by the spring of 1936, the management of the new york philharmonic was confronted with a problem. toscanini had left in search of higher fees with the nbc symphony orchestra. wilhelm furtwängler had accepted the orchestra's invitation to fill the post, but he was politically unacceptable to a section of the philharmonic's audience because he continued to live and work in germany under the nazi government. following a campaign of protest in new york he felt unable to take up the appointment. for want of any available conductor of comparable fame the management of the orchestra invited five guest conductors to divide the season among them. barbirolli was allotted the first ten weeks of the season, comprising 26 concerts. he was followed by the composer-conductors igor stravinsky, georges enescu and carlos chávez, each conducting for two weeks, and finally by artur rodziński of the cleveland orchestra, for eight weeks.