This same “unplanned” season brought me another thrilling experience, one that could come about nowhere but in this country: the two concerts by invitation sponsored by Rodman Wanamaker in the Auditorium of Wanamaker’s in New York. They were given to introduce the priceless Rodman Wanamaker Collection of Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, and Guadagnini instruments which Thaddeus Rich (then Stokowski’s concertmaster) had assembled for him. I played on the “last” Strad, the one called “The Swan,” and it was the first time the voice of this incomparable instrument had been heard in this hemisphere. The members of the Philharmonic Orchestra, who accompanied me under the baton of Alfredo Casella, also played instruments of the Wanamaker collection; altogether a galaxy of masterpieces brought to life in one body of sound that remains, I think, unique. << less