The Toscanini Mystique: The Genius Behind the Music

By Kenneth A. Christensen

Kenneth A. Christensens THE TOSCANINI MYSTIQUE, is the first full length biography about the legendary Italian conductors life and career in almost thirty-five years. Maestro Toscanini had a frigid and extremely unhappy childhood, along with a severe musical education at the Parma Conservatory. This unglamorized account of a gifted teenagers professional conducting debut at Rio de Janerios Teatro Imperial, is told as it really happened. Toscanini was married to a ballerina, Carla De Martini, who bore him four children, but also had an illegitimate son with a gifted soprano, who was born retarded. Toscaninis vulgar mistreatment of nearly all the singers and musicians who performed under his direction was legendary, and is examined with unusual insight about his uncanny memory and talent for musical recreation. The recollection of many famous artists including Caruso, Debussy, Kreisler, Puccini, Stravinsky, Verdi, and Wagners descendants are quoted alongside his confrontations with Hitler, Mussolini and the Sicilian mafia. But the Maestro also was the most generous of all musicians, donating both his time and talents to many worthwhile charities, for which he received no financial compensation. The life of this great conductor is presented as the struggles of a musical and theatrical reformer, who was a major historical figure that just happened to be one of the greatest musicians who ever lived. Mr. Christensen has painstakingly wrote his narrative, using all the previous biographies and magazine articles on his life, the scripts of two video documentaries and the liner notes for the most widely available re-releases of his recordings. He rewrote and clarified the awkward original Italian translations for non-specialist readers and has supplied new English translations for the numerous operatic titles and other musical works as well as all the foreign language newspapers, magazines and theatres mentioned in the text. In addition, he has provided professional critiques on the most widely available Toscanini recordings from RCA Victors Arturo Toscanini Collection, and historic reissues of Toscaninis NBC radio broadcast concerts. Here was a man, who had the nerve to stand up to world dictators and fought hard to prevent the Western worlds supreme musical masterpieces from being abused and mistreated, but without taking any credit for laboriously recreating all these composers inspiration. He enjoyed to play practical jokes on his family and friends, but this humorous side is known only through letters, because Toscanini never published any autobiography or memoirs about his art. Toscanini gave the world premieres of 14 operas, including Leoncavallos Pagliacci, and three by Puccini, including La Boheme, La Fanciulla del West and Turandot. Toscanini served as musical director: the Teatro Regio in Turino (1895-98), La Scala in Milano (1898-1908), New Yorks Metropolitan Opera (1908-1915), barely missed dying upon the Lusitania, becoming musical director of La Scala again (1920-1929), the New York Philharmonic (1926-1936), and the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-1954). In between, he also guest conducted at the Bayreuth, Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals and conducted the inaugural concerts of the Palestine Symphony. Toscanini then recorded his most important repertory with the BBC Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and NBC Symphony Orchestras, alongside the Robert Shaw Chorale and such esteemed soloists as Jascha Heifetz, Rudolf Serkin, plus, his own son-in-law Vladimir Horowitz. His seven operatic recordings featured Jan Peerce, Helen Traubel, Richard Tucker, Giuseppe di Stefano, Rose Bampton, Cesare Siepi, Herva Nelli, Licia Albanese, Robert Merrill, Jussi Bjoerling, Lauritz Melchior, and many other gifted singers and musicians of the past, whose names alone are too much to mention.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493190683

