Discord

Artur Rodzinski, famed conductor, will take over the New York Philharmonic-Symphony orchestra next season. Last week, preparing for the 1943-44 season, Rodzinski fired 14 musicians, including the first fiddle, Mishel Piastro. Service of those fired ranged from one to 34 years.

The wholesale discharge was a sensation in the music world. Piastro blasted the Symphony Society: ". . . Intrigue . . . politics. . . ."

The Society stood firmly behind Rodzinski, whose real reasons were musicianly: the Orchestra has had no dominating conductor since Toscanini left in 1936. Some of the musicians were as arrogant as some of the guest conductors, which is saying a lot. Rodzinski wanted an orchestra, not a collection of prima donnas.

Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians took a laborer's view of the case. One of those fired was Viola Player Calman Fleisig, of the orchestra's union committee. Said Fleisig: "Mainly a labor question." Upshot at week's end: an impasse on negotiation of contracts for the entire orchestra for next year.

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