Music: 50¢ Symphony

Sometimes music, like wine, is judged by the price on its label. San Franciscans, who each year jampack their Civic Auditorium (at a $4.80 top) for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra concerts, last week were offered a "People's Symphony" — plus Sir Thomas Beecham — for 50¢. They did not seem to want it.

The bargain-counter symphony was the idea of Nicholas Johnston, a wealthy photographer whose portraits of the carriage trade fetch the fanciest prices in northern California. To bring music to the people, he hired Sir Thomas, then laboriously recruited 82 musicians from music schools, shipyards, radio stations and Hollywood sound studios.

After only six hours of rehearsal his players launched bravely into Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Handel, Tchaikovsky. Servicemen, their girls and some civilians huddled in 2,500 of the auditorium's 8,700 seats, and paid closer attention to Conductor Beecham's lively podium calisthenics than to the uneven music. Entrepreneur Johnston, his faith in the common man's yearning for music badly shaken, was left with a substantial income-tax deduction.