Final Movement

"I try to avoid doing anything in a superficial way," says Gilbert Kaplan, 43, the publisher of Institutional Investor. So he does. In 1982 the amateur musician rented Avery Fisher Hall in New York City's Lincoln Center and hired the American Symphony Orchestra so that 2,700 friends and associates could hear him conduct Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony. Last week Kaplan took another characteristically direct action. Increasingly distracted from the publishing company he founded 17 years ago, Kaplan announced its sale, in addition to 18 TV and radio stations, to Capital Cities Communications, owner of W and Women's Wear Daily. Price: about $70 million.

The centerpiece of Kaplan's firm is Institutional Investor magazine, a glossy monthly with 77,000 well-heeled subscribers (average household income: $147,000). It has an avid following on Wall Street for its irreverent reporting and its annual ratings of securities analysts. Kaplan will stay on as editor in chief of the magazine, but music will also command his attention. He plans to conduct the Mahler work again, with the London Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 9.