No More Debates

Something grim by Alban Berg, a new complexity by Stravinsky, something noisy out of the U. S. S. R.--any new composition out of the ordinary has titillated Philadelphians and Manhattanites when Leopold Stokowski shook his frizzy blond locks over it for the first time. Audiences did not always actually like the new music; but there was the exciting possibility of a new Stokowski gesture, a Stokowski gadget, a lot of Stokowskitalk. A typical performance was when, at a broadcast concert, he conducted in a glass booth, controlling the sound to his own satisfaction. It has since been learned that the dials he twiddled were fake ones, hooked up with nothing at all by radio men who were taking no chances. But the customers loved it, especially the fluttering ladies; they went on listening to novelties chiefly because Leopold Stokowski pontificated over them so impressively.

Last week there was an announcement of changes at Philadelphia. Depression makes a difference. In Boston this summer it seemed to make audiences prefer sad music to merry music (TIME, July 18). In Philadelphia next season, with the sanction of Conductor Stokowski, the programs will be "almost entirely devoted to the acknowledged masterpieces." The directors of the orchestra feel that "audiences prefer music which they know and love, and that performances of debatable music should be postponed until a more suitable time."

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