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The Philharmonic-symphony, it was announced last summer (TIME, July 15), will start on a European tour next April. On his arrival last week Toscanini expressed quietly his pleasure at going as its conductor. One day later, on the Ile de France, came Conductor Serge Alexandrovitch Koussevitzky of the Boston Symphony. Said he: "You can quote me as saying that the Boston Symphony Orchestra will go to Europe this spring or never.* It is not interested in imitating other organizations. Furthermore, Europe has been waiting for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and not for any other American organization."
*An interested listener to the Boston Symphony in Europe may well be Dr. Karl Muck, himself its onetime (1912-18) conductor. Banished from Boston on doubtful charges of Pro-Germanism, Dr. Muck returned to Europe ten years ago, has spent most of his time since in Hamburg where he is conductor of the Philharmonic and Friends of Music. One of the greatest Wagnerian conductors (said by many to be the illegitimate son of the Great Richard and Mathilde Wesendonck), Dr. Muck may also be seen every Festival year at Bayreuth. Tourists returning describe him as frail and swiftly aging; friendly always and eager to ask questions of Boston and its musical development.