Ormandy for Stokowski

When the rumor went around six weeks ago that Leopold Stokowski was resigning from the Philadelphia Orchestra, no one took much notice because the fair-haired conductor has upset Philadelphia before with loud cries of "Wolf!" Last week the rumor became fact. Though for once he appeared to have no bone to pick with the Orchestra board, Stokowski refused a new three-year contract, announced that he would return for 20 concerts next season, but that he wanted the rest of his time for research.

The important Philadelphia post went to pale, blond Eugene Ormandy, 36-year-old conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony, who not many years ago was fiddling obscurely in Manhattan's Capitol Theatre. Fresh from Hungary, where his dentist-father had pushed him as a prodigy, he had been lured to the U. S. by a promise of a concert tour, only to have his manager fail him. Other men's misfortunes led to his swift rise as a conductor. The leader at the Capitol was taken suddenly ill one day; within a few hours the young violinist stepped into his place. Four years ago Arturo Toscanini was unable to keep an engagement in Philadelphia; young Eugene Ormandy had another unexpected chance. He acquitted himself so creditably that he was called to Minneapolis to pinch-hit for ailing Henri Verbrugghen. There he remained.

In Minneapolis Eugene Ormandy has developed steadily, proved himself a serious, painstaking musician, a good judge of programs with a simple, direct way of presenting them. In Philadelphia his toughest job will be to hold an audience long accustomed to the excitement which Stokowski invariably provides.

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