“Its conductor, Fritz Scheel, is an orchestral genius. He evidently knows his Brahms thoroughly, and by the time he had finished the first movement of the D major symphony, he was clasped to the Bostonian heart. To win a triumph in Brahms in a city where all our conductors are Brahms scholars (and our auditors too, for the matter of that), means very much. Mr. Scheel was recalled with enthusiasm.... The Philadelphia Orchestra has proved itself one of the important orchestras of the United States.” A delightful anecdote is told about this visit to Boston. After the success of the evening concert, Dr. Strauss, full of enthusiasm, told Mr. Scheel that he must play the Domestica Symphony at its first performance in New York, and they arranged to play it together on the piano from the orchestral score in Symphony Hall the next morning. Scheel took the score home with him and the next morning the first playing of the Domestica in America began, Dr. Strauss taking the treble and Scheel the bass. In Strauss’s excitement he knocked the music off the rack just as the fugue started in the bassoons, but Scheel continued to play. Strauss turned to watch him, but still he played. The music was replaced and they finished the symphony. Dr. Strauss then discovered that Scheel had spread the score on a trunk and studied it all night, only closing the book at daylight. Shortly after this Dr. Keffer received the following letter: “Esteemed Doctor Keffer: “You wish from me a leaf for your Album. I could not give same a more beautiful contents than to give again expression of my greatest pleasure over the splendid performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra, with which I was so fortunate to obtain such extraordinary successes in Philadelphia and in Boston. “But the greatest merit of this success belongs to your excellent Kapellmeister Fritz Scheel, who had trained his young and music-loving orchestra so eminently, and who had prepared so well for my concerts, that I was able to give the performance, satisfying my strongest wishes, of my difficult works, after _only one_ repetition. Therefore, to Mr. Scheel, my special thanks and felicitation to which I join my heartiest wishes for further flourishing and prospering of the Philadelphia Orchestra under his energetic guidance. “With especial esteem and best greetings also from my Wife, “Yours sincerely devoted, “(Signed) DR. RICHARD STRAUSS “New York, the 28th of March, 1904.” The next event out of the ordinary in which the orchestra took part was the Special Concert conducted by Felix Weingartner, about a year later. THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA FRITZ SCHEEL, _Conductor_ Special Concert, February 16th, 1905 FELIX WEINGARTNER, _Guest Conductor_