A concert career
The Stokowski recordings had launched Toni’s concert and recording career, which was to last over thirty years. The calls to perform the delightful orchestral Hary Janos suite continued throughout, and she ultimately recorded it so many times she lost count. Other calls followed, including that invitation from Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft to make the recordings of Ragtime and Renard (and later, Les Noces.) She played and recorded Pierre Boulez' Eclat with the Composer and performed the Stravinsky works under various auspices.
Hary Janos remained the mainstay she played with so many of the great conductors and orchestras of her time. (See "About Toni") She could not accept all calls because often shipping her instrument a great distance for one or two concerts was too costly. It was also risky. There were tales of mishaps when movers took charge, one being the time when the cimbalom was delivered to the circus instead of the concert hall and she found it amid bales of hay and elephant poop. At that time renting an instrument was not a choice, for even if one was available there was no way to know if it was suitable for symphony work or even playable.
Just a note: The concert cimbalom is very large, bulky and heavy. Although later in life she would occasionally rent a known instrument from Carroll’s in New York City (which may have been one she had sold them) for a concert with the New York Philharmonic, she would usually transport her own instrument by herself when she concertized on the east coast. When you looked at her, then at this huge thing, it didn‘t seem possible, but she had it down to a science. She did this with a minimum of help. The cimbalom demands much from any player above and beyond the playing itself. Toni would need to arrive a day early or two, sometimes three, to make sure the instrument was set up with care; then sit down and give all those strings a thorough tuning. She would tune again before the concert. This is akin to a pianist moving and tuning his or her own piano for every performance.
Hary Janos remained the mainstay she played with so many of the great conductors and orchestras of her time. (See "About Toni") She could not accept all calls because often shipping her instrument a great distance for one or two concerts was too costly. It was also risky. There were tales of mishaps when movers took charge, one being the time when the cimbalom was delivered to the circus instead of the concert hall and she found it amid bales of hay and elephant poop. At that time renting an instrument was not a choice, for even if one was available there was no way to know if it was suitable for symphony work or even playable.
Just a note: The concert cimbalom is very large, bulky and heavy. Although later in life she would occasionally rent a known instrument from Carroll’s in New York City (which may have been one she had sold them) for a concert with the New York Philharmonic, she would usually transport her own instrument by herself when she concertized on the east coast. When you looked at her, then at this huge thing, it didn‘t seem possible, but she had it down to a science. She did this with a minimum of help. The cimbalom demands much from any player above and beyond the playing itself. Toni would need to arrive a day early or two, sometimes three, to make sure the instrument was set up with care; then sit down and give all those strings a thorough tuning. She would tune again before the concert. This is akin to a pianist moving and tuning his or her own piano for every performance.
