Muscular, swart-tempered, turbulent José Iturbi last week did nearly everything he is good at, except conduct an orchestra or fly into a high Hispanic dudgeon. Gab-gifted, he spoke as a citizen-about-to-be on the Justice Department's I am an American radio program. A neat, nimble pianist, he gave one of his infrequent Manhattan recitals. A fledgling composer, he heard the first performance of his rambling, Spain-inspired piece, Soliloquy, in Cincinnati, then joined the Cincinnati Symphony in a crashing performance of the Tchaikovsky "juke box" piano concerto.
José Iturbi has been in the U.S. since 1929, has worked hard to get into big-league conducting...
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