A Season of Firsts

This chapter details the arrival of Arturo Toscanini in Philadelphia as part of a highly publicized maestro exchange between the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic that had been set up by Arthur Judson, manager of both orchestras. A canny businessman who understood the value of a good public relations ploy—as did both Stokowski and Toscanini—Judson arranged to have his star conductors each lead the other's orchestra for two weeks. Accustomed to Stokowski's quietly intense demeanor in rehearsals, the members of the orchestra now found themselves the brunt of one explosive outburst after another from Toscanini, who screamed and subjected them to vituperation for their mistakes, breaking batons in perfect fury. While Phillips initially avoided attracting Toscanini's wrath, that was not to last. It soon descended on the harp section in a complicated spot in Siegfried's Death from Götterd Gämmerung.