Arturo Toscanini

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Arturo Toscanini
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Arturo Toscanini (Italian:[arturo toskanini]; March

25, 1867 January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor.
He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the
late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his
intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral
detail and sonority, and his photographic memory.[1]
He was at various times the music director of La Scala
Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Later in his career
he was appointed the rst music director of the NBC
Symphony Orchestra (193754), and this led to his
becoming a household name (especially in the United
States) through his radio and television broadcasts
and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic
repertoire.
Arturo Toscanini,
c.1900
Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Early years
1.2 National and international fame
1.2.1 Lusitania
1.3 Departure from Italy to the United
States
1.4 NBC Symphony
1.5 Last years
2 Personal life
3 Innovations
4 Premieres
4.1 Operatic premieres
4.2 Orchestral premieres
5 Recorded legacy
5.1 Overview
5.2 Specialties
5.3 Charles O'Connell on Toscanini
5.4 Philadelphia Orchestra recordings
5.5 High delity and stereo
5.6 Notable recordings
5.7 Rarities
5.8 Rehearsals and broadcasts
5.9 Recording guide
5.10 The Arturo Toscanini Society
6 Television
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7 Film
8 Acclaim and criticism
9 The Toscanini Legacy
10 The Maestro Revisited
11 Quotations
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
Biography
Early years
Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a
scholarship to the local music conservatory, where he
studied the cello. Living conditions at the conservatory
were harsh. For example, his diet consisted almost
completely of sh. When he became successful, he never
ate anything that came from the sea. He joined the
orchestra of an opera company, with which he toured South
America in 1886. While presenting Aida in Rio de Janeiro on
June 25, Leopoldo Miguez, the locally hired conductor,
reached the summit of a two-month escalating conict with
the performers due to his rather poor command of the
work, to the point that the singers went on strike and forced
the company's general manager to seek a substitute
conductor. Carlo Superti and Aristide Venturi tried
Caricature of
unsuccessfully to nish the work. In desperation, the
Toscanini by
singers suggested the name of their assistant Chorus
EnricoCaruso
Master, who knew the whole opera from memory. Although
he had no conducting experience, Toscanini was eventually
persuaded by the musicians to take up the baton at 9:15pm, and led a
performance of the two-and-a-half hour opera, completely from memory. The
public was taken by surprise, at rst by the youth and sheer aplomb of this
unknown conductor, then by his solid mastery. The result was astounding
acclaim. For the rest of that season, Toscanini conducted eighteen operas, all
with absolute success. Thus began his career as a conductor, at age 19.[2][3]
Upon returning to Italy, Toscanini set out on a dual path for some time. He
continued to conduct, his rst appearance in Italy being at the Teatro
Carignano in Turin, on November4, 1886,[4] in the world premiere of the
revised version of Alfredo Catalani's Edmea (it had had its premiere in its
original form at La Scala, Milan, on February 27, of that year). This was the
beginning of Toscanini's lifelong friendship and championing of Catalani; he
even named his rst daughter Wally after the heroine of Catalani's opera La
Wally.[5] However, he also returned to his chair in the cello section, and
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participated as cellist in the world premiere of Verdi's Otello (La Scala, Milan,
1887) under the composer's supervision. Verdi, who habitually complained that
conductors never seemed interested in directing his scores the way he had
written them, was impressed by reports from Arrigo Boito about Toscanini's
ability to interpret his scores. The composer was also impressed when
Toscanini consulted him personally about Verdi's Te Deum, suggesting an
allargando where it was not set out in the score. Verdi said that he had left it
out for fear that "certain interpreters would have exaggerated the marking".
[6][7]
National and international fame

Gradually, Toscanini's reputation as an operatic
conductor of unusual authority and skill
supplanted his cello career. In the following
decade, he consolidated his career in Italy,
entrusted with the world premieres of Puccini's
La bohme and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. In 1896,
Toscanini conducted his rst symphonic concert
(in Turin, with works by Schubert, Brahms,
Tchaikovsky, and Wagner). He exhibited a
considerable capacity for hard work, conducting
43 concerts in Turin in 1898.[8] By 1898,
Toscanini was Principal Conductor at La Scala,
where he remained until 1908, returning as
Music Director, from 19211929. He brought
the La Scala Orchestra to the United States on a
concert tour in 1920/21, during which he made
his rst recordings (for the Victor Talking
Machine Company).
Toscanini in 1908
Outside Europe, Toscanini conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York

(19081915) as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (19261936). He
toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic in 1930. At each performance,
he and the orchestra were acclaimed by critics and audiences. Toscanini was
the rst non-German conductor to appear at Bayreuth (19301931), and the
New York Philharmonic was the rst non-German orchestra to play there. In
the 1930s, he conducted at the Salzburg Festival (19341937), as well as the
1936 inaugural concert of the Palestine Orchestra (later renamed the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra) in Tel Aviv, later conducting them in Jerusalem, Haifa,
Cairo and Alexandria. During his engagement with the New York Philharmonic,
Hans Lange, the son of the last Master of the Sultan's Music in Istanbul, who,
later, became conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the legendary
founder of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra as a professional ensemble,
was his concert master.[9]
During his career, Toscanini collaborated with such legendary artists as Enrico
Caruso, Feodor Chaliapin, Ezio Pinza, Jussi Bjrling, Geraldine Farrar and
Lauritz Melchior.
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Lusitania
In May 1915, Toscanini was set to return to Europe aboard the doomed RMS
Lusitania when his season at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera ended. Instead,
he cut his concert schedule short and left a week earlier, apparently aboard the
Italian liner Duca degli Abruzzi.[10]
Departure from Italy to the United States

In 1919, Toscanini ran unsuccessfully as a Fascist parliamentary candidate in
Milan. He had been called "the greatest conductor in the world" by Fascist
leader Benito Mussolini. Toscanini became disillusioned with fascism already
before the March on Rome and repeatedly deed the Italian dictator. He
refused to display Mussolini's photograph or conduct the Fascist anthem
Giovinezza at La Scala.[11] He raged to a friend, "If I were capable of killing a
man, I would kill Mussolini."[12]
At a memorial concert for Italian composer Giuseppe Martucci on May 14,
1931, at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Toscanini was ordered to begin by
playing Giovinezza, but he refused, despite the presence of fascist foreign
minister Galeazzo Ciano in the audience. Afterwards, he was, in his own words,
"attacked, injured and repeatedly hit in the face" by a group of blackshirts.[13]
Mussolini, incensed by the conductor's refusal, had his phone tapped, placed
him under constant surveillance, and conscated his passport. The passport
was returned only after a world outcry over Toscanini's treatment. [11] Upon the
outbreak of WWII, Toscanini left Italy. He returned in 1946 to conduct a
concert for the opening of the restored La Scala Opera House, which was
severely damaged in the war.[14]
NBC Symphony
Toscanini returned to the United States where the NBC Symphony Orchestra
was created for him in 1937. He conducted his rst NBC broadcast concert on
December 25, 1937, in NBC Studio 8-H in New York City's Rockefeller
Center.[15] The acoustics of the specially built studio were very dry; some
remodeling in 1942 for Leopold Stokowski added a bit more reverberation. (In
1950, 8-H was converted into a television studio. It has been home to NBC's
Saturday Night Live since 1975. In 1980, Zubin Mehta and the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra began a series of special televised NBC concerts called
Live From Studio 8H, the rst one being a tribute to Toscanini, punctuated by
clips from his television concerts.)[16]
The NBC broadcasts were initially preserved on large 16-inch transcription
discs recorded at 33-1/3 rpm, until NBC began using magnetic tape in 1949.
NBC employed special RCA high delity microphones for the broadcasts, and
they can be seen in some photographs of Toscanini and the orchestra. Some of
Toscanini's recording sessions for RCA Victor were mastered on sound lm in a
process developed about 1930, as detailed by RCA producer Charles O'Connell
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in his memoirs, On and O The Record. In addition, hundreds of hours of

