Music: New Permanents

Two major U.S. symphony orchestras, both without permanent conductors since stormy Artur Rodzinski left them, finally picked replacements last week.

It had been three years since Conductor Rodzinski quit the New York Philharmonic-Symphony after a fiery row with the directors (TIME, Feb. 17, 1947). The orchestra at first threatened to disintegrate under a series of guest conductors. But last year Leopold Stokowski and the Minneapolis Symphony’s Greek-born Dimitri Mitropoulos, sharing most of the season under Bruno Walter as musical adviser, began to pull it together again.

This season the same team minus Walter has worked it back to first-class shape. Last week came a decision. Leopold Stokowski, 67, informed the directors he would not be available next season; the board voted unanimously to make 53-year-old, egg-bald Dimitri Mitropoulos the Philharmonic’s regular conductor.

After New York, Rodzinski had gone to Chicago. He had lasted one year. Last week, after eleven guest conductors in two seasons, the Chicago Symphony Association voted its baton to a relative newcomer to the U.S.: mop-haired Czech Conductor Rafael Kubelik, 35, who made a hit as a guest conductor last fall (TIME, Nov. 28).