The audience cheered itself into a hoarse croak, critics wrote rhapsodic reams and the Wagner concert Arturo Toscanini gave for his season's farewell in Manhattan last week left everyone groping for non-existent superlatives. Many a conservative New Yorker pronounced it the greatest concert within memory, credited its success not only to the little Italian conductor but also to Soprano Gertrude Kappel who majestically outdid herself as Brünnhilde in the Immolation scene from Götterdümmerung.
Next night the Philharmonic-Symphony directors gave a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, proudly announced they had raised the $500,000...