The virtuoso orchestra and its virtuoso conductor are the most popular musicians in America today. They are the successors of the violin recitalist who toured the country playing to audiences of adoring women; to the coloratura soprano who was a thousand times more admired for the sounds she could make than for the relevance of the sounds to the music (such as it was) on her programme. They are the musical equivalent of the ballerina from whose slipper champagne is sipped, of the radio crooner with his following of swooning adolescent females, of the movie star who collects fans.