Music: Fantasy

In the tumult & the shouting which attended Leopold Stokowski’s final Youth Concert, Philadelphia last week came near forgetting a dark-haired, 19-year-old girl and the composition she had played by his Symphony Orchestra. Stokowski’s youths (aged 13 to 25) had worked themselves into a frenzy over his prospective de parture (see above). They yelled for the conductor and, like young Curtis Bok, they aggressively demanded the orchestra board’s resignation.

In the midst of the turmoil Stokowski played a Christmas Fantasy by young Ann Wyeth, daughter of Artist Newell Convers Wyeth, famed for his illustrations of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Last of the Mohicans, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Philadelphia critics usually refrain from appraising the youthful talent which Stokowski presents. Miss Wyeth described her piece as “an expression of my personal reactions to Christmas day in our home : a weaving together of the solemn spirit of Christ’s birthday with the festivities of a family holiday.”