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Updated: May 23, 2025
In illustration of the state of things that impelled him to leave his native land, he likes to tell this story: A minor Bolshevik official came in one day to check up on the affairs of the orchestra. "Who are those people?" he asked, pointing to a group of players at the conductor's left. "Those," said Koussevitzky, "are the first violins."
The fiery Koussevitzky told the Government that, unless he were allowed to travel abroad, he'd never play or conduct another note in Russia. They let him go. Mr. Koussevitzky says that the Bolsheviks robbed him of about a million in money, land and other property.
Every evening the vessel a sort of musical showboat tied up at a different city, town or village and the orchestra gave a concert, often before peasants and small-town folk who had never heard symphony music before. In seven years Mr. Koussevitzky and his men traveled some 3,000 miles. Came the revolution. Kerensky ordered Koussevitzy and his men: "Keep up with your music."
Long ago, says this key-tickler, when he was a youth, he was hired by Koussevitzky, then also a young fellow, to play the piano scores of the entire standard symphony repertoire. He pounded away by the hour, the day and the week, while Koussevitzky conducted, watching himself in a set of three tall mirrors in a corner of the drawing room of his Moscow home.
To them the Symphony is a sacred cow and they regarded the older members in the light of special pets. But when, at the opening of the new season, they heard a brilliant, completely rejuvenated orchestra, they forgave the new conductor. Since then, he has restored the Symphony to its old-time glory. Today Beacon Hill has no greater favorite than Serge Alexandrovitch Koussevitzky.
"And those over there?" asked the inspector, indicating a group at the conductor's right. "The second violins," was the reply. "What!" yelled the official. "Second violins in a Soviet state orchestra? Clear them out!" Mr. Koussevitzky went to Paris, where he conducted a series of orchestral concerts and performances of Moussorgsky's "Boris Godounoff" and Tschaikowsky's "Pique Dame" at the Opera.
People rose, rushed for the exits in near-panic. Women screamed. He stopped the orchestra, turned to the audience, held up his hand and shouted: "Come back! Sit down! Sit down all of you! Everything is all right!" The customers meekly resumed their seats. Mr. Koussevitzky swung 'round and continued playing Debussy's brooding, sensuous dreampiece as if nothing had happened.
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