Posted by Rick Denney on June 16, 2003 at 09:48:59:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Who's Copying Whom? (Long) posted by Carole Nowicke on June 14, 2003 at 09:29:51:
See what I mean by public speculation bringing about the revelation of fact? Thank you, Carole. This story falls in line with some of what I've been suggesting, and eliminates some other suggested possibilities.
It is possible that Reiner didn't like the big York nearly as much as Ormandy didn't like it, and that was why he "encouraged" Jacobs to use the Dehmal. Perhaps Reiner wasn't as autocratic as history tells us, or at least not as sneaky as Ormandy, because apparently he allowed Jacobs to go back to the York after a time.
I rather expect that when Jacobs asked Donitelli why he was selling his York, Donitelli wouldn't have wanted to tell the teenager before him about the nastiness of orchestral politics of the day, especially if it was ongoing and threatening to Donitelli. It would have been indiscreet and could have cost Donitelli his job. It seems quite likely to me that the story he told Jacobs of being too fat to play the instrument was more sardonic than factual. Jacobs, being a naive youngster, apparently took it at face value.
As an aside, we sometimes say we miss the personal and characteristic sounds of orchestras with long-lived idiosyncratic conductors, such as the Ormandy/Philly "sound." But this story from Mr. Torchinski reveals that those idiosyncracies were often enforced with a heavy hand.
Rick "fascinated by Carole's history and wanting to hear more" Denney