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Maurice Levy: Can you, uh, can you give us just a few words about what was
your activities with the Tuesday Musical Club?
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Belle Rubenstein: Well, I was. Just, uh, one of the active members in the,
uh, you know, um.
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Levy: What primarily did they do?
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Rubenstein: Well, they are. They are very philanthropic. They give
scholarships to beautiful. Uh. Yeah, they they give, uh.
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Levy: They help young. They help young artists out.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. Young people around. My goodness. They give them,
uh, scholarships for $1,000 here. And. For either voice or, uh, well,
whatever their instruments are.
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Levy: Were you were you in any kind of an officer position there, or were
you just. No, no, I wasn't, uh, maybe you can, uh, let's go back to the Y
for just a moment here. Uh, do you recall, uh, it sounds a little bit, uh,
crass, but what the fees were when you were chairman back in the 50s. What
did. What did you pay the artists? You recall?
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Rubenstein: What the artists. You know what? I just don't remember that I
didn't pay much attention at that time.
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Levy: When it came to selecting the artists for the following year, you
had this agency in New York.
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Rubenstein: They used to come and visit us from the different ones, you
know, like the, uh. Um, um. Well, well, from, uh, from Surat. Surat and,
uh, uh, Columbia. Columbia management. Yeah, yeah. And they used to come
and visit us and, uh.
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Levy: They would propose artists. For you.
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Rubenstein: They would propose. Yeah.
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Levy: And then would you send a committee out to hear the people play
before you engaged them, or did you generally rely on their, uh.
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Rubenstein: Well, of course we couldn't go hear them. Uh, they came from
all over, they from New York and so on. And we used to take their their
recommendations. Oh, yeah. And we always did very, very well. You know, we
brought the greatest.
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Levy: Well, when it came to making up the, uh, roster for the year, for
the programs. Yeah. Uh, you had a certain number of, of violinists. Certain
number of pianists. Did you more or less have a formula you tried to
follow?
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Rubenstein: Well, yes, we would get, uh, yeah, we'd get the.
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Levy: Be be mostly violin and piano and then occasionally, uh, uh, some
other instrument or flute.
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Rubenstein: Or cello. Yeah. And, uh.
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Levy: Occasionally a flute. Occasionally a clarinet. Yeah. And and the,
the vocal, the vocalists.
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Rubenstein: And the vocal.
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Levy: You usually have one a year. Is that about what you had?
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Rubenstein: Yes. We have, yeah. Uh, we always had one vocal, uh, and we
used to concentrate. We still do. Seem to me we concentrate on piano.
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Levy: Uh, yeah. I've talked to some people who are there presently, and
they say that many of the people do not like vocalists. Well, that's true.
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Rubenstein: True. Sure.
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Levy: That your experience. Sure. They didn't like singers and.
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Rubenstein: Yeah, that's right. We there has to be something and we
brought in some beautiful extra special ones just well, like like Marian
Anderson, people like that. And Warhol we, we brought in the, the, the, the
greatest.
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Levy: Jussi Björling.
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Rubenstein: And Björling.
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Levy: And then recently you had Elly Ameling.
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Rubenstein: Yeah. Oh, that's the one I couldn't think of. Oh, she was a
lovely just wonderful. We had her a couple of times.
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Levy: Benita Valente yeah, right.
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Rubenstein: I think we're bringing her again. Well, no, she's on our
list.
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Levy: Is she. Is she on your list? Yeah, because she's going to appear
next month with the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society. Yeah. She's going to
sing with the Juilliard.
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Rubenstein: Yeah. Uh, do you go to the chamber music?
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Levy: On occasion. Well, I used to. I had season tickets for a number of
years.
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Rubenstein: Uh, yeah. Well, I did last year, but I'm not going this year.
Um. I had the. Couple of years I had. So. But I see that they're bringing
her on next season. Valente. And the she's on our list to consider. We we
have a there was a meeting last week or two weeks ago. We have a list of
people we're considering for the following year. I see her name is on
there. But I don't know.
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Levy: If there is a there are fewer young prospects now than there were
years ago because the attendance dropped off for a while. Didnt they?
You had the attendance dip for several years and then it was revived
again.
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Rubenstein: Boy, are we successful this year. Last year I couldn't believe
it.
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Levy: This is because you moved into Carnegie Music Hall.
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Rubenstein: And I thought. I thought this was. We move into Carnegie.
We're finished. That's what I thought. And when I saw the audience come in,
I couldn't. I couldn't get over it.
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Levy: The hall is twice as big. Yeah. Twice as big.
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Rubenstein: But I know.
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Levy: The sound is much better, isn't it, than it was in the other.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. But, um, I thought that we were finished when we.
When we were.
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Levy: You never sold as many season tickets as you did recently, did you?
A number of subscriptions.
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Rubenstein: That's wonderful. I can't, I was overwhelmed. I couldn't
believe it. Anyway. Um.
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Levy: This coming season, there's a large number of season subscriptions.
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Rubenstein: Um, yeah. Look at this. Last year wasn't that great with Yo-Yo
Ma. And, you know, we oversold it. It was unbelievable. I couldn't believe
it.
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Levy: So it's a much sounder financial basis than it ever was.
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Rubenstein: Oh, yes. Yeah it is.
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Rubenstein: So.
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Rubenstein: What else?
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Levy: I'd like to thank you. I'd like to thank you very much for a
fascinating interview. The time flew, as you noticed when you looked at the
watch.
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Rubenstein: I cant believe it. I just had breakfast and.
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Levy: And and we gave, uh, I think he gave a very good overview of the Y
Music Society starting in 1926. Here it is, 1991, about 60, 65 years.
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Rubenstein: Adding to that.
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Levy: Are we and you. And you, of course, participated in in 55 of those
years.
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Rubenstein: Oh my goodness, 55. Oh, boy.
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Levy: And the people that you met and the fact that the Y Music Society
has always been a very significant part of it, the Pittsburgh musical
scene. And it's people like you who did it, who gave their time
voluntarily, you and your husband and all your friends who entertained
these people and made the. And as we indicated, it appears that it's bigger
than, better than ever. Yes it is, even though in other cities the recital
scene is not quite that.
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Rubenstein: I know, I know that has a difficulty. That's true. Uh, this is
unbelievable, the way it has grown.
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Levy: Well, I thank you again very much for the wonderful interview.
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Rubenstein: Really, I, I didn't think it was so hot and that. Funny.
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Levy: I like your gift.
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Rubenstein: Well, anyway, I want to hear some of the others. You're.
