I know I’ve written about this before, but I notice for the first time that the sound file for the recording is posted online. This means either relaxed vigilance on the part of the record label, Hyperion (sold to Universal Music Group last year), or it’s slipped past YouTube’s search-and-destroy algorithm. Hyperion used to be pretty ruthless about yanking down its files.
On Maundy Thursday, Christians commemorate Jesus’ washing of the feet of His disciples, the Last Supper, and the betrayal and arrest of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. I’m not on the air today, but if I were, I would most certainly play Victor de Sabata’s beautiful meditation for orchestra, “Gethsemani.”
De Sabata is remembered primarily as a conductor, especially of opera, having led the classic recording of “Tosca” with Maria Callas. He got his start playing violin in an orchestra under Toscanini. Toscanini encouraged the young man to become a conductor, which was kind of like letting the genie out of the bottle. Their relationship status passed from mentor-disciple to friendship to bitter rivalry. For decades, De Sabata was principal conductor at La Scala. For a time, he was its artistic director. One observer described his appearance while conducting as a cross between Julius Caesar and Satan.
An interesting tension, then, between the sacred and the diabolical. The conductor in this recording, highly recommended, is De Sabata’s son-in-law, Aldo Ceccato, who turned 90 in February. I think you’ll agree, it’s a garden well-tended.