Music: Glass Arm Substitutes

People who have been watching Arturo Toscanini conduct lately were not surprised when it was announced last week that he would be unable to finish his midwinter engagement with Manhattan’s Philharmonic-Symphony. Since early in the summer Toscanini has suffered excruciating pain in his right arm. Like many a conductor before him (Leopold Stokowski, Willem Mengelberg, Richard Strauss), he has a sub-deltoid bursitis or “glass arm,” an affliction which orchestra leaders and schoolboys get from the same cause. Schoolboys get it from throwing pebbles or crabapples instead of baseballs, conductors from putting too much energy into their waving of a light, non-resistant baton. Toscanini has given magnificent performances this autumn but doing so he has had constantly to shift his baton to his left hand, let his painful right arm rest limp. He will go to Switzerland for treatments, hopes to be back by March.

German Bruno Walter will conduct the Philharmonic for seven weeks, beginning in mid-January. But for the next few weeks substitutes were needed. The choice of Detroit’s Ossip Gabrilowitsch and of Hans Lange, the Philharmonic’s assistant conductor, surprised no one. The engagement of Vladimir Golschmann for Christmas week aroused controversy, as did the Philadelphia Orchestra’s engagement of Eugene Ormandy, another beneficiary of Toscanini’s glass arm, now permanently established in Minneapolis (TIME, Dec. 7).

Vladimir Golschmann has conducted in Manhattan before, in 1924 when he was 30, as guest of Walter Damrosch’s New York Symphony. He came well recommended then from his native Paris where from violinist he rose to conduct his own Concerts Golschmann, presenting many a contemporary French composer. He conducted successfully after that with the Diaghilev Ballet but in Manhattan he made slight impression. The Symphony was in a badly run-down condition. Symphony men, used to calm, benevolent Conductor Damrosch, objected to Golschmann’s nervous, high-pitched voice, his worried manner.

Then last spring the tables turned. Vladimir Golschmann returned to the U. S. to conduct the St. Louis Symphony at a time when tense, vital leadership was its only hope for salvation. Ten imported guest conductors had driven players and audiences into a state of lethargy, but Golschmann managed to inject enough spirit into four concerts to earn a two-year contract. This autumn the St. Louis Symphony has been unique in hav-ing its highest seat-sale in history, a 12% increase over last year’s. Part of this is due to the enthusiasm St. Louis ladies have for their new conductor.