Openings

Boston, according to a recent statement by Conductor Sergei Koussevitzky, "is the most esthetic and intellectual city in the U. S." Koussevitzky, according to the Bostonians who pack his concerts and pay him what he asks, is king of conductors. Hence last week in mutual admiration began the fifth season of the Koussevitzky administration, the forty-ninth since the symphony's founding by the late Major Henry Lee Higginson. New music played: a noisy and optimistic Prelude and Fugue, written by Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli, a Bohemian-born Italian.

In Detroit, symphonophiles made an event of the return of Ossip Gabrilowitsch, gave him a tremendous ovation. Last year would have been Conductor Gabrilowitsch's tenth in Detroit. Instead he took leave of absence and guest-conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. This year he will go again to Philadelphia for the few mid-season weeks when Leopold Stokowski takes his holiday. Substitutes then in Detroit will be his able Assistant Conductor Victor Kolar and Guests Eugene Goossens and Bernardino Molinari.

In Chicago, the Woman's Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert in memory of Mrs. Julius Rosenwald, wife of the famed Chicago philanthropist. In the spring, shortly before her death, Mrs. Rosenwald (with Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Mrs. Ernest R. Graham, Mrs. Charles H. Swift and others) gave $1,000 toward the orchestra's upkeep. Under Conductor Ebba Sundstrom, the orchestra played its thanks. Katherine Witwer, Gary, Ind., girl, sang.