Kenneth A. Christensen

KENNETH A. CHRISTENSEN is a composer, author and music teacher from Crystal Lake, Illinois. He earned his degree in music education from Elmhurst College and served as a church soloist for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Algonquin and Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in McHenry. Mr. Christensen, in addition to being an author, is the composer of five symphonies, concertos for piano, violin, cello, clarinet, harpsichord and viola, sonatas for piano, violin, cello, clarinet and organ, five symphonic poems, six string quartets and other chamber music. His major choral works include an oratorio ‘The Stranger from Galilee’, cantatas, four masses, a Requiem and Te Deum, a symphonic suite “The Tales of Edgar Allen Poe”, a song cycle “A Child’s Garden of Verses” on texts by Robert Louis Stevenson, extended operatic settings of “The Raven” and the Love Scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and also two piano suites ‘Twelve Metrological Etudes’ and The Signs of the Zodiac and has been contemplating a grand opera on a Midwestern American topic. Toscanini clearly showed two different sides to his personality. He had personal demons on one shoulder and a guardian angel on the other. His life was a confusing series of contradictions. He was far from perfect and he would beat himself up emotionally when he failed to be his absolute best during every single opera and performance. The victim of a frigid childhood blighted by an alcoholic and absent father, a cold-hearted mother and a music school which resembled a maximum security prison. Toscanini often hurt all the people closest to him, including his own children, because only through his own art, did he ever learn to love himself. The Toscanini Mystique was completed on March 15th, 2014 at 5 p.m. in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

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Copyright © 2014 by Kenneth A. Christensen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 08/07/2015

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Toscanini Legend Begins

Chapter 2 The Nbc Symphony Tenure Begins

Chapter 3 Italy In The Mid-19Th Century And Toscanini’s Parents

Chapter 4 Childhood And Youth In Parma

Chapter 5 Conducting Debut At Rio De Janeiro

Chapter 6 The Journeyman Conductor (A Decade In The Orchestra Pit)

Chapter 7 Musical Adventures At La Scala

Chapter 8 Buenos Aries And Return To La Scala

Chapter 9 America Beckons—The Metropolitan Opera Of New York

Chapter 10 The Toscaninis’, Italy And World War I

Chapter 11 Return To La Scala And 1920 North American Tour

Chapter 12 Hands Across The Sea (From The Orchestra Pit To The Podium)

Chapter 13 An Italian Conductor At Bayreuth

Chapter 14 Hazing Incident At Bologna

Chapter 15 Guest Conductor For All Europe

Chapter 16 Austria, Germany And The Salzburg Festival

Chapter 17 Toscanini In Britain And The Holy Land

Chapter 18 Return To Palestine And The Lucerne Festival

Chapter 19 A New Orchestra For Toscanini

Chapter 20 Toscanini: Musical Genius Or Dictator?

Chapter 21 Toscanini, America And World War Ii

Chapter 22 The Nbc Symphony And Post War America

Chapter 23 The Nbc Symphony’s American Tour Of 1950

Chapter 24 The Last Three Nbc Seasons

Chapter 25 The Final Nbc Symphony Concert

Chapter 26 Toscanini’s Retirement And Death

Chapter 27 Toscanini And The Recording Studio

Introduction To Part Two

KURT MAGNUS ATTERBERG: Symphony No. 6 in C Major

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Air on the G String (from Orchestral Suite No. 3)

Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major

Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major

Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor (orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi)

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (orchestrated by Sir Henry Wood)

SAMUEL BARBER: Adagio for Strings

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: The Nine Symphonies and Missa Solemnis

Choral Fantasy, Concertos, Overtures and String Quartet Movements

Piano Concertos, Triple Concerto, Violin Concerto and Septet in E-flat Major

Consecration of the House Overture

Coriolan Overture

The Creatures of Prometheus (Ballet Highlights): Adagio and Finale

The Creatures of Prometheus Overture

Egmont Overture

Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra (Choral Fantasy)

FIDELIO (Complete Opera)

Fidelio: Overture

Leonore Overture No. 1

Leonore Overture No. 2

Leonore Overture No. 3

Missa Solemnis in D Major

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major

Septet in E-flat Major (arranged by Arturo Toscanini)

String Quartet No. 9 in C Major: Finale (arranged for String Orchestra)

String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major: Cavatina (arranged for String Orchestra)

String Quartet No. 16 in F Major: Lento and Scherzo (arranged for String Orchestra)

Symphony No. 1 in C Major

Symphony No. 2 in D Major

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Eroica

Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor

Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Pastoral

Symphony No. 7 in A Major

Symphony No. 8 in F Major

Symphony No. 9 in D Minor

Triple Concerto in C Major for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra

