Simultaneously last week in Boston and in Philadelphia batons flicked into the air, releasing the music that marked the overture to the 1936-37 season. In Boston, Beacon Hillers, not content merely to clap their gloved hands, stood in deference to Conductor Sergei Koussevitzky who gravely bowed his thanks, peaked the afternoon with a peerless performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
For 24 years the conductor's stand in Philadelphia has been a throne for Leopold Stokowski. Last winter King Stokowski decided that he wanted more time for "research," more personal freedom than a...