Artur Rodziński
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Artur Rodziński (January 1, 1892 - November 27, 1958) was a Polish conductor.
He was born in Split (today in Croatia) of Polish parents. He grew up in Lwów (today Lviv in Ukraine) and studied law at the university there. In 1914, his father sent his family to Vienna, where Artur continued to study law, as well as enrolling in the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1916, he received his doctorate in law.
After World War I ended in 1918, he moved to back to Lwów, then in Poland, where he found work as a conductor, making his debut conducting the opera Ernani. In 1920, he moved to the Grand Theater in Warsaw.
He then moved to the United States, working with Leopold Stokowski from 1925 to 1929. His next move took him to California, where he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic for four years. From 1933 to 1943, he was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, where his tenure included several seasons of fully-produced opera presentations. He then became musical director of the New York Philharmonic, where he stayed until 1947. He then took a position with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and worked with Chicago Lyric Opera. At this time of his resignation from his New York post he was so prominent, having conducted three of America's most prestigious orchestras in succession, that he received significant media coverage, including a feature on the cover of Time magazine with a story entitled "The Master Builder" [1].
His complete 1956 recording of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker was recorded on stereo master tapes, but released only on mono LP, until the advent of compact disc, when the stereo version was finally released.
He died in Boston, Massachusetts.
Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was rud-jeen'-skee. (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
| Preceded by: Georg Schnéevoigt | Musical Directors, Los Angeles Philharmonic 1929–1933 | Succeeded by: Otto Klemperer |
| Preceded by: Nikolai Sokoloff | Musical Directors, Cleveland Orchestra 1933–1943 | Succeeded by: Erich Leinsdorf |
| Preceded by: John Barbirolli | Musical Directors, New York Philharmonic 1943–1947 | Succeeded by: Bruno Walter |
| Preceded by: Désiré Defauw | Musical Directors, Chicago Symphony Orchestra 1947–1948 | Succeeded by: Rafael Kubelík |
