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Waghalter as Head of the New York State Symphony
Waghalter traveled to New York, where he immediately enjoyed great success as a guest conductor at the New York State Symphony Orchestra, the predecessor of the Philharmonic. When its principal conductor and music director, Josef Stransky, suddenly resigned in 1924, Waghalter was chosen to succeed him.
If the contemporary newspaper reviews are to be believed, Waghalter quickly established himself as a major and popular figure in New York music. His exceptional gifts as a conductor were widely praised by New York critics. However, he was not comfortable with an artistic environment in the United States that exemplified the “business-making culture” (geschäftemachertum) that Waghalter abhorred.
In a lengthy interview published in the Musical Courier, Waghalter spoke, as was his habit, with extreme bluntness about the absence of sufficient financial support for the arts in the United States.
“In the very first place it seems to me little less than a shame and a disgrace that every American city should not have a symphony orchestra of its own. Think of there being no orchestra in such a city as Washington! Think of the few cities that support their own opera companies! In Germany such conditions would be impossible ... The hundreds of great artists who come annually to America do so primarily for the money they make. It becomes a matter of business rather than a pilgrimage with a fundamentally artistic object.”
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