Hitler's Table Talk

CONDUCTING AN ORCHESTRA 449
Above all, the meretricious system of inviting "guest artistes"
for particular performances must cease. Why sacrifice the
regular artistes instead of giving them an opportunity of showing
their talent? The right policy is to encourage those artistes who
are accredited to the theatre, and then to hold on at all costs
to those who show more than average ability and make it worth
their while to refrain from going to Berlin or elsewhere, where
all they will get will be a job as an understudy.
Great conductors are as important as great singers. Had
there been a sufficiency of good conductors during the time of
the Weimar Republic, we should have been saved the ridiculous
spectacle of the rise to eminence of a man like Bruno Walter,
who in Vienna was regarded as a complete nonentity. It was
the Jewish press of Munich, which was echoed by its Viennese
counterpart, that drew attention to the man and suddenly proclaimed
him to be the greatest conductor in Germany. But the
last laugh was against Vienna; for when he was engaged as conductor
of the superb Viennese Orchestra, all he could produce
was beer-hall music. He was dismissed, of course, and with his
dismissal Vienna began to realise what a dearth there was of
good conductors, and sent for Knappertsbusch.
He, with his blond hair and blue eyes, was certainly a German,
but unfortunately he believed that, even with no ear, he
could, with his temperament, still produce good music. To
attend the Opera when he was conducting was a real penance;
the orchestra played too loud, the violins were blanketed by the
brass, and the voices of the singers were stifled. Instead of
melody one was treated to a series of intermittent shrieks, and
the wretched soloists looked just like a lot of tadpoles; the
conductor himself indulged in such an extravaganza of gesture
that it was better to avoid looking at him at all.
The only conductor whose gestures do not appear ridiculous is
Furtwängler. His movements are inspired from the depths of
his being. In spite of the very meagre financial support he
received, he succeeded in turning the Berlin Philharmonic
Orchestra into an ensemble far superior to that of Vienna, and
that is greatly to his credit. Some people attribute this
superiority to the fact that Berlin possesses a number of genuine
Stradivarius, but this explanation must be accepted with