The Great Orchestrator: Arthur Judson and American Arts Management

6 The List, the Old Man, and the English Replacement

6 The List, the Old Man, and the english replacement F or Judson, the Toscanini years began with great optimism. Not only had the Philharmonic hired one of the world’s most revered conductors, it had done so at a time when its finances were in good shape. It had a small savings and a flush of new resources from the New York Symphony merger, including a small endowment fund. These factors, combined with Toscanini’s drawing power and the orchestra’s improved quality, made Toscanini’s first full season as principal conductor (1929–30) an enormous success. The surplus topped $31,000. But unfortunately, Toscanini’s first season coincided with the stock market crash in October 1929, which led to the Great Depression. Initially the Philharmonic weathered the crash with little difficulty, but residual effects were unavoidable. The surpluses dried up. The timing of the economic crisis could not have been worse. The organization had recently enlarged its ensemble, lengthened its season, increased its subscription series, and hired one of the world’s most expensive conductors. For the 1931–32 season, for example, Toscanini’s contract was a whopping $110,000 for fifteen weeks of concerts (half the season), making his per-concert salary eighty times larger than the average Philharmonic player’s per-concert salary.1 At the time his contract was negotiated (before the bottom fell out of the economy), the Philharmonic considered it money well spent. Toscanini had improved the Philharmonic through his uncompromising standards and fiery leadership. Fans were flocking to hear his performances. Players and critics were raving about his conducting. But by 1932, the Philharmonic was beginning to buckle under the weight of Toscanini’s salary. Part of the issue was simply cash flow. The Depression Doering_Text.indd 120 12/10/12 3:06 PM 6. The List, the Old Man, and the english replacement . 121 had resulted in fewer single tickets sold, a drop in subscriptions, and serious financial problems for some of the Philharmonic’s largest donors. At the same time, due to shoulder problems, Toscanini could conduct only three weeks of his fifteen scheduled weeks for the 1931–32 season.2 The early 1930s tested Judson’s mettle as an orchestra manager because the Depression completely redefined the rules. The 1910s and 1920s had been periods of tremendous optimism. The audience base grew exponentially, and nearly everything that Judson tried (artist management, coalitions of managements , radio technology) yielded some form of success. But when the economic conditions changed, optimism turned to protectionism. Funding dried up. Deficits became more serious. The margin of error became thinner . Moreover, the shift was not temporary. The challenges Judson started to face in the 1930s would fester the remainder of the twentieth century as American orchestras struggled to find enthusiastic funding sources and to control costs in an unstable marketplace. The conductor List Controlling costs was nothing new. Judson had been working on such problems since he was first hired as an orchestra manager back in 1915. But he came to realize that he had also been honing a powerful tool to aid in the struggle: managing conductors. The practice formed gradually in the 1920s and largely from practical demands in Philadelphia. The catalyst was Stokowski, who received frequent guest conducting requests in the early 1920s. Organizations like the International Composers Guild (ICG) and the League of Composers, for example, often asked Stokowski to lead premieres of new works. Judson fielded most of these requests, usually because they extended beyond Stokowski and included Philadelphia Orchestra players in some fashion. For example, when the ICG asked Stokowski in 1923 to present a performance of Stravinsky’s chamber opera Renard, Stokowski requested that Philadelphia Orchestra players be used for the chamber group.3 Judson handled these kinds of logistics as an extension of his managerial duties for the orchestra, further blurring the line between managing the ensemble and managing the conductor. A second contributing factor was Stokowski’s workload. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, Stokowski’s workload increased each year, fueled by longer seasons, tours, children’s concerts, and a host of recording sessions. These additions all came with Stokowski’s blessing; he wanted the Philadelphia Orchestra to reach more people. But the demanding schedule took its toll. Doering_Text.indd 121 12/10/12 3:06 PM 122 . cOOPerATiOn AnD cuLTiVATiOn, 1921–1942 By the mid-1920s, Stokowski was asking for relief, first...