Today is the 150th birthday of Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the most famous conductor of his time. At various points in his career, he was music director of La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and finally the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Radio broadcasts of the latter brought him into millions of American homes. Celebrated for his intensity, perfectionism, and alleged fidelity to the score, he was equally notorious for his rafter-rattling temper tantrums.

Ironically, he despised authoritarians, refusing to conduct in Germany while Hitler remained in power. In his homeland, he was beaten up by brownshirts and had his passport confiscated for his repeated refusal to conduct the fascist anthem “Giovanezza.” He also worked closely with violinist Bronislaw Huberman in support of the Palestine Orchestra, made up of Jewish exiles from fascist Europe.

Toscanini confided to a friend, “If I were capable of killing a man, I would kill Mussolini.” It sounds to me like he could have been borderline more than once.

Hear him rage, with translation, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdi0SFyXwKg

A report of an earlier tantrum, which led to a lawsuit, in the January 18, 1920, edition of The Washington Post:

http://fonderiausa.com/toscanini-in-a-rage/