What I found out about Francis Hellstein and the Detroit Symphony horn section. (WARNING: probably way more than anyone would want to know)
After reading the exchange amongst Ellen Manthe, Anne Megenity and our esteemed tuba-centric sister in conicality, (my spell check keeps trying to change this to comicality!?) Carole Nowicke regarding Francis Hellstein, I decided to check the out the set of D.S.O programs at N.Y.PL. to supplement my meager knowledge of this shadowy figure that seems to only crop up in Julius Watkins liner notes and Horn Call articles. I started my perusal of programs with the 1929-30 season and this was the section at that date was listed in this order: (I tried my best to locate and supply first names for at least the first appearance of an individual. This information was considered rather superfluous in early days, so there are a few that will just have to abide with first initials only) Albert Stagliano W. Macdonald Erwin Miersch Heinrich Hilmer Ernst Huebner The next 2 seasons had the horn personnel: Albert Stagliano James Stagliano (not a bad one-two, eh?) Miersch Hilmer Huebner Joseph Singer (apparently shifting over from the viola section at the time) The 1932/33 season programs are missing, but the 33/34 season had the same players, minus Joe Singer. Up to this point apparently the symphony?s program booklet were being printed by some outside benefactor for free, but they stopped doing this in 1934 and the meager sheet issue by the orchestra itself did not include any personnel info. The next season reveals the first mention of Hellstein (BTW - definitely the only way his name was ever spelled in any program.) Albert Stagliano Francis J. Hellstein Miersch Hilmer Huebner In 1936/37 we see: Hellstein Sune Johnson George Stimm Hilmer Huebner 1937/38: Theodore A. Seder Francis J. Hellstein Kenneth M. Shultz (as you will see, they never could decide between Shultz and Schultz) Sune Johnson Ernst Huebner 1939/40, 1940/41 & 1941/42 Albert Stagliano Hellstein Shultz Johnson Huebner I couldn?t find the next season?s programs, but the 1943/44 programs were most revealing since they listed the members of the section in two different orders. W. Hinshaw K. Schultz Merle Alvey E. Heubner F. Hellstein and, alternately Hinshaw Hellstein Schultz Alvey Huebner The fact that Hellstein appears both second and last in the list leads me to conclude that he was probably playing assistant at that point (or possibly associate, though I doubt that this sort of arrangement would have existed in Detroit back then). Interestingly, the 1944/45 through 1946/47 programs list him on top: 44/45 Hellstein Schultz Alvey Huebner Theodore (Ted) Evans Ernestine Barnes E. Stango G. Stimm Some of the programs from this season have a seating diagram of the orchestra with the player?s names keyed to numbers on the diagram and the (possibly meaningless) lineup, from left to right goes: Barnes/Huebner/Branson/Alvey/Stango/Shultz/Hellstein/Evans These names don?t totally match the personnel list (Branson and Stimm may have been non-contract players ? I have no information on either of them) but seem to possibly indicate that Hellstein was principal, assistant or co-principal with Evans at this point. 45/46 Hellstein Evans Alvey Huebner Barnes 46/47 Hellstein Evans Alvey Frank Balaam Barnes Hellstein fades from view at this point. In 1947/48 the players were: Lucius Patterson Evans Alvey Schultz Willard Darling (the beginning of a long tenure, going beyond time-span the set of programs which end in the early 1980?s ) No programs for 1948/49 through 1952/53 are in the collection. For the record the section in 1953/54 and 1954/55 was: Raymond Alonge (later of longtime NYC freelance renown) Richard Mackey (went to Boston S.O., I believe) Patterson Darling Evans Dorothy Stevens 1955/56: Alonge Donald Roth Patterson Darling Stevens 1956/57 William (Guglielmo) Sabatini Roth William Brown (I know of two Bill Browns that were active in NYC sometime after this date, but I don?t know which this would be) Darling Stevens 1957/58 Sabatini Darling Brown Roth Stevens 1958/59 Sabatini Darling Tomas Kenny Carl Karoub Keith Vernon Lastly, I include the final year that I was able to locate (1980/81): Eugene Wade (principal) Fergus McWilliam Edward Suave Willard Darling Corbin Wagner (asst.) Keith Vernon For the record, I have never been to Detroit, but I have heard their fine orchestra numerous times on tour dating back to the Paul Paray days when Art (Dave) Krehbiel was laying down the law there. That?s it. I?m sure its quite enough. Peter Hirsch _______________________________________________ Horn mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/listinfo/horn
