Page 26 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Four

because his conducting skill was nothing short of miraculous, not
because he had memorized the scores of several hundred
symphonies and concertos, but simply because he was an elephant.
That conclusion was inescapable, and it shattered Arturo’s
confidence.

One morning soon after, the citizens of New York City awoke to
the news that their Philharmonic had a new conductor: the trustees
had accepted Arturo Tuskanini’s resignation without comment to
the media. Nevertheless, rumors abounded. Some people thought he
was suffering from a rare disease, contracted only by elephants.
Others wondered whether or not he had lost his memory. And one
journalist reported on
national television that
Arturo had eloped with a
circus elephant!
None of these stories
was true, of course. All
that the maestro had lost
was his nerve. He couldn’t
face an orchestra or an
audience believing that
they accepted him merely
as a freak. For weeks he remained in seclusion at his parents’ home,