Violin Concerto in D Major

VINCENZO BELLINI: Introduction and Druids’ Chorus from Norma

HECTOR BERLIOZ: The Damnation of Faust: Rakoczy March

The Damnation of Faust: Scene 7

Harold in Italy

Les Francs-Juges (The Society of Secret Judges): Overture

Roman Carnival Overture

Romeo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet): Dramatic Symphony (Complete)

Romeo et Juliette, Part II Highlights

Queen Mab Scherzo from Romeo et Juliette

GEORGES BIZET: Carmen Suite No. 1 (arranged by Arturo Toscanini)

The Fair Maiden of Perth: Suite

L’Arlesienne Suite (arranged by Arturo Toscanini)

AARIGO BOITO: Prologue in Heaven from Mefistofele

ALEXANDER BORODIN: Symphony No. 2 in B Minor

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Academic Festival Overture

Double Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Cello

Ein Duetsches Requiem (German Requiem) (sung in English)

Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates)

Hungarian Dances Nos. 1, 17, 19 and 21

Liebeslider Waltzes

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor

Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major

Serenade No. 1 in D Major

Serenade No. 2 in A Major

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor

Symphony No. 2 in D Major

Symphony No. 3 in F Major

Symphony No. 4 in A Minor

Tragic Overture

Variations on a Theme by Haydn

Violin Concerto in D Major

ALFREDO CATALANI: Dance of the Water Spirits from Loreley

Prelude to Act IV of La Wally

LUIGI CHERUBINI: Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves: Overture

Anacreon: Overture

Medea: Overture

Requiem Mass in C Minor

Symphony in D Major

DOMENICO CIMAROSA: Il Segreto Matrimono: Overture (The Secret Marriage

Il Matrimonio per Raggiro: Overture (Marriage by Trickery)

AARON COPLAND: El Salon Mexico

PAUL CRESTON: Choric Dance No. 2

CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Dance (Tarantella Sytrienne)

Iberia (from Images pour Orchestre)

La Damoiselle Elue (The Blessed Damsel)

La Mer: Three Symphonic Sketches

Marche Ecossaise (Scottish March)

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

Nocturnes for Orchestra: Nauges and Fetes

GAETANO DONIZETTI: Don Pasquale Overture

PAUL DUKAS: Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (Ariane and Bluebeard): Symphonic Suite

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Scherzo for Large Orchestra after Goethe)

ANTONIN DVORAK: Cello Concerto in B Minor

Scherzo Capriccioso

Symphonic Variations

Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, From the New World

SIR EDWARD ELGAR: Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma Variations)

GEORGES ENESCU: Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A Major

OSCAR LORENZO FERNANDEZ: Batuque from Peasant Life Suite

CESAR FRANCK: Les Eolides (The Winds)

Psyche and Eros (from Psyche)

Psyche’s Slumber (from Psyche)

Redemption: Symphonic Interlude

Symphony in D Major

GEORGE GERSHWIN: An American in Paris

Concerto in F Major for Piano and Orchestra

Rhapsody in Blue

MIKHAIL GLINKA: Jota Aragonesa (Spanish Overture No. 1)

Kamarinskya

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK: Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orfeo ed Euridice

Iphigenie en Aulide: Overture

Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Euridyce), Act II

KARL GOLDMARK: Two Movements from Rustic Wedding Symphony

MORTON GOULD: A Lincoln Legend

EDVARD GRIEG: Holberg Suite for String Orchestra

FERDE GROFE: Grand Canyon Suite

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN: Serenade in F Major

Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat Major for Violin,

Cello, Oboe, Bassoon and Orchestra

Symphony No. 31 in D Major, Horn-Signal

Symphony No. 88 in G Major

Symphony No. 92 in G Major, Oxford

Symphony No. 94 in G Major, Surprise

Symphony No. 98 in B-flat Major

Symphony No. 99 in E-flat Major

Symphony No. 101 in D Major, The Clock

Symphony No. 104 in D Major, London

LOUIS FERDINAND HEROLD: Zampa Overture

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK: Hansel and Gretel: Prelude

