Music: Birthday of a Conductor

(See front cover)

Conversation hushed in thousands of U. S. homes last Sunday afternoon. In New York's Carnegie Hall a great audience rose to its feet as a slender little man with a stick under his arm made his way as swiftly and inconspicuously as possible to the conductor's stand. For him the business of the afternoon was Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the Franck D Minor. But for once he had to pause until the audience had shown its reverence for Arturo Toscanini.