Music: Schoenberg for Others

Neither shellfire nor bombing attack has ever ruffled the musicians of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Whether they wear tails or fatigues, play in air-conditioned concert halls, musty airraid shelters or the hot, windy dust bowl of Mount Scopus, they customarily keep near-perfect measure and make fervent music. Last week the 34-year-old orchestra was shaken by another kind of disturbance. Its ordinarily staid and loyal subscribers, protesting the premiere in Israel of Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone Violin Concerto, had tried to get rid of their subscription tickets in droves. Many of those who actually did...

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