DMITRI KABALEVSKY: Colas Breugnon: Overture

VASSILY KALINNIKOV: Symphony No. 1 in G Minor

ZOLTAN KODALY: Suite from the Operetta, Hary Janos

ANATOLE LIADOV: Kikimora, Legend for Orchestra

FRANZ LISZT: From the Cradle to the Grave, Symphonic Poem No. 13

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in D Minor

Orpheus, Symphonic Poem No. 4

CHARLES MARTIN LOEFFLER: Memories of My Childhood (Life in a Russian Village)

GIUSEPPE MARTUCCI: Notturno and Novoletta

Symphony No. 1 in D Minor

JULES MASSENET: Fete Boheme (Gypsy Festival) from Bohemian Scenes

Scenes Alsaciennes (Alsatian Scenes)

FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) Overture

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture and Incidental Music

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Scherzo

Octet for Strings (arranged for String Orchestra by Arturo Toscanini)

Octet for Strings: Scherzo (orchestrated by Felix Mendelssohn)

String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major: Adagio (arranged for String Orchestra)

Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Scottish

Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Italian

Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Reformation

The Tale of the Fair Melusine: Overture

Violin Concerto in E Minor

GIACOMO MEYERBEER: Dinorah Overture

L’Etoile du Nord (The Northern Star): Overture

FRANCISCO MIGNONE: Symphonic Impressions of Four Old Brazilian Churches

LEOPOLD MOZART: Toy Symphony (Cassation in G Major)

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Bassoon Concerto in B-flat Major

Divertimento in B-flat Major for Two Horns and Strings

Don Giovanni: Overture

The Magic Flute: Overture

The Marriage of Figaro: Overture

Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major

Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major for Violin, Viola and Orchestra

Symphony No. 35 in D Major, Haffner

Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major

Symphony No. 40 in G Minor

Symphony No. 41 in C Major, Jupiter

MODESTE MUSSORGSKY: Dawn on the Moscow River from Khovanshchina

Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Maurice Ravel)

ALESSIO OLIVERI: Garibaldi’s War Hymn

NICOLO PAGANINI: Moto Perpetuo (arranged Arturo Toscanini)

ILDEBRANDO PIZZETTI: La Pisanelle Suite: Entry in the Port of Farmagouste

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI: Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda

SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Classical

GIACOMO PUCCINI: LA BOHEME (The Bohemian Girl: Complete Opera)

MANON LESCAUT: Act III and Intermezzo

MAURICE RAVEL: Bolero

Daphnis et Chloe Suite No. 2

La Valse (Choreographic Poem)

OTTORINO RESPIGHI: Ancient Airs and Dances: Gagliarda

The Fountains of Rome

The Pines of Rome

Roman Festivals

JEAN-JULES ROGER-DUCASSE: Sarabande, Symphonic Poem

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI: The Barber of Seville: Overture

Il Signor Bruschino: Overture

La Cenerentola (Cinderella): Overture

La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie): Overture

L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers): Overture

La Scala di Seta (The Cushioned Ladder): Overture

Semiramide: Overture

The Siege of Corinth: Overture

Sonata for Strings in C Major

William Tell: Dance for Six (Ballet Music from Act I)

William Tell: Overture

ALBERT ROUSSEL: The Spider’s Feast, Ballet Suite

ANTON RUBINSTEIN: Valse-Caprice in E-flat Major (orch. Berghaus-Mueller)

CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS: Dance Macabre (Dance of Death)

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Organ

FRANZ SCHUBERT: Grand Duo in C Major (orchestrated Joseph Joachim)

Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major

Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, Unfinished

Symphony No. 9 in C Major, Great C Major

ROBERT SCHUMANN: Manfred Overture

Symphony No. 2 in C Major

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Rhenish

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 1 in F Minor

Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Leningrad

JEAN SIBELIUS: En Saga

Finlandia

Pohjola’s Daughter

Lamminkainen’s Return from Four Legends from the Kalevala

The Swan of Tuonela from Four Legends from the Kalevala

Symphony No. 2 in D Major

Symphony No. 4 in A Major

BEDRICH SMETANA: The Bartered Bride: Overture

Die Moldau (Vlatava) from Ma Vlast (My Fatherland)

JOHN STAFFORD SMITH: The Star Spangled Banner (orchestrated by Arturo Toscanini)

JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: El Capitan

Semper Fideles

The Stars and Stripes Forever!

