Press Clipping, "Philharmonic Drank Ship Dry on Trip"

Philharmonic Drank Ship Dry on Trip:
Judson Reveals Wet Symphony on De Grasse — English Hit Programs

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra drank the ship dry three days after sailing from the United States for its Continental tour. Arthur Judson, manager of the orchestra, revealed to the London newspapers today. He was approving. In fact, he deliberately chose a wet boat, the French liner De Grasse, for the passage, so that the players might drink their fill before they reached Europe and their engagements here.
“There was a high time on the boat, but the result has been that everything has been quiet on the Continent since then,” he explained.
The orchestra arrives here May 31 and will play at the Albert Hall June 1 before the King and Queen, who are attending their first Sunday concert in many years.
The London musical critics, however, already are grumbling about the thin programs Arturo Toscanini has chosen for his London engagement. His first four concerts include only one first-rate symphony — Brahms's second. The Clock Symphony of Haydn and Mozart's Haffner Symphony are the only two other selections even called by the name.
There was considerable expressed dissatisfaction at the programs chosen by Mengelberg when he brought his Amsterdam orchestra to London recently for three concerts, but even his were more serious music than the selections Toscanini has made to display New York's finest musical output.