Toscanini's rehearsals with the NBC were preserved and are now housed in the
Toscanini Legacy archive at The New York Public Library.[17]
Toscanini was often criticized for neglecting American music. However, on
November 5, 1938, he conducted the world premieres of two orchestral works
by Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings and Essay for Orchestra.[18][19] The
performance received signicant critical acclaim.[18] In 1945, he led the
orchestra in recording sessions of the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grof in
Carnegie Hall (supervised by Grof) and An American in Paris by George
Gershwin in NBC's Studio 8-H. Both works had earlier been performed in
broadcast concerts. He also conducted broadcast performances of Copland's El
Saln Mxico; Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with soloists Earl Wild and Benny
Goodman and Piano Concerto in F with pianist Oscar Levant; and music by
other American composers, including marches of John Philip Sousa. He even
wrote his own orchestral arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner, which
was incorporated into the NBC Symphony's performances of Verdi's Hymn of
the Nations, together with the Soviet Internationale. (Earlier, while music
director of the New York Philharmonic, he conducted music by Abram Chasins,
Bernard Wagenaar, and Howard Hanson.)
In 1940, Toscanini took the orchestra on a "goodwill" tour of South America,
sailing from New York on the ocean liner SSBrazil on 14 May.[20] Later that
year, Toscanini had a disagreement with NBC management over their use of his
musicians in other NBC broadcasts. This, among other reasons, resulted in a
letter which Toscanini wrote on March 10, 1941, to RCA's David Sarno. He
stated that he now wished "to withdraw from the militant scene of Art" and
thus declined to sign a new contract for the up-coming winter season, but left
the door open for an eventual return "if my state of mind, health and rest will
be improved enough". So Leopold Stokowski was engaged on a three-year
contract instead and served as the NBC Symphony's music director from 1941
until 1944. Toscanini's state of mind soon underwent a change and he returned
as Stokowski's co-conductor for the latter's second and third seasons resuming
full control in 1944.
One of the more-remarkable broadcasts was in July 1942, when Toscanini
conducted the American premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7.
Because of World War II, the score was microlmed in the Soviet Union and
brought by courier to the United States. Stokowski had previously given the US
premieres of Shostakovich's 1st, 3rd and 6th Symphonies in Philadelphia, and
in December 1941 urged NBC to obtain the score of the 7th as he wanted to
conduct its premiere as well. But Toscanini coveted this for himself and there
were a number of remarkable letters between the two conductors (reproduced
by Harvey Sachs in his biography) before Stokowski agreed to let Toscanini
have the privilege of conducting the rst performance. Unfortunately for New
York listeners, a major thunderstorm virtually obliterated the NBC radio
signals there, but the performance was heard elsewhere and preserved on
transcription discs.[21] It was later issued by RCA Victor in the 1967 centennial
boxed set tribute to Toscanini, which included a number of NBC broadcasts
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never released on discs.[22] In Testimony Shostakovich himself expressed a

dislike for the performance, after he heard a recording of the broadcast. In
Toscanini's later years the conductor expressed dislike for the work and
amazement that he had actually conducted it.[23]
In the spring of 1950, Toscanini led the orchestra on an extensive
transcontinental tour. It was during that tour that the well-known photograph
of Toscanini riding the ski lift at Sun Valley, Idaho was taken. Toscanini and the
musicians traveled on a special train chartered by NBC.
The NBC concerts continued in Studio 8-H until 1950. That fall, needing 8-H
for television broadcasting, they were moved to Manhattan Center, then soon
thereafter moved again to Carnegie Hall at Toscanini's insistence, where many
of the orchestra's recording sessions had been held due to the acrid acoustics
of Studio 8-H. Toscanini's nal broadcast performance, an all-Wagner program,
took place on April 4, 1954, in Carnegie Hall. During this nal concert, the
aging Toscanini suered a minor lapse of concentration which became a cause
clbre when broadcast technicians panicked and took the broadcast o-air for
about a minute, making the lapse appear much worse than it was.[24]
In June 1954, Toscanini participated in his nal recording sessions, remaking
portions of two Verdi operas so they could be commercially released. Toscanini
was 87 years old when he nally retired. After his retirement, the NBC
Symphony was reorganized as the Symphony of the Air, making regular
performances and recordings, until it was disbanded in 1963. It was heard one
last time (as the NBC Symphony Orchestra) in the 1963 telecast of Gian Carlo
Menotti's Christmas opera for television, Amahl and the Night Visitors.
On radio, Toscanini conducted seven complete operas, including Fidelio, La
bohme, La traviata, and Otello, all of which were eventually released on
records and CD, thus enabling the modern listening public to have at least
some idea of what an opera conducted by Toscanini sounded like.
Last years
With the help of his son Walter, Toscanini spent his remaining years evaluating
and editing tapes and transcriptions of his performances with the NBC
Symphony for possible future LP release. Many of these recordings were
eventually issued by RCA Victor.
Sachs and other biographers have documented the numerous conductors,
singers, and musicians who visited Toscanini during his retirement. He enjoyed
watching boxing and wrestling matches, as well as comedy programs on
television.
Toscanini died on January 16, 1957 at the age of 89 at his home in the
Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City. His body was returned to Italy
and was buried in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan. His epitaph is taken
from one account of his remarks concluding the 1926 premiere of Puccini's
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unnished Turandot: "Qui nisce l'opera,

perch a questo punto il maestro morto"
("Here the opera ends, because at this point the
maestro died").[25] During his funeral service,
Leyla Gencer sang an aria from Verdi's
Requiem.
In his will, he left his baton to his protge
Herva Nelli, who sang in the broadcasts of
Otello, Aida, Falsta, the Verdi Requiem, and Un
ballo in maschera.
Toscanini was posthumously awarded the
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
Personal life
Toscanini's family tomb at

the Monumental Cemetery
of Milan in 2015
Toscanini married Carla De Martini on June 21,

