be "an excellent addition to any first class symphony orchestra." Rodziński championed equal treatment for women in all fields of classical music from early in his career: "It makes no difference, there are no rules, women surely can be just as great artists as men [...] if they have talent or genius, they are all the same." Between December 1939 and February 1942, Rodziński and The Cleveland Orchestra made an extensive series of recordings for Columbia Records. He also appeared with the New York Philharmonic in 1934 and 1937, receiving positive reviews for his concert performance of Richard Strauss's Elektra. In addition, Rodziński was active across Europe, becoming the first naturalized American citizen to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival in 1936 and 1937. At Arturo Toscanini's recommendation, Rodziński was asked by NBC to select musicians for the new NBC Symphony Orchestra. Later, he trained the orchestra, guided some of its first recordings (issued on the budget label World's Greatest Music with neither conductor nor orchestra identified), and led its concerts before Toscanini's arrival. This engagement inspired Rodziński to depart Cleveland for New York, where he became music director and conductor of the New York Philharmonic beginning in the 1943–44 season. New York and Chicago Rodziński was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1943. Although his four-year tenure was marked by struggles with Arthur Judson, the manager of the orchestra, Rodziński achieved high standards of performance. The renowned music critic and composer Virgil Thomson wrote about Rodziński's tenure at the Philharmonic: "We now have an orchestra that is a joy to hear...and we owe it all to Artur Rodziński." During Rodziński's time on the podium the Philharmonic recorded extensively, again for Columbia, performed weekly live broadcasts on CBS Radio, and appeared in the feature film Carnegie Hall. However, despite the quality of the orchestra's performances, numerous artistic matters such as the prerogative of the music director to dismiss musicians, select soloists and determine repertoire were persistent grounds of contention. Not willing to compromise on these matters, Rodziński resigned in 1947. His reputation as a conductor was so prominent at this time that his resignation was the subject of a cover story in Time magazine in February 1947. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra had been interested in engaging Rodziński for some time, and now he decided to accept the leadership of that orchestra immediately, starting with the