Stokowskitalk

Concerts certain to cause as much comment as any this season will be given during the next fortnight in Manhattan and Philadelphia. Arturo Toscanini will leave his Philharmonic-Symphony, go to Philadelphia to conduct Leopold Stokowski's Orchestra. Stokowski will go to Manhattan to conduct the Philharmonic. Changing boats in the middle of the stream is a unique venture for conductors, a challenge to audiences to compare their talents.

Last week Stokowski anticipated the inevitable comparison with a press statement which lavishly extolled the genius of Toscanini in terms applicable to any great conductor, perhaps even to Stokowski himself. Excerpt: "The melodic line he molds just as a sculptor molds in soft clay the forms appearing under his fingers. . . . His originality of conception comes from his expressing the essence and soul of the score instead of merely the literal notes. ... It is the divine fire in him which elevates all he expresses through tone, so that one knows that at that moment music is being created which through its vitality, rich color, plastic form, pulsating rhythm brings us a vision of the beauty and power of which this life is capable, when that vision is brought to us by such a master."

Toscanini characteristically made no reply. In the six years he has conducted the Philharmonic, Toscanini has never given an interview, never explained his musical methods or described his diet. "I speak," he tells his friends, "a universal language. If the public cannot understand . . ." and he will shrug his shoulders. But his attitude is known to be one of humility. He regards himself as the servant of the composer, holds every note important.

Contrastingly, Stokowski delivers himself more and more of public utterances. At a recent luncheon in Philadelphia he said: "Peace can only come through the individual evolution of man." At the Poor Richard Club (Philadelphia), where he was presented with a silver spoon and porringer for his infant daughter, Andrea Sadja, he said: "Symphonic music is only a very small part of what radio can do. It is equal to anything man ever has had for exchange of thought, of imagination, of beauty; for developing everything that makes life a wonderful thing. Perhaps never before has there been such a medium. For the development of civilization, nothing is so important."

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