1897, when she was not yet 20 years old. Their
rst child, Walter, was born on March 19, 1898.
A daughter, Wally, was born on January 16,
1900. Carla gave birth to another boy, Giorgio,
in September 1901, but he died of diphtheria on
June 10, 1906. Then, that same year (1906),
Carla gave birth to their second daughter,
Wanda.
Toscanini worked with many great singers and
musicians throughout his career, but few
impressed him as much as Vladimir Horowitz.
They worked together a number of times and
recorded Brahms' second piano concerto and
Tchaikovsky's rst piano concerto with the NBC
Symphony for RCA Victor. Horowitz also
became close to Toscanini and his family. In
1933, Wanda Toscanini married Horowitz, with
the conductor's blessings and warnings. It was
Wanda's daughter, Sonia, who was once
photographed by Life playing with the conductor.
Toscanini with his wife and

daughter Wally.
During World War II, Toscanini lived in Wave Hill, a historic home in
Riverdale.[26]
Despite the reported indelities revealed in Toscanini's letters documented by
Harvey Sachs, he remained married to Carla until she died on June 23,
1951.[27][28]
Innovations
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At La Scala, which had what was then the most modern stage lighting system
installed in 1901 and an orchestral pit installed in 1907, Toscanini pushed
through reforms in the performance of opera. He insisted on dimming the
house-lights during performances. As his biographer Harvey Sachs wrote: "He
believed that a performance could not be artistically successful unless unity of
intention was rst established among all the components: singers, orchestra,
chorus, staging, sets, and costumes."
Toscanini favored the traditional orchestral seating plan with the rst violins
and cellos on the left, the violas on the near right, and the second violins on the
far right.
Premieres
Toscanini conducted the world premieres of many operas, four of which have
become part of the standard operatic repertoire: Pagliacci, La bohme, La
fanciulla del West and Turandot; he took an active role in Alfano's completion
of Puccini's Turandot.[29] He also conducted the rst Italian performances of
Siegfried, Gtterdmmerung, Salome, Pellas et Mlisande, and Euryanthe, as
well as the South American premieres of Tristan und Isolde and Madama
Buttery and the North American premieres of Boris Godunov and Dmitri
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7. He also conducted the world premiere of
Samuel Barber's most famous work, the Adagio for Strings.
Operatic premieres
Edmea (revised version) by Alfredo Catalani Turin, November 4, 1886
Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo Milan, May 21, 1892
Guglielmo Swarten by Gnaga Rome, November 15, 1892
Savitri by Natale Canti Bologna, December 1, 1894
Emma Liona by Antonio Lozzi Venice, May 24, 1895
La bohme by Giacomo Puccini Turin, February 1, 1896
Forza d'Amore by Arturo Buzzi-Peccia Turin, March 6, 1897
La Camargo by Enrico De Leva Turin, March 2, 1898
Anton by Cesare Galeotii Milan, December 17, 1900
Zaza by Leoncavallo Milan, November 10, 1900
Le Maschere by Pietro Mascagni Milan, January 17, 1901
Mos by Don Lorenzo Perosi Milan, November 16, 1901
Germania by Alberto Franchetti Milan, March 11, 1902
Oceana by Antonio Smareglia Milan, January 22, 1903
Cassandra by Vittorio Gnecchi Bologna, December 5, 1905
Gloria by Francesco Cilea Milan, April 15, 1907
La fanciulla del West by Puccini New York, December 10, 1910
Madame Sans-Gne by Umberto Giordano New York, January 25, 1915
Debora e Jaele by Ildebrando Pizzetti Milan, December 16, 1922
Nerone by Arrigo Boito (completed by Toscanini and Vincenzo Tommasini)
Milan, May 1, 1924
La Cena delle Bee by Giordano Milan, December 20, 1924
I Cavalieri di Ekebu by Riccardo Zandonai Milan, March 7, 1925
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Turandot by Puccini Milan, April 25, 1926 (It is worth noting that
Toscanini informed the audience that the opera was incomplete due to
Puccini's death.)
Fra Gherado by Pizzetti Milan, May 16, 1928
Il Re by Giordano Milan, January 12, 1929
Orchestral premieres
Adagio for Strings and First Essay for Orchestra by Samuel Barber NBC
Symphony Orchestra, New York, November 5, 1938
Western Suite by Elie Siegmeister NBC Symphony Orchestra, New York,
November 1945.
Recorded legacy
Overview
Toscanini made his rst recordings in December 1920 with the La Scala
Orchestra in the Trinity Church studio of the Victor Talking Machine Company
in Camden, New Jersey and his last with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in June
1954 in Carnegie Hall. His entire catalog of commercial recordings was issued
by RCA Victor, save for two recordings for Brunswick in 1926 (his rst by the
electrical process) with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and a series of
excellent recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1939 for
EMI's His Master's Voice label (which was RCA Victor's European ailiate).
Toscanini also recorded with the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall for
RCA Victor in a series of recording sessions in 1929 and 1936. He made a
series of long-unissued recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra for RCA
Victor in Philadelphia's Academy of Music in 1941 and 1942. All of Toscanini's
commercially issued RCA Victor and HMV recordings have been digitally
remastered and released on compact disc. There are also recorded concerts
with various European orchestras, especially with La Scala Orchestra and the
Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2012, RCA Red Seal released a new 84 CD boxed
set reissue of Toscanini's complete RCA Victor recordings and commercially
issued HMV recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.[30] In 2013, EMI
Classics issued a 6-CD set containing Toscanini's complete HMV recordings
with the BBC Symphony. Toscanini disliked recording, especially the acoustic
method, and for several years recorded only sporadically as a result. He was
fty-three years old when he made his rst recordings in 1920 and did not
begin regular recording until 1938, after he became conductor of the NBC
Symphony Orchestra at the age of seventy. As the recording process improved,
so did Toscanini's negative attitude towards making records and he eventually
became more interested in preserving his performances for posterity. The
majority of Toscanini's recordings were made with the NBC Symphony and
cover the bulk of his repertoire. These recordings document the nal phase of
his 68-year conducting career.
Specialties
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Toscanini was especially famous for his performances of Beethoven, Brahms,

Wagner, Richard Strauss, Debussy and his own compatriots Rossini, Verdi,
Boito and Puccini. He made many recordings, especially towards the end of his
career, all of which are still in print. In addition, there are many recordings
available of his broadcast performances, as well as his remarkable rehearsals
with the NBC Symphony.
Charles O'Connell on Toscanini

Charles O'Connell, who produced many of Toscanini's RCA Victor recordings in
the 1930s and early 1940s, said that RCA Victor decided to record the NBC
Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, whenever possible, after numerous
customer complaints about the at and dull-sounding early recordings made in
Studio 8-H in 1938 and 1939. (Nevertheless, some recording sessions in Studio
8-H persisted as late as June 1950, probably because of alterations to the
studio beginning in 1939, including installation of an acoustical shell in 1941 at
Leopold Stokowski's insistence, before he would temporarily replace Toscanini
as principal conductor in the fall.) O'Connell and others often complained the
Maestro was little interested in the details of recorded sound and, as Harvey
Sachs wrote, Toscanini was frequently disappointed that the microphones
failed to pick up everything he heard as he led the orchestra. O'Connell even
complained of Toscanini's failure to cooperate with him during the sessions.
Toscanini himself was often disappointed that the 78-rpm discs failed to fully
capture all of the instruments in the orchestra or altered their sound to such an
extent they became unrecognizable. Those fortunate to attend Toscanini's
concerts later said the NBC string section was especially outstanding. [31]
Philadelphia Orchestra recordings

