Music: In the Legato Line

The conductor appeared transformed by the music. His pudgy body swayed on the podium; his moon face was pop-eyed with pleasure. Occasionally, listeners close to the stage could hear him snort with excitement. At Manhattan's Lewisohn Stadium, Conductor Josef Krips gave agile proof that he is descended from a long line of conductors of the Viennese school, a special breed that has all but disappeared from the world's concert halls, a line that once rang with such great names as Gustav Mahler, Felix Weingartner (Krips's teacher), Franz Schalk and Bruno Walter. What those...