Harold Dicterow; L.A. Philharmonic Violinist

"But, maestro," protested the recently discharged Army private. "I've never played second violin in my life. I'm a soloist. I've always played first."

That was 1946.

But he needed the job, and took it. He spent more than 50 years as principal second violinist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic--a post he first found "repugnant" but about which he quickly came to insist, "I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Harold Dicterow, the revered patriarch of a family of musicians, died Monday of heart failure at Simi Valley Hospital. He was 81.

Asked when he retired from the Philharmonic at age 77 if he would put away his violin, Dicterow exclaimed to a Times music writer: "God, no! I'll never do that. They're gonna have to bury the fiddle with me. I love it too much to stop."

That love of music was so infectious that Dicterow's two sons began playing the violin in childhood and performed with the Philharmonic as teenagers. The elder, Maurice, became a Sherman Oaks physician but has moonlighted as a violinist. Younger son Glenn is now first violinist and concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.

"Having my father as a role model was certainly inspiring," Glenn Dicterow told The Times in 1993. "I begged for the fiddle when I was 8." He called his father "the most dedicated orchestral musician I know."

Irina Dicterow, the matriarch, is a pianist and artist, and daughter Marina also plays, although music is not her profession.

Harold Dicterow, like his progeny, began early. Born in New York on Oct. 19, 1919, five days before the birth of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he studied violin from age 7. He played New York's Town Hall at 18 and Carnegie Hall a year later.

Responsible for supporting his newly widowed mother, he won a job as first chair violin with the San Francisco Symphony. But the season was short--25 weeks--and barely paid the annual bills. So he moved south, hoping to find lucrative work with Hollywood film and radio studio orchestras.

The Philharmonic opportunity came along, after World War II and Army service, when he auditioned for music director Alfred Wallenstein. Dicterow planned to stay a year, meet union requirements for studio orchestras and then go.

But studio contract orchestras soon waned, symphony seasons grew longer and better paid, and Dicterow found that he liked directing his colleagues' bowings and soloing for the second violin section. Over the years, and since his retirement, Dicterow did have his share of freelance work in television and film, but the Philharmonic became, in his own words, "my life."