O'Connell also extensively documented RCA's technical problems with the
Philadelphia Orchestra recordings of 1941/42, which required extensive
electronic editing before they could be released (well after Toscanini's death,
beginning in 1963, with the rest following in the 1970s). Harvey Sachs also
recounts that the masters were damaged, possibly because of the use of
somewhat-inferior materials imposed by wartime restrictions. Toscanini had
listened to some of the test pressings and had given his approval to some of the
recordings, rejected others and was prepared to re-record the rejected sides.
Unfortunately, the Petrillo/AFM recording ban from 1942 to 1944 prevented
immediate retakes; by the time the ban ended, the Philadelphia Orchestra had
left RCA Victor for Columbia Records and RCA apparently was hesitant to
promote the orchestra any further. RCA had declared the defective masters
unsalvageable and Toscanini eventually re-recorded all of the same music with
the NBC Symphony. When told that RCA had nally decided to scrap the
Philadelphia recordings, Toscanini vehemently exclaimed, "I worked like a
dog!". The best sounding of the recordings is the Schubert Symphony No. 9
(The "Great"), which had been successfully restored and issued by RCA in
1963. In 1968, the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to RCA and the company
was more favorable toward issuing all of the discs. RCA nally released a
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complete edition of the recordings in 1977 and, as Sachs noted, by that time
some of the masters may have deteriorated further. As for the historic
recordings, even on the CD versions, rst released in 1991, some of the sides
have considerable surface noise and some distortion, especially during the
louder passages. Nevertheless, despite the occasional problems, the sound has
been markedly improved on CD, and the entire set is an impressive document
of Toscanini's collaboration with the Philadelphia musicians. A second RCA CD
reissue from 2006 makes more-eective use of digital processing in an attempt
to produce better sound. Longtime Philadelphia director Eugene Ormandy
expressed his appreciation for what Toscanini achieved with the orchestra.
High delity and stereo

In the late 1940s when magnetic tape replaced direct wax disc recording and
high delity long-playing records were introduced, the conductor said he was
much happier making recordings. Sachs wrote that an Italian journalist,
Raaele Calzini, said Toscanini told him, "My son Walter sent me the test
pressing of the [Beethoven] Ninth from America; I want to hear and check how
it came out, and possibly to correct it. These long-playing records often make
me happy."[32]
NBC recorded all of Toscanini's broadcast performances on 16-inch 33-1/3 rpm
transcription discs from the start of the Maestro's broadcasts in December
1937, but the infrequent use of higher delity sound lm for recording sessions
began as early as 1933 with the Philharmonic, and by December 1948,
improved high delity made its appearance when RCA began using magnetic
tape on a regular basis. High delity quickly became the norm for the company
and the industry. NBC Radio followed, adopting the new technology in the fall
of 1949 for its NBC Symphony broadcasts, among others. The rst Toscanini
recording sessions in Carnegie Hall followed immediately thereafter, although
individual takes continued as with 78's, each running only about 4-1/2 minutes.
RCA continued in this vein with 7-inch tape reels until 1953 when long takes on
10-inch reels were nally implemented for the recording of Beethoven's Missa
Solemnis. With RCA's experiments in stereo beginning in early 1953 when
two-track decks were rst delivered by the engineers to the record producers
(per Jack Pfeier, 11/77 interview, NYC, by CWR), stereo tapes were eventually
made of Toscanini's nal two broadcast concerts, plus the dress rehearsal for
the nal broadcast, as documented by Samuel Antek in This Was Toscanini and
by Pfeier. These followed test sessions in New York's Manhattan Center in
December of Delibes with members of the Boston Symphony under Pierre
Monteux, in February 1954 with the full Boston Symphony under Charles
Munch in Berlioz' Damnation of Faust , and in early March with the NBC
Symphony in Manhattan Center again under Stokowski doing the Beethoven
Pastoral symphony. For Toscanini, later in March and in early April, the
microphones were placed relatively close to the orchestra with limited
separation, so the stereo eects were not as dramatic as the commercial
"Living Stereo" recordings RCA Victor began to make in March with the
Chicago Symphony a couple of weeks earlier [Strauss ALSO SPRACH
ZARATHUSTRA being the most notable]. (The two Toscanini concerts recorded
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in stereo have been issued on LP and CD and have also been oered for
download in digitally enhanced sound by Pristine Classical, a company which
produces digitally enhanced versions of older classical recordings.) Two days
after the nal concert, Guido Cantelli took the podium in a hastily organized
session to record the Franck SYMPHONY for RCA Victor using the same
microphone and equipment set-up put in place for the Maestro, and the stereo
version of the recording was nally released on LP by RCA in 1979 (EMI holds
the rights and has issued several CD versions). Toscanini's June sessions were
done monophonically, the tapes being intended as inserts in otherwise
complete monophonic recordings.
One more example of Toscanini and the NBC Symphony in stereo now also
exists in a commercially available edition. This one is of the January 27, 1951
concert devoted to the Verdi Requiem, previously recorded and released in
high-delity monophonic sound by RCA Victor. Recently a separate NBC tape of
the same performance, using a dierent microphone in a dierent location,
was acquired by Pristine Audio. Using modern digital technology the company
constructed a stereophonic version of the performance from the two
recordings which it made available in 2009. The company calls this an example
of "accidental stereo".
Notable recordings
Among his most critically acclaimed recordings are the following (with the
NBC Symphony unless otherwise shown):
(Many of these were never released oicially during Toscanini's lifetime)
Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" (1953; also 1939 and 1949
recordings)
Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral" (1952)
Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 (1936, Philharmonic-Symphony of New York)
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 (1952 and 1938) (only the 1952 recording
was released oicially)
Beethoven, Missa Solemnis, (1953 and 1940 NBC broadcast) (Only the
1953 version was released oicially.)
Berlioz, Romo et Juliette (1947 NBC broadcast) (only excerpts released
during Toscanini's lifetime)
Brahms, Symphony No. 1 (1941)
Brahms, Symphony No. 2 (1952 and February 1948 broadcast)
Brahms, Symphony No. 3 (February 1948 broadcast) (October 1952
concert, Philharmonia Orchestra)
Brahms, Symphony No. 4 (1951 and 1948 broadcast)
Brahms, Four Symphonies, Tragic Overture and Haydn Variations, 1952,
Philharmonia Orchestra, London (his only appearances with that
orchestra, produced by Walter Legge).
Debussy, La mer (1950 and 1940 broadcast; only the 1950 version was
released oicially)
Dvok, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" (1953)
Mendelssohn, Incidental Music from A Midsummer Night's Dream, (NBC
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1947, studio and broadcast versions; Philadelphia 1941); Scherzo, New

