There was a time when Arturo Toscanini was likely the most famous conductor in the United States. In fact, he was one of the most celebrated conductors of the 20th century. His intensity, perfectionism, and alleged fidelity to the score have been enshrined in legend. And when the legend becomes fact, I print the legend.
Toscanini served as music director of La Scala, Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He conducted first performances of Puccini’s “La bohème,” Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” Respighi’s “Feste Romane,” and Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.” As a cellist, he played in the world premiere of Verdi’s “Otello.”
From 1937 to 1954, he reached millions of Americans via his weekly broadcast concerts on NBC radio. These originated at Rockefeller Center’s Studio 8-H, now the home of “Saturday Night Live.”
Toscanini was vehemently anti-fascist. He despised Hitler, and vowed never to conduct in Germany as long as “the Führer” remained in power. In Italy, he was beaten up by brownshirts and had his passport confiscated for refusing to conduct “Giovinezza,” the fascist anthem. He also worked closely with violinist Bronislaw Huberman in support of the Palestine Orchestra, made up of Jewish exiles from fascist Europe. He once confided to a friend, “If I were capable of killing a man, I would kill Mussolini.”
Il Duce really caught a break when Toscanini emigrated to America. It sounds to me as if the Maestro could have been borderline more than once. Ironically, for someone who hated dictators, he sure could dish out an autocratic tirade.
Happy birthday, Arturo Toscanini.
Conducting Verdi, “La Forza del Destino Overture” (on film, 1944)
Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” (at Carnegie Hall, 1939)
Respighi, “Feste Romane” (“Roman Festivals,” 1949)
Toscanini snaps his baton and calls his double bassists “ball breakers”
