Merger Off

In the same swift, magical way that he has when he waves his baton, Arturo Toscanini last week decided the musical issue which has confronted Manhattan all autumn. A merger of the Philharmonic-Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera seemed practically assured when word came from Milan that the Maestro disapproved it. In less than 24 hours the plan was dropped.

Hot dinner-table arguments had raged for and against the alliance. Those who favored it claimed such a merger would solve the financial difficulties besetting both organizations. By moving into the Metropolitan the Philharmonic would save the $75,000 rental it pays annually to Carnegie Hall. The quality of opera performances would be greatly improved if the peerless Philharmonic played in the pit and if the conductors were as expert as Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer or Arturo Toscanini.

Idealistic New Yorkers called the plan a disgrace for a city which could well support two topnotch musical organizations. But, fact is, both the Philharmonic and the Metropolitan have been in peril of their lives, dependent on public donations which they cannot expect to be forever forthcoming. Many complained because the $500,000 raised last spring was for the Philharmonic and the Philharmonic alone. But the merger's promoters hastily promised that this money would be used only for the orchestra and its concerts.

More practical objections concerned the fate of Carnegie Hall and the fitness of the Opera House for orchestra concerts. Carnegie depends on the Philharmonic rental to survive as a concert hall. And the city needs Carnegie for the Boston and Philadelphia orchestra concerts as well as for individual musicians who draw big crowds. Toscanini felt that the merger offered no artistic profit to either organization, objected specifically to having concerts at the old Metropolitan where the acoustics are suitable only for opera. New Yorkers accepted his word as gospel although he begged the Orchestra's board members not to let "this honest opinion carry any weight in their minds or arrest any negotiations if they still consider the merger advantageous to the Philharmonic."

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