Poetry

Then it is claimed that the New York Philharmonic ought to have an American conductor. This wish, if anything, is dumber than that for youth. The notion that an American should conduct an American orchestra—or a German a German orchestra—is foreign to the ideals and reality of music. (And need I mention that most of the critics wanting, or demanding, an American would no doubt shudder at nativism, or even too conspicuous a patriotism, in any other context?) Orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic are not “American orchestras”; they are orchestras on American soil, but given over to the service of music, nationality quite aside. Sure, the New York Philharmonic may play more Copland than the French National Orchestra, and the French National Orchestra may play more Roussel than the New York Philharmonic—but this is a question of a little flavoring, nothing more serious. A conductor, anyway, should be able to conduct music of any sort, even if he has an affinity or two. Think, too, of the orchestral past in America: Szell in Cleveland, Reiner in Chicago, Stokowski and Ormandy in Philadelphia, Munch in Boston, Walter in New York—did all those foreigners do any harm? Was their leadership such an affront?

■ The charges against Masur are several, and all dumb: age, nationality, and fuddy-duddyism. ■