Music: Perfect Program

If one is to travel from Italy to Manhattan to conduct just one concert, reflected Arturo Toscanini, one really should select the Perfect Program. Last week he announced that when he leads the Philharmonic Symphony for the benefit of unemployed musicians April 28, his idea of perfection will be Parsifal, the Prelude and the Good Friday music, followed by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with its soaring Ode to Joy. Toscanini also cabled his choice of soloists: Soprano Elisabeth Rethberg, Contralto Margaret Matzenauer, Tenor Giovanni Martinelli, Basso Ezio Pinza.