Editing New York Philharmonic (section)

===Mergers and outreach, 1921===
In 1921 the Philharmonic merged with New York's National Symphony Orchestra (no relation to the [[National Symphony Orchestra|present Washington, D.C. ensemble]]). With this merger it also acquired the imposing Dutch conductor [[Willem Mengelberg]]. For the 1922/23 season Stránský and Mengelberg shared the conducting duties, but Stránský left after that season. For nine years Mengelberg dominated the scene, although other conductors, among them [[Bruno Walter]], [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], and [[Arturo Toscanini]], led about half of each season's concerts. During this period, the Philharmonic became one of the first American orchestras with an outdoor symphony series when it began playing low-priced summer concerts at [[Lewisohn Stadium]] in upper Manhattan. In 1920 the orchestra hired [[Henry Kimball Hadley|Henry Hadley]] as "associate conductor" given specific responsibility for the "Americanization" of the orchestra: each of Hadley's concerts featured at least one work by an American-born composer.<ref name=horowitz/> In 1922, harpist [[Stephanie Goldner]] became the orchestra's first female member.<ref>{{cite web |title=Steffy Goldner – America & The New York Philharmonic (1921–1932) |url=https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/goldner/nyphil |publisher=New York Philharmonic Archives |access-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320141037/https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/goldner/nyphil |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1924, the [[Young People's Concerts]] were expanded into a substantial series of children's concerts under the direction of American pianist-composer-conductor [[Ernest Schelling]]. This series became the prototype for concerts of its kind around the country and grew by popular demand to 15 concerts per season by the end of the decade.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Mengelberg and Toscanini both led the Philharmonic in recording sessions for the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] and [[Brunswick Records]], initially in a recording studio (for the acoustically recorded Victors, all under Mengelberg) and eventually in Carnegie Hall as electrical recording was developed. All of the early electrical recordings for Victor were made with a single microphone, usually placed near or above the conductor, a process Victor called "Orthophonic"; the Brunswick electricals used the company's proprietary non-microphone "Light-Ray" selenium-cell system, which was much more prone to sonic distortion than Victor's.  Mengelberg's first records for Victor were acousticals made in 1922; Toscanini's recordings with the Philharmonic actually began with a single disc for Brunswick in 1926, recorded in a rehearsal hall at Carnegie Hall.  Mengelberg's most successful recording with the Philharmonic was a 1927 performance in Carnegie Hall of [[Richard Strauss]]' ''[[Ein Heldenleben]]''.  Additional Toscanini recordings with the Philharmonic, all for Victor, took place on Carnegie Hall's stage in 1929 and 1936. By the 1936 sessions Victor, now owned by [[RCA]], began to experiment with multiple microphones to achieve more comprehensive reproductions of the orchestra.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

1928 marked the Philharmonic's last and most important merger, with the [[New York Symphony Society]]. The Symphony had been quite innovative in its 50 years before the merger. It made its first domestic tour in 1882, introduced educational concerts for young people in 1891, and premiered works such as [[George Gershwin|Gershwin's]] [[Concerto in F (Gershwin)|Concerto in F]] and [[Gustav Holst|Holst's]] ''[[Egdon Heath (Holst)|Egdon Heath]]''. The two institutions' merger consolidated extraordinary financial and musical resources. Of the new Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York, Clarence Hungerford Mackay, chairman of the Philharmonic Society, was chairman.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} President Harry H. Flagler of the Symphony Society was president of the merger. At the first joint board meeting in 1928, the Mackay said that "with the forces of the two Societies now united... the Philharmonic-Symphony Society could build up the greatest orchestra in this country if not in the world."{{Quote without source|date=November 2019}}