     choreographer who, in turn, is a much the servant of the 
     composer's ideas as the composer is willing to integrate his 
     composition with the potentialities
      of pantomiming. . . . Music originally written as ballet 
     music is without doubt better than music arranged for 
     ballet. The possibilities for young composers in the field 
     of ballet music are tremendous.''
       Kurtz has been called ``the finest of ballet conductors,'' 
     but although he enjoyed his work with the Ballet Russe, he 
     readily admitted his preference for symphonic conducting. In 
     the autumn of 1943, therefore, he accepted an invitation to 
     become conductor of the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra, 
     to succeed Karl Krueger who had left for Detroit. The next 
     season Kurtz was re-engaged for another two years. His first 
     thought on taking over in Kansas City, he has said, was how 
     to bring his music to the masses, how to make them come to 
     understand and like it; and despite opposition he began to 
     offer ``pops'' concerts featuring good music at very low 
     prices, annual free concerts, ``name'' soloists, and special 
     concerts for school children in an endeavor to attract 
     audiences. ``The most important thing is to get them in,'' he 
     said, ``and then sell myself and the orchestra.'' The 
     response proved that he was right, for by the end of his 
     second season the orchestra was out of the red for the first 
     time in many years and seemed well on its way to becoming 
     self-sufficient.
       He moves Kansas City audiences, it is said, because ``he 
     knows how to inject his dramatic flare into programming, at 
     the same time maintaining the highest musical standards.'' 
     Both in Kansas City and during his guest appearances it is 
     his habit to include modern compositions and the works of the 
     Russian masters on his programs, and he has won commendation 
     for his conducting of these works as well as of the standard 
     repertoire. (Igor Stravinsky \40\ Kurtz has known for many 
     years; he has seen ``many of the composer's works come into 
     being and has been their consistent advocate.'') He is 
     likewise eager to foster new instrumental and vocal talent, 
     in this regard being a sponsor of Carol Brice, contralto, and 
     William Kapell, pianist, both of whom have been especially 
     well received by the critics; and for 1947 he planned 
     engagements for eight young American solosists during the 
     Kansas City winter ``Pops'' season. In 1944 Kurtz's Kansas 
     City Philharmonic was selected as the first orchestra to be 
     presented on NBC's new radio program Orchestras of the 
     Nation, with reappearances scheduled for the following 
     seasons.
       In addition to his regular tasks Kurtz has led a specially 
     assembled orchestra for several Warner Brothers' shorts of 
     the Ballet Russe and has conducted the London Philharmonic 
     Orchestra in the scores for two motion pictures starring 
     Elisabeth Bergner. A ``tall, gaunt Russian,'' Kurtz was 
     married in 1933 to Katherine Jaffe, whom he describes ad an 
     authority on cooking, ceramics, and painting. Kurtz himself 
     makes a hobby of art, specializing in water colors and 
     caricature. So well known has his interest in art work by 
     children become that, it is pointed out, mothers now send him 
     the paintings of their talented offspring for criticism. In 
     addition, he collects letters from famous contemporaries, 
     possessing many from Einstein \41\, Hindemith \41\, Prokofiev 
     \41\ and others; and he has built up an unusual collection of 
     stamped letters which have some interesting historical 
     significance. Of one of his constant companions, his French 
     poodle Dandy, the conductor says, ``You can talk to him and 
     he understands, but he doesn't answer. That is so good 
     sometimes.''
     

                          ____________________