Nazi Stays Home

POLITICAL CONTROVERSY DISAGREEABLE TO ME STOP AM NOT POLITICIAN BUT EXPONENT OF GERMAN MUSIC WHICH BELONGS TO ALL HUMANITY REGARDLESS OF POLITICS STOP I PROPOSE POSTPONE MY SEASON IN THE INTERESTS OF PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY AND MUSIC UNTIL THE PUBLIC REALIZES THAT POLITICS AND MUSIC ARE APART IF QUOTE PRESS QUOTE VERBATIM

FURTWAeNGLER

This cable from Luxor, Egypt the directors of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society received last week with great relief. Last month they had engaged Conductor Wilhelm Furtwaengler to succeed Arturo Toscanini as the orchestra's general music director (TIME. March 9). Announcement of the Furtwaengler appointment raised a storm of protest. Angry groups organized to boycott next season's concerts.' World-famed musicians served notice they would not solo with the Philharmonic if its leader was to be a man who had accepted and profited by the German Nazi regime.

The "postponement" of Herr Furtwaengler's season with the Philharmonic was hailed last week by U. S. Jewry as a signal success in its determined campaign to boycott German products. But Jew and Gentile Philharmonic subscribers alike agreed that the orchestra's directors had been ill-advised to invite Herr Furtwaengler in the first place. Practical, old Critic William J. Henderson of the New York Sim called attention to the fact that at least one-half the Philharmonic's patrons are Jews. Said he:

"It is manifestly impossible that the sons and daughters of Israel can dissociate their feelings from their artistic judgment at a concert directed by a man whom they regard as an enemy of their race. To avoid painful experiences they will take the simple and logical course of staying away from these concerts. And if they abandon the Philharmonic-Symphony Society, it will perish. There is no musical enterprise of any kind whatever that can prosper in this great Jewish city without the support of the Jews. . . ."

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