Musicians with the Staatsorchester Kassel were threatened with dismissal after a mutiny in which the instrumentalists refused to play the Communist anthem, "The Internationale," for an audience of blue-collar car-assembly workers before a Volkswagen workers' meeting earlier this week. The German orchestra members, many of whom were born in communist East Germany said the tune gave them unpleasant memories. Instead, the orchestra played the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise." Singing "The Internationale" standing with fist clenched was a bonding experience at Communist gatherings around the world for decades and it was the Soviet national anthem before 1944. Christoph Nix, director general of the Kassel Staatstheater, denied he had offered to fire anybody, but Adrienne Lochte, a spokeswoman for the Hesse state culture department which subsidizes the orchestra, said in Wiesbaden there had been a threat. "We believe it is unacceptable to pressure in this way orchestra members who suffered under Communism," she said.