James Tobin ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Steve Schwartz:
>
>>I want to address mainly one point he made: that Furtwaengler, Orff,
>>and Strauss could "easily" have emigrated.  I really don't know how
>>easy it would have been.  I don't have the facts for that time.
>
>My historical knowledge on this is sketchy also, but in the February
>2005 issue of Gramophone, Rob Cowan says that in 1936 Furtwaengler was
>invited to become Toscanini's successor at the New York Philharmonic (he
>had conducted there in the 1920's) but "local protests made him withdraw."

I'm not sure that's entirely accurate.  It certainly is about WF's
appointment to the Chicago SO after the war.

What's missing from this is the fact that in 1930 WF had signed a 10-year
contract with the BPO.  This was part of a financial resue packagie put
together by the city, state and national governments as the BPO was going
bankrupt.

WF took this commitment *very* seriously; IIRC (from Schoenzeler's biog)
he said he could only take on NY if he continued to conduct the BPO.  I
think that was the last straw.

Deryk Barker
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