Reunion in Carnegie

The little maestro, apprehensive that the orchestra was no longer what it used to be, arrived for his first rehearsal an hour ahead of time. But by rehearsal's end he was pleased as Punch. Said he: "They have remembered everything I taught them. Nothing is missing."

Manhattan concertgoers who have looked back with twinges of regret to the golden years from 1926 to 1936, when Arturo Toscanini was the fabulous war lord of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, had no apprehensions. Sold out, the orchestra office had to return $25,000 in checks to applicants who wanted seats for the two-week postseason Beethoven festival at Carnegie Hall with wiry, white-haloed Maestro Toscanini conducting.

The first-night audience last week rose reverently to its feet as Toscanini walked briskly on to the stage, faced the 93 Philharmonic players, the 250 Westminster Choir singers, robed in white and maroon, the four soloists. Then sounded music of humanity, solace, peace, triumph: Beethoven's great Missa Solemnis, under the magic Toscanini touch. In later concerts, with the orchestra alone, the First and Second Symphonies emerged in shining clarity and freshness, the Eroica with towering architecture, and blazing spirit. By the time the Beethoven series ends, all nine symphonies, five overtures and the Triple Concerto will have been played.

The festival crowns the Philharmonic's centennial year. It crowns, for Toscanini, a sporadic season of conducting. A year ago, when the maestro ended his 1940-41 season with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, he would not decide to continue for another year. NBC made other plans, secured Leopold Stokowski as its star conductor. Other orchestras pressed the conductor for guest appearances. He finally succumbed. Since November, he has conducted eight Philadelphia Orchestra concerts, five NBC Symphony broadcasts for the Treasury Department (for which he took no pay), has also done more recording for Victor than in any previous year.

Betweentimes he remains a quiet country squire on his rented five-acre place at Riverdale, on the edge of Manhattan, spends evenings buried in his beloved scores. He explains:

"I want, I crave the time in these, my last years, to come a little nearer to the secrets of Beethoven and a very few other eternal masters."

When Toscanini left the Philharmonic in 1936, the orchestra was on close competing terms with Serge Koussevitzky's Boston Symphony and Leopold Stokowski's Philadelphia Orchestra. Then the Philharmonic pinned its faith on short, swart John Barbirolli, who proved an able welterweight, but no world champ. The Philharmonic went into a slump. Attendance dropped from 86% of capacity to 81%. This season, partly to celebrate its centennial, partly to lift its dwindling prestige, the Philharmonic gave its subscribers a glittering stream of guest conductors. An erratic season, it produced some half-empty houses, but attendance rose to 90%.

For next season the Philharmonic's directors decided on a similar setup. They signed up four of the conductors who appeared this year (Walter, Rodzinski, Mitropoulos, Barbirolli) and a new one, Fritz Reiner of the Pittsburgh Symphony. They also invited Toscanini. Last week, the morning after the second Beethoven concert, came good news. The maestro's son, Walter Toscanini, walked into the Philharmonic office, told Associate Manager Bruno Zirato that his father had decided to accept. He will direct the Philharmonic's first two weeks next fall.

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