The November 1, 1919, cover of the Pacific Coast Musical Review paired the portraits of philanthropist William Andrews Clark Jr. and conductor Walter Henry Rothwell—the financial patron and first musical leader behind the newly established Los Angeles Philharmonic. Eight days earlier, the orchestra had made its debut at Trinity Auditorium, beginning an institution whose future stature was still far from assured.
Clark, a wealthy arts patron and amateur violinist, financed the orchestra and selected Rothwell, an English conductor who had worked as an assistant to Gustav Mahler. The ensemble gave its first concert just eleven days after its first rehearsal. Its opening program included Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Liszt’s Les Préludes, and Chabrier’s España. These were familiar works, chosen to demonstrate what the new orchestra could achieve rather than to surprise listeners with unfamiliar music.
The response supplied its own drama. Reviewing the debut, the Los Angeles Times declared that Rothwell had “startled Los Angeles out of her symphonic slumbers.” Yet the critic also noted that the audience was not especially large and that the usual glamour of a premiere was largely absent. The achievement lay onstage: an unusually large ensemble, substantial financial backing, and a conductor whose dramatic interpretations drew enthusiastic applause.
Seen against that modest opening, the formal portraits become more than a celebration of two prominent men. They mark the beginning of an ambitious undertaking—not the inevitable birth of a great orchestra, but a commitment of money, musicianship, and confidence to what Los Angeles might become. The Philharmonic’s later reputation for innovation would develop over generations; this cover belongs to the moment when that long history was only beginning.