York Philharmonic, (1929)
Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 4 "Italian", (1954, exists in two versions: one
as approved by Toscanini with excerpts from the rehearsals, and the
unedited broadcast)
Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 5 "Reformation", (1942 broadcast, 1953
studio recording. The 1953 version is the one oicially released.)
Puccini, La bohme (1946 broadcast)
Mozart, Die Zauberte (1937, Salzburg Festival; poor sound)
Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (1938, 1948 and 1953 broadcast,
studio recording 1953, all of them in the version orchestrated by Maurice
Ravel. The studio recording from January 1953 is the only one to have
been oicially released.)
Schubert, Symphony No. 9 (Philadelphia, 1941; NBC 1947 and 1953)
Tchaikovsky, Piano concerto No. 1 in B at minor, Op. 23, Vladimir
Horowitz and NBC Symphony, (live recording of April 25, 1943 War Bonds
benet concert at Carnegie Hall, rst issued in 1959 on LP by RCA Victor)
Verdi, Requiem (1940 NBC broadcast; and 1951 studio recording)
Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (1954 NBC broadcast)
Verdi, Falsta (1937, Salzburg Festival with restored sound on the
Andante label; 1950 NBC broadcast)
Verdi, Rigoletto (Act IV only, 1944; from World War II Red Cross benet
concert held in Madison Square Garden, with the combined forces of the
New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony; the entire concert,
complete with an auctioning of one of Toscanini's batons, was released on
an unoicial recording in 1995)
Verdi, Otello (1947 NBC broadcast)
Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg (1937, Salzburg Festival;
original Selenophone sound-on-lm recording restored on Andante.)
Rarities
There are many pieces which Toscanini never recorded in the studio; among
these, some of the most-interesting-surviving recordings (o-the-air) include:
Meyerbeer Overture to Dinorah (1938, on Testament)[33]
Stravinsky, Suite from Petrushka (1940, on RCA Victor)
Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 3 "Scottish" (1941, on Testament)
Franz Schubert, Symphony No. 2 (1940, on Testament)
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad" (1942, on RCA Victor)
Vasily Kalinnikov, Symphony No. 1 (1943, on Testament)
Schumann, Symphony No. 2 (1946, on Testament)
Boito, scenes from Mestofele and Nerone, La Scala, Milan, 1948 Boito
Memorial Concert.
Mussorgsky, Prelude to Khovanshchina (1953)
Rehearsals and broadcasts

Many hundreds of hours of Toscanini's rehearsals were recorded. Some of
these have circulated in limited edition recordings. Many broadcast recordings
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with orchestras other than the NBC have also

survived, including: The New York Philharmonic
from 1933 to 1936, 1942, and 1945; The BBC
Symphony Orchestra from 1935 to 1939; The
Lucerne Festival Orchestra; and broadcasts
from the Salzburg Festival in the late 1930s.
Documents of Toscanini's guest appearances
with the La Scala Orchestra from 1946 until
1952 include a live recording of Verdi's Requiem
with the young Renata Tebaldi. Toscanini's ten
NBC Symphony telecasts from 1948 until 1952
were preserved in kinescope lms of the live
broadcasts. These lms, issued by RCA on VHS
tape and laser disc and on DVD by Testament,
provide unique video documentation of the
passionate yet restrained podium technique for
which he was well known.
Recording guide
A few of the hundreds of

hours of rehearsal tapes
featuring Toscanini, residing
in the Rodgers and
Hammerstein Archive of
Recorded Sound, a division
of the New York Public
Library for the Performing
Arts
A guide to Toscanini's recording career can be

found in Mortimer H. Frank's "From the Pit to
the Podium: Toscanini in America" in
International Classical Record Collector (1998,
15 821) and Christopher Dyment's "Toscanini's
European Inheritance" in International Classical
Record Collector (1998, 15 228). Frank and
Dyment also discuss Maestro Toscanini's performance history in the 50th
anniversary issue of Classic Record Collector (2006, 47) Frank with 'Toscanini
Myth and Reality' (1014) and Dyment 'A Whirlwind in London' (1521) This
issue also contains interviews with people who performed with Toscanini Jon
Tolansky 'Licia Albanese Maestro and Me' (226) and 'A Mesmerising Beat:
John Tolansky talks to some of those who worked with Arturo Toscanini, to
discover some of the secrets of his hold over singers, orchestras and
audiences.' (347). There is also a feature article on Toscanini's interpretation
of Brahms's First Symphony Norman C. Nelson, 'First Among Equals [...]
Toscanini's interpretation of Brahms's First Symphony in the context of others'
(2833)
The Arturo Toscanini Society