JOHANN STRAUSS, Jr.: On the Beautiful Blue Danube: Waltz

Tritsch-Tratsch Polka

RICHARD STRAUSS: Death and Transfiguration

Don Juan

Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character

Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life)

Salome: Dance of the Seven Veils

Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks

IGOR STRAVINSKY: Tableaux Nos. 1 and 4 from Petrushka

FRANZ VON SUPPE: Poet and Peasant Overture

PYTOR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Manfred Symphony (after Lord Byron)

The Nutcracker Suite

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor

Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy

Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathetique

The Tempest, Overture-Fantasy

Overture to "The Voyevoda

AMBROISE THOMAS: Mignon Overture

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

GIUSEPPE VERDI: AIDA (Complete Opera)

Aida (Original Overture)

FALSTAFF (Complete Opera)

Hymn of the Nations (Cantata)

I LOMBARDI (The Lombards at the First Crusade): Prelude to Act III and Trio

I Vespri Siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers): Overture

La Forza del Destino (The Power of Fate): Overture

LA TRAVIATA (The Fallen Woman: Complete Opera)

La Traviata: Preludes to Acts I and IV

LUISA MILLER: Overture and Quando la sere

NABUCCO: Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (Va, Pensiero)

Otello: Act III Ballet Music

OTELLO (Complete Opera)

Requiem Mass (Messa da Requiem)

RIGOLETTO: Act III

Te Deum (from Four Sacred Pieces)

UN BALLO IN MASCHERA (The Masquerade Ball: Complete Opera)

ANTONIO VIVALDI: Concerto Grosso No. 11 in D Minor (from L’Estro Armonico)

RICHARD WAGNER: Die Meistersinger: Prelude

Prelude to Act III

DIE WALKURE (The Valkyries): Love Duet, Act I

Ride of the Valkyries

A Faust Overture

The Flying Dutchman: Overture

GOTTERDAMERUNG (The Twilight of the Gods):

Brunnhilde’s Immolation Scene

Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey

Love Duet, Act III

Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March

LOHENGRIN: Preludes to Acts I and III

PARSIFAL: Prelude and Good Friday Spell

Rienzi: Overture

SIEGFRIED: The Forest Murmers

Siegfried Idyll

TANNHAUSER: Overture (Original Dresden Version)

Overture and Bacchanale (Venusberg Ballet)

Prelude to Act III

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE: Prelude and Liebestod

EMILE WALDTUEFEL: The Skater’s Waltz

CARL MARIA von WEBER: Der Freischutz: Overture

Euryanthe: Overture

Invitation to the Dance (orchestrated Hector Berlioz)

Oberon: Overture

THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC RECORDINGS (1929 and 1936)

THE BBC SYMPHONY RECORDINGS (1937 and 1939)

THE HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA RECORDINGS (1940-41)

THE N.B.C. SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA TELECASTS (1948-1952)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and DEDICATION

To my friend, and colleague Sally Manktelow, without whose help and friendly encouragement this book would not have been undertaken, and to my parents who spared the great expense needed to purchase the rare recordings needed in order to write this book, as I had originally envisioned it). (And for this, I dedicate The Toscanini Mystique to them).

To our family friend, Bill Markison, who for two years has put up with all of my distressed, emergency telephone calls, and has generally spared his time to help with all the computer crashes and problems, (which could not have been done at all, without his help). The day I master this computer, will be the one where my body leaves home inside a body bag.

To all the librarians at the Crystal Lake Public Library, for all the books, and especially the musical materials, which I needed to study and learn, that I have checked out during the past three years, and all the cooperation with the interlibrary loaning process. I couldn’t have done it alone without their help, and from all the other libraries in the Chicago land area.

To the Harold Washington Library of Chicago, Illinois, whose music librarian helped me to gather much needed liner notes from numerous out of print recordings, which I couldn’t locate without their help for the second half of this book.

For my family, and my beagle, Benji, who had to put up with three years of insomnia, headaches, two in the morning meals, sleeping until one in the afternoon, late night reruns and continuous superb music lasting often until sunrise. Not to mention pacing the floor, phone calls and worse yet, all the cursing at my laptop computer, which I still hate!

My church friends and fellow Shepherd of the Hills choir members, who have forgiven nearly three years of absence as their tenor soloist. I will try to rectify this before the start of Lent, hopefully. (Also to Pastor Schneider and Rosemary)

To Mr. Boyd, my publishing agent at Xlibris Publishing, who called often to ask how my manuscript was progressing, and who must have been drove insane at my errors and my constant need to revise and alter my original manuscript.

To Elizabeth and Jackie of the McHenry Public Library’s non-fiction writers’ group, who are totally interesting in the publication of this book, and who helped me organize the Web Site which makes purchasing this book worthwhile.

To the staffs of South Street Hospital, Pioneer Center and NAMI of McHenry County, who have helped me through the unwarranted nervous illness, which I unfortunately suffered during the time it took me to complete the revised, second version of this book, and again to Mr. Boyle for being so patient and understanding with the long delays in receiving the final manuscript. And once again to Sally, who through my illness, never ceased to give the encouragement to never give up hope and that one day

The Toscanini Mystique would be finished and eventually find its way onto many library shelves!

Play with yours hearts, and not your instruments! The tone, the sound, you’ve got the right one in your instruments, find it! Do not look at the stupid stick in my hand, I don’t know myself what it does! Feel what I want! Look at me, I work, I sweat and you, shame on you! Where is your sweat, put some blood in each note. You’ve got water in your veins, feel something, this is music, not just notes. I don’t go before the public to show that I’m Toscanini, never! Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and Verdi have not composed music to make me look good. It is I that has to bring the orchestra and myself closer to them. The conductor must never create, he must achieve! (from Peter Rosen’s video: Toscanini the Maestro).

James Levine begins this video by stating: Toscanini was the most consistently great conductor of our century. He conducted outstanding performances of a vast international repertoire at a time when many conductors were concentrating on their own national repertoires. He greatly raised the standards of operatic production as well as orchestral playing, and he combined great technical refinement with tremendous musical intensity. Toscanini’s overwhelming desire was to be faithful to the intentions of the composer, to the vision of the composer and somehow to communicate the specific and expressive truth of every piece that he conducted. "Toscanini was an intensely private man, who seldom granted interviews and never wrote about himself, or his art. But his work was so outstanding and his reforms were so important that we cannot completely understand today’s musical world without understanding what Toscanini did, and why. He was probably the most celebrated conductor in history, at the Teatro Regio, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and NBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, and in hundreds of guest appearances throughout Europe, North and South America and the mid-East, he would dominate the realm of musical performance during the entire first half of the 20th-century. His active repertoire, which was rehearsed and performed entirely from memory, included approximately 600 works by nearly 200 composers. Toscanini began to study music in 1876, the same year Wagner’s Ring of the Niebelung was performed for the first time, and he lived long enough to conduct some of that music on television. He was born before the reunification of his native Italy was complete. He took an active interest in his country’s destiny and eventually became a symbol of opposition to Mussolini’s fascist stance. Verdi’s death marked the end of opera as a popular art form, and so Toscanini was to become the guardian of the 19th century repertoire in the 20th century.

In saying that Toscanini can conduct everything by heart, once says very little about him. In the truest sense, but he knows how to conduct everything from the heart. His performances are not only beautiful, they are right! (letter from Otto Klemperer from Peter Rosen’s videography, Toscanini: the Maestro).

"There is no doubt that Toscanini was an unique phenomenon with respect to the size of his talent, his personality and his vitality. But what matters greatly, to a life-long student of music, is Toscanini’s attitude, his passionate desire and ability to put all of this at the service of the composer and the music.

(Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine in Peter Rosen’s videography: Toscanini, the Maestro).

I don’t want to hear the notes, only the spirit. Abandon yourself to