his immediate Philharmonic predecessor Mahler, and conducted the American premiere of Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melisande. From his installation in 1911 until the end of the 1919–20 season, Stránský conducted every Philharmonic concert. He conducted the orchestra's first recordings, which were made from January 1917 by the Columbia Graphophone Company, although the deal was only announced in March. He was elected an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity, the national fraternity for men in music, in 1917 by the fraternity's Alpha chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1921 the Philharmonic merged with the National Symphony, conducted by Willem Mengelberg. For the 1922–23 season, Stránský conducted the first half of the season and Mengelberg the second: Stránský subsequently left the orchestra. Art dealer Stránský ultimately left the musical profession to become an art dealer, specializing in Picasso's Rose Period. He was a partner in the art gallery E. Gimpel & Wildenstein in New York City. The gallery became Wildenstein & Company in 1933. Before his death, Stránský amassed a private art collection that included more than 50 major impressionist and post-impressionist paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Degas, Cézanne, Matisse, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro, Sisley, Delacroix, Ingres, Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Derain, Boudin, Modigliani, Segonzac, Fantin-Latour, Vuillard, Utrillo, Vlaminck, Guys, Laurencin, Rouault, Gromaire, and others. He also owned a large collection of old master paintings, and was a recognized authority on the old masters. Had this group of works remained intact and in private hands, today it would be one of the most valuable privately held art collections in the world. Recently, Stránský was discovered to have owned for many years a 1785 painting by Nicolas Benjamin Delapierre that may be the earliest known portrait of Thomas Jefferson. It was sold by the estate of his widow (Marie D. Stransky) in October 1954. Stránský died in New York City on March 6, 1936, and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City. References Bibliography Horowitz, Joseph. Classical Music in America. A History of Its Rise and Fall, W.W. Norton and Company, New York 2005, Lyman, Darryl. Great Jews in Music, J. D. Publishers, Middle Viollage, N.Y. 1986. Sadie, Stanley. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Macmillan, London 1980. Sendrey, Alfred. Bibliography of Jewish Music, Columbia University Press, New York 1951. 1872 births 1936 deaths Czech conductors (music) Male