In 1969, Clyde J. Key acted on a dream he had of meeting Toscanini by starting
the Arturo Toscanini Society to release a number of "unapproved" live
performances by Toscanini. As the magazine Time reported, Key scoured the
U.S. and Europe for o-the-air transcriptions of Toscanini broadcasts, acquiring
almost 5,000 transcriptions (all transferred to tape) of previously unreleased
materiala complete catalogue of broadcasts by the Maestro between 1933
and 1954. It included about 50 concerts that were never broadcast, but which
were recorded surreptitiously by engineers supposedly testing their
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equipment.
A private, nonprot club based in Dumas, Texas, it oered members ve or six
LPs annually for a $25-a-year membership fee. Key's rst package oering
included Brahms' German Requiem, Haydn's Symphonies Nos. 88 and 104, and
Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben, all NBC Symphony broadcasts dating from
the late 1930s or early 1940s. In 1970, the Society releases included Sibelius'
Symphony No. 4, Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony, dating from the same
NBC period; and a Rossini-Verdi-Puccini LP emanating from the post-War
reopening of La Scala on May 11, 1946, with the Maestro conducting. That
same year it released a Beethoven bicentennial set that included the 1935
Missa Solemnis with the Philharmonic and LPs of the 1948 televised concert of
the ninth symphony taken from an FM radio transcription, complete with Ben
Grauer's comments. (In the early 1990s, the kinescopes of these and the other
televised concerts were released by RCA with soundtracks dubbed in from the
NBC radio transcriptions; in 2006, they were re-released by Testament on
DVD.)
Additional releases included a number of Beethoven symphonies recorded with
the New York Philharmonic during the 1930s, a performance of Mozart's Piano
Concerto No. 27 on February 20, 1936, at which Rudolf Serkin made his New
York debut, and one of the most celebrated underground Toscanini recordings
of all, the legendary 1940 broadcast version of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis,
which has better soloists (Zinka Milanov, Jussi Bjoerling, both in their prime)
and a more powerful style than the 1953 RCA Victor studio recording, although
the microphone placement was kinder to the soloists in 1953.
Because the Arturo Toscanini Society was nonprot, Key said he believed he
had successfully bypassed both copyright restrictions and the maze of
contractual ties between RCA and the Maestro's family. However, RCA's
attorneys were soon looking into the matter to see if they agreed. As long as it
stayed small, the Society appeared to oer little real competition to RCA. But
classical-LP prots were low enough even in 1970, and piracy by y-by-night
rms so prevalent within the industry at that time (an estimated $100 million
in tape sales for 1969 alone), that even a benevolent buccaneer outt like the
Arturo Toscanini Society had to be looked at twice before it could be
tolerated.[34]
Magazine and newspaper reports subsequently detailed legal action taken
against Key and the Society, presumably after some of the LPs began to appear
in retail stores. Toscanini fans and record collectors were dismayed because,
although Toscanini had not approved the release of these performances in
every case, many of them were found to be further proof of the greatness of
the Maestro's musical talents. One outstanding example of a remarkable
performance not approved by the Maestro was his December 1948 NBC
broadcast of Dvok's Symphonic Variations, released on an LP by the Society.
(A kinescope of the same performance, from the television simulcast, has been
released on VHS and laser disc by RCA/BMG and on DVD by Testament.) There
was speculation that the Toscanini family itself, prodded by his daughter
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Wanda, had sought to defend the Maestro's original decisions (made mostly
during his last years) on what should be released. Walter Toscanini later
admitted that his father likely rejected performances that were satisfactory.
Whatever the real reasons, the Arturo Toscanini Society was forced to disband
and cease releasing any further recordings.
Television
Arturo Toscanini was one of the rst conductors to make extended
appearances on live television. Between 1948 and 1952, he conducted ten
concerts telecast on NBC, including a two-part concert performance of Verdi's
complete opera Aida starring Herva Nelli and Richard Tucker, and the rst
complete telecast of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. All of these were simulcast
on radio. These concerts were all shown only once during that four-year span,
but they were preserved on kinescopes.[35]
The telecasts began on March 20, 1948, with an all-Wagner program, including
the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin; the overture and bacchanale from
Tannhuser; "Forest Murmurs" from Siegfried; "Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine
Journey" from Gtterdmmerung; and "The Ride of the Valkyries" from Die
Walkre. On the very same day that this concert was telecast live, conductor
Eugene Ormandy also made his live television concert debut with the
Philadelphia Orchestra.[36] They performed Weber's overture to Der Freischutz
and Rachmanino's Symphony no. 1, which had been recently rediscovered.[37]
The Ormandy concert was telecast by rival network CBS, but the schedules
were arranged so that the two programs would not interfere with one
another.[37]
Less than a month after the rst Toscanini televised concert, a complete
performance by the conductor of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was telecast on
April 3, 1948. On November 13, 1948, there was an all-Brahms program,
including the Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra in A minor (Mischa
Mischako, violin; Frank Miller, cello); Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 52 (with two
pianists and a small chorus); and Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor. On
December 3, 1948, Toscanini conducted Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor;
Dvok's Symphonic Variations; and Wagner's original overture to Tannhuser.
There were two Toscanini telecasts in 1949, both devoted to the concert
performance of Verdi's Aida from studio 8H. Acts I and II were telecast on
March 26 and III and IV on April 2. Portions of the audio were rerecorded in
June 1954 for the commercial release on LP records. As the video shows, the
soloists were placed close to Toscanini, in front of the orchestra, while the
robed members of the Robert Shaw Chorale were on risers behind the
orchestra.
There were no Toscanini telecasts in 1950, but they resumed from Carnegie
Hall on November 3, 1951, with Weber's overture to Euryanthe and Brahms'
Symphony No. 1. On December 29, 1951, there was another all-Wagner
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program that included the two excerpts from Siegfried and Die Walkre
featured on the March 1948 telecast, plus the Prelude to Act II of Lohengrin;
the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde; and "Siegfried's Death and
Funeral Music" from Gtterdmmerung.
On March 15, 1952, Toscanini conducted the Symphonic Interlude from
Franck's Rdemption; Sibelius's En saga; Debussy's "Nuages" and "Fetes" from
Nocturnes; and the overture of Rossini's William Tell. The nal live Toscanini
telecast, on March 22, 1952, included Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and
Respighi's The Pines of Rome.
The NBC cameras were often left on Toscanini for extended periods,
documenting not only his baton techniques but his deep involvement in the
music. At the end of a piece, Toscanini generally nodded rather than bowed
and exited the stage quickly. Although NBC continued to broadcast the
orchestra on radio until April 1954, telecasts were abandoned after March
1952.
As part of a restoration project initiated by the Toscanini family in the late
1980s, the kinescopes were fully restored and issued by RCA on VHS and laser
disc beginning in 1989. The audio portion of the sound was taken, not from the
noisy kinescopes, but from 33-1/3 rpm 16-inch transcription disc and high
delity audio tape recordings made simultaneously by RCA technicians during
the televised concerts. The hi- audio was synchronized with the kinescope
video for the home video release. Original introductions by NBC's longtime
announcer Ben Grauer were replaced with new commentary by Martin
Bookspan. The entire group of Toscanini videos has since been reissued by
Testament on DVD, with further improvements to the sound.
Film
In December 1943, Toscanini made a 31-minute lm for the United States
Oice of War Information called Hymn of the Nations, directed by Alexander
Hammid. It was mostly lmed in NBC's Studio 8-H and consists of Toscanini
conducting the NBC Symphony in a performance of Verdi's Overture to La
Forza del Destino and Verdi's "Hymn of the Nations" (Inno delle nazioni), which
contains national anthems of England, France, and Italy (the World War I allied
nations), to which Toscanini added the Soviet "Internationale" and "The Star
Spangled Banner". Tenor Jan Peerce and the Westminster Choir performed in
the latter work and the lm was narrated by Burgess Meredith.[38]
The lm was released by RCA/BMG on DVD in 2004. By this time the
"Internationale" had been cut from the 1943 lm, but the complete "Hymn of
the Nations" can still be heard in all releases of the audio recording of the lm
issued by RCA.[39] Hymn of the Nations was nominated for a 1944 Academy
Award for Best Documentary Short.[40]
Toscanini: The Maestro is a 1985 documentary made for cable television. The
lm features archival footage of the conductor and interviews with musicians
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who worked with him. This lm was released on VHS and in 2004 on the same
DVD with Hymn of the Nations.
Toscanini is the subject of the 1988 ctionalized biography Il giovane Toscanini
(Young Toscanini), starring C. Thomas Howell and Dame Elizabeth Taylor, and
directed by Franco Zeirelli.[41] It received scathing reviews and was never
oicially released in the United States. The lm is a ctional recounting of the
events that led up to Toscanini making his conducting debut in Rio de Janeiro
in 1886. Although nearly all of the plot is embellished, the events surrounding
the sudden and unexpected conducting debut are based on fact.
Acclaim and criticism

Throughout his career, Toscanini was virtually idolized by the critics, as well as
by most fellow musicians and the public alike. He enjoyed the kind of
consistent critical acclaim during his life that few other musicians have had.
He was featured three times on the cover of Time magazine, in 1926, 1934,
and again in 1948. In the magazine's history, he is the only conductor to have
been so honored.[42][43][44] On March 25, 1989, the United States Postal
Service issued a 25 cent postage stamp in his honor.[45] While online critics
such as Peter Gutmann have dismissed much of what was written about
Toscanini during his lifetime and for about ten years afterwards as "adoring
puery",[46] it neverthleless remains a fact that composers and others who
worked with the Maestro readily acknowledged what they felt was his
greatness, and audio interviews containing the praise of such luminaries as
Aaron Copland still exist.[47]
Over the past thirty years or so, however, as a new generation has appeared,
there has been an increasing amount of revisionist criticism directed at
Toscanini. These critics contend that Toscanini was ultimately a detriment to
American music rather than an asset because of the tremendous marketing of
him by RCA as the greatest conductor of all time and his preference to perform
mostly older European music. According to Harvey Sachs, Mortimer Frank,
and B. H. Haggin, this criticism can be traced to the lack of focus on Toscanini
as a conductor rather than his legacy. Frank, in his 2002 book Toscanini: The
NBC Years, rejects this revisionism quite strongly,[48] and cites the author
Joseph Horowitz (author of Understanding Toscanini) as perhaps the most
extreme of these critics. Frank writes that this revisionism has unfairly
inuenced younger listeners and critics, who may have not heard as many of
Toscanini's performances as older listeners, and as a result, Toscanini's
reputation, extraordinarily high in the years that he was active, has suered a
decline. Conversely, Joseph Horowitz contends that those who keep the
Toscanini legend alive are members of a "Toscanini cult", an idea not
altogether refuted by Frank, but not embraced by him, either. [Op. cit.]
Some contemporary critics, particularly Virgil Thomson, also took Toscanini to
task for not paying enough attention to the "modern repertoire" (i.e.,
20th-century composers, of which Thomson was one). It may be speculated,
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knowing Toscanini's antipathy toward much 20th-century music, that perhaps

Thomson had a feeling that the conductor would never have played any of his
(Thomson's) music, and that perhaps because of this, Thomson bore a
resentment against him. During Toscanini's middle years, however, such now
widely accepted composers as Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy, whose
music the conductor held in very high regard, were considered to be radical
and modern. Toscanini also performed excerpts from Igor Stravinsky's
Petrouchka, two of Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonies (nos.1 and 7), and three
of George Gershwin's most famous works, Rhapsody in Blue, An American in
Paris, and the Piano Concerto in F, though his performances of these last three
works have been criticized as not being "jazzy" enough.
Another criticism leveled at Toscanini stems from the constricted sound quality
that comes from many of his recordings, notably those made in NBC's Studio
8-H. Studio 8-H was foremost a radio and later a television studio, not a true
concert hall. Its dry acoustics lacking in much reverberation, while ideal for
broadcasting, were unsuited for symphonic concerts and opera. However, it is
widely believed that Toscanini favored it because its close miking enabled
listeners to hear every instrumental strand in the orchestra clearly, something
that the conductor strongly believed in.[49]
Toscanini has also been criticized for metronomic (rhythmically too rigid)
performances:
Others attacked the conductor on the ground that he was a slave to
the metronome. They said that his beat was inexorable, that his
rhythms were rigid, that he was an enemy of Italian song and a
wrecker of the art of bel canto.[50]
"When he was young as a conductor, it was complained of Toscanini
that he held the tempo and rhythm of the music rmly to its course
and that it had the mechanical exactitude of a metronome. [...]" [51]
The Maestro: The Life Of Arturo Toscanini (1951) by Howard
Taubman
Others state (and there is some evidence from the recordings) that Toscanini's
tempos, quite owing in his earlier recordings, became stricter as he got older,
although this is not to be taken as a literally true statement.
The Toscanini Legacy

Beginning in 1963, NBC Radio broadcast a weekly series of programs entitled
Toscanini: The Man Behind The Legend, commemorating Toscanini's years with
the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The show, hosted by NBC announcer Ben
Grauer, who had also hosted many of the original Toscanini broadcasts,
featured interviews with members of the conductor's family, as well as
musicians of the NBC Symphony, David Sarno, and noted classical musicians
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who had worked with the conductor, such as Giovanni Martinelli. It spotlighted
partial or complete rebroadcasts of many of Toscanini's recordings. The
program ran for at least three years, and did not feature any of the revisionist
commentary about the conductor one nds so often today in magazines such as
American Record Guide.[52] The series was rebroadcast by PBS radio in the
late 1970s.
In 1986, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts purchased the
bulk of Toscanini's papers, scores and sound recordings from his heirs. Named
The Toscanini Legacy, this vast collection contains thousands of letters,
programs and various documents, over 1,800 scores and more than 400 hours
of sound recordings. A nding aid for the scores and sound recordings is
available on the library's website. In-house nding aids are available for other
parts of the collection.
The library also has many other collections that have Toscanini materials in
them, such as the Bruno Walter papers, the Fiorello H. La Guardia papers, and
a collection of material from Rose Bampton.
The Maestro Revisited

In 1967, The Bell Telephone Hour telecast a program entitled Toscanini: The
Maestro Revisited, written and narrated by New York Times music critic
Harold C. Schonberg, and featuring commentary by conductors Eugene
Ormandy, George Szell, Erich Leinsdorf and Milton Katims (who had played
with the NBC Symphony Orchestra). The program also featured clips from two
of Toscanini's television concerts, in the days before they were remastered for
video and DVD.
Quotations
Of German composer Richard Strauss, whose political stance during
World War II was controversial: "To Strauss the composer I take o my
hat; to Strauss the man I put it back on again."
"The conduct of my life has been, is, and will always be the echo and
reection of my conscience."
"Gentlemen, be democrats in life but aristocrats in art."
Referring to the rst movement of the Eroica: "To some it is Napoleon, to
some it is a philosophical struggle. To me it is allegro con brio."
At the point where Puccini left o writing the nale of his unnished
opera, Turandot: "Here Death triumphed over art". (Toscanini then left the
opera pit, the lights went up and the audience left in silence.). [53]
Toscanini was invited in the year 1940 to visit a movie set at the Metro
Goldwyn Mayer Studios. There he said with tears in his eyes, "I will
remember three things in my life: the sunset, the Grand Canyon and
Eleanor Powell's dancing."
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References
1. Sachs, Harvey (1978). Toscanini. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80137-X.
2. Tarozzi, Giuseppe (1977). Non muore la musica La vita e l'opera di Arturo
Toscanini (p.36). SUGARco Edizioni.)
3. Nicotra, Tobia (2005). Arturo Toscanini. Kessinger Publ. Co.
ISBN 978-1-4179-0126-5.
4. Mortimer H. Frank, Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years, p. 149
5. David Mason Greene, Greenes Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers, p. 819
6. Conati, Marcello; et al. (1986). Encounters with Verdi. Cornell University Press.
p.303. ISBN 0-8014-9430-3.
7. Verdi, however, was quick to criticise Toscanini when appropriate, as in a
rehearsal of Otello where he was unhappy with the playing of the solo for four
muted cellos that ushers in the nal duet of the rst act of Otello: "Gia nella
notte densa". cf. Conati et al., p.304
8. Opera. June 1954, p334
9. "Music: Lange's own", Time, November 25, 1935 (to be found in the TIME online
archive)
10. Greg Daugherty (2 May 2013). "8 Famous People Who Missed the Lusitania".
Smithsonian Magazine.
11. Plaskin, 195.
12. Sachs, Toscanini, 154.
13. Sachs, Toscanini, 211.
14. Farrell, Nicholas (2005). Mussolini: a New Life. Sterling Publishing Company,
Inc. p.238. ISBN 1-84212-123-5.
15. The Double reed. International Double Reed Society. 1995. p.65. Retrieved
25 July 2012.
16. Live from Studio 8H: A Tribute to Toscanini (http://www.imdb.com/title
/tt0335263/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl). www.imdb.com. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
17. The Toscanini Legacy collection of sound recordings (http://archives.nypl.org
/rha/20445#descriptive_identity). archives.nypl.org. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
18. Association for the Advancement of Instrumental Music (1993). The
Instrumentalist. The Instrumentalist. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
19. Ewen, David (1949). American composers today: a biographical and critical
guide. H.W. Wilson Co. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
20. Vinson, Bill; Casey, Ginger Quering. "S.S. Brazil". Welcome Aboard MooreMcCormack Lines. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
21. MOG.com (http://mog.com/musikfriend/blog/184658). MOG.com. Retrieved June
7, 2012.
22. RCA Victor liner notes
23. Taubman in 1951 (at page 289) quotes him (without citation) as saying "I asked
myself, did I conduct that? Did I work two weeks memorizing that symphony?
Impossible! I was stupid!" The violist William Carboni, when interviewed by
Haggin in 1967 (at pages 5455 of The Toscanini Musicians Knew) quotes him
(without citation) as saying "Did I play this? I must have been crazy." Marek in
1975 (at page 234) quotes him (without citation) as saying "Did I really learn and
conduct such junk?"
24. Peter Gutmann (1995). "Toscanini: The Last Concert". Classical Notes. Retrieved
October 9, 2015.
25. William Ashbrook (1984). "Turandot and Its Posthumous Prima". Opera
Quarterly. 2 (3): 126132. doi:10.1093/oq/2.3.126. ISSN 0736-0053. Online
ISSN 1476-2870.
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26. Frank, Mortimer H. "A Toscanini Odyssey" (http://www.juilliard.edu/update

/journal/353journal_story_0204.asp), The Juilliard Journal Online, April 2002.
Retrieved February 26, 2008. "That archive was housed at Wave Hill, Toscanini's
Riverdale residence during World War II."
27. Michael Kennedy (May 12, 2002). "Conductor con brio". London: Telegraph.
Archived from the original on October 21, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
28. Catherine Milner (April 20, 2002). "Letters detail Toscanini's aairs". Telegraph.
Archived from the original on October 21, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
29. However, he refused to conduct the section that Alfano composed at the opera's
world premiere.
30. Arturo Toscanini: The Complete RCA Collection: Arturo Toscanini: Music
(http://www.amazon.com/Arturo-Toscanini-The-Complete-Collection
/dp/B006VKKAWQ/ref=pd_rhf_ee_shvl39). Amazon.com. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
31. Eyewitness accounts by William Knorp, B.H. Haggin and others
32. Harvey Sachs, Toscanini, pp. 302303
33. Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LPS4NO). Amazon.com. Retrieved
June 7, 2012.
34. Time, March 2, 1970
35. Harvey Sachs, Toscanini
36. "Penn Special Collections Ormandy/Usher". Library.upenn.edu. Retrieved
2012-11-01.
37. "The First Televised Orchestra Concert". Library.upenn.edu. Retrieved
2012-11-01.
38. "Toscanini: Hymn of the Nations" (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article
/0,9171,778680,00.html). Time magazine, April 29, 1946.
39. "Toscanini: The Maestro" Amazon.com 2004 (http://www.amazon.com
/dp/B00017HWLW). Amazon.com. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
40. Hymn of the Nations (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036023/) at the Internet
Movie Database
41. "Movies: About Il Giovane Toscanini". The New York Times.
42. Cover story: "The Perfectionist" (http://www.time.com/time/covers
/0,16641,19480426,00.html). Time, April 26, 1948
43. Cover story: "Birthday of a Conductor" (http://www.time.com/time/covers
/0,16641,19340402,00.html). Time, April 2, 1934.
44. Cover story: "Toscanini" (http://www.time.com/time/covers
/0,16641,19260125,00.html). Time, January 25, 1926.
45. Scott catalog # 2411.
46. Toscanini, The Recorded Legend, Classical Notes, Peter Gutmann
(http://www.classicalnotes.net/features/toscaweb.html#legacy).
Classicalnotes.net. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
47. Explore Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend: List View UNT Digital Library
(http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/TNMBL/browse/).
Digital.library.unt.edu. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
48. Klassi.net (http://www.klassi.net/new_reviews/opus30/). Klassi.net. Retrieved
June 7, 2012.
49. Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0306803569). Amazon.com. Retrieved
June 7, 2012.
50. Howard Taubman. "The Maestro: The Life Of Arturo Toscanini".
51. Howard Taubman. "The Maestro: The Life Of Arturo Toscanini". Archived from
the original on March 5, 2016.
52. Explore Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend: List View UNT Digital Library
(http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/TNMBL/browse/?start=170).
Digital.library.unt.edu. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
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53. Mosco Carner, Puccini, 1974; Howard Taubman, Toscanini, 1951; quoted in
Norman Lebrecht, The Book of Musical Anecdotes
Further reading
Antek, Samuel (author) and Hupka, Robert (photographs), This Was
Toscanini, New York: Vanguard Press, 1963 (Essays by an NBC Symphony
musician who played under Toscanini; also includes rehearsal
photographs from the latter part of Toscanini's career.)
Frank, Mortimer H., Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years, New York:
Amadeus Press, 2002. (Complete list and analysis of Toscanini's NBC
Symphony performances and recordings.)
Haggin, B. H., Arturo Toscanini: Contemporary Recollections of the
Maestro, New York: Da Capo Press, 1989 (A reprint of Conversations with
Toscanini and The Toscanini Musicians Knew.)
Horowitz, Joseph, Understanding Toscanini, New York: Knopf, 1987
(contains many inaccuracies corrected by Sachs in Reections on
Toscanini and Frank in Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years)
Marek, George R., Toscanini, New York: Atheneum, 1975. ISBN
0-689-10655-6 (contains inaccuracies corrected by Sachs in Toscanini)
Marsh, R. C. Toscanini on Records Part I: High Fidelity, vol. 4, 1954,
pp.5558
Marsh Part II: vol 4,1955, pp.7581
Marsh Part III: vol 4,1955, pp.8391
Matthews, Denis, Arturo Toscanini. New York: Hippocrene, 1982. ISBN
0-88254-657-0 (includes discography)
Meyer, Donald Carl, The NBC Symphony Orchestra. UMI Dissertation
Services, 1994.
O'Connell, Charles, The Other Side of the Record. New York: A. A. Knopf,
1947.
Sachs, Harvey, Toscanini, New York: Prima Publishing, 1995. (Reprint of
standard and best biography originally published 1978.)
Harvey Sachs, Reections on Toscanini, New York: Prima Publishing,
1993. (Series of essays on various aspects of Toscanini's life and impact.)
Harvey Sachs, ed., The Letters of Arturo Toscanini, New York: Knopf,
2003.
Howard Taubman, The Maestro: The Life of Arturo Toscanini, New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1951 (contains inaccuracies corrected by Sachs in
Toscanini)
Teachout, Terry, Toscanini Lives, Commentary Magazine, July/August 2002
External links
Arturo Toscanini (http://www.allmusic.com
Wikimedia Commons
/artist/q57138) at AllMusic
has media related to
Toscanini and the History of the NBC
Arturo Toscanini.
Symphony plus Live WWII broadcast
(http://www.classicalrecordings.org/znbc/index.html)
NPR special (http://www.npr.org/templates/story
23 of 24
2016-11-16 22:39
/story.php?storyId=6427815) on the selection of the 1938 radio broadcast

of Toscanini conducting the NBC Orchestra to the 2005 National
Recording Registry
Cultural oices
Precededby
Franco Faccio
Music Director, La Scala

18981908
Precededby
Tullio Seran
Music Director, La Scala

Succeededby
19211929
Victor de Sabata
Succeededby
Tullio Seran
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arturo_Toscanini&

oldid=746015207"
Categories: 1867 births 1957 deaths 20th-century conductors (music)
Burials at the Cimitero Monumentale di Milano
Conductors of the Metropolitan Opera
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society
Italian classical cellists Italian conductors (music)
Italian emigrants to the United States Italian Life Senators
Music directors (opera) People from Parma People from Riverdale, Bronx
RCA Victor artists Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Music directors of the New York Philharmonic
20th-century Italian musicians
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