Rockefeller's StandardOil Co. had abused its monopoly power to keep others from competing and ordered the company to divide into 34 separate companies.
Nothing can disguise the problems facing a new orchestra of foreigners playing to an unsophisticated audience in an 864-seat concert hall (a standard hall seats about 2, 500), at the mercy of a single corporate sponsor (the state oilcompany, Petronas), and in a tropical climate that makes instruments come unglued.