Orchestras: Bucharest Battle

On paper, it looked like a shoo-in for the East. The Moscow Philharmonic, one of Europe's best, had come to Bucharest to play in the triennial Georges Enesco Festival with a repertory of surefire, splashy Russian music. On hand as challenger was the parvenu Los Angeles Philharmonic on a State Department-sponsored visit. To stack the cards even further, festival officials told Conductor Zubin Mehta that he must remove the scheduled Tchaikovsky Fourth from his program; Russian music, Mehta was informed, belonged to Russian orchestras. With concerts by the two ensembles scheduled...

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