People began to arrive in the late afternoon. Long before 8 p. m. they had packed the main hall of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art to overflowing, were huddling on stairs, pressing into small rooms and remote galleries. Thousands sat in the shadow of suits of mail, under priceless canvases, close to marble sculptures. Thousands could not see the musicians' stand, yet all 15,000, one of the biggest indoor concert audiences ever assembled, applauded deafeningly when a slim, silver-haired old man walked on to begin conducting his twentieth series of eight free...
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