A lean, wild-eyed New Yorker rose at dawn one day last week, took a quick walk in Central Park, gulped a chocolate ice cream soda, played three sets of tennis with his wife and hurried to Carnegie Hall. There his real work for the day began. That evening with a hop, skip & jump he was on the podium to conduct the Philharmonic-Symphony, billed as the first native New Yorker to be thus honored.
Backstage after the performance August Janssen, famed old restaurateur ("Janssen Wants To See You") ruefully regarded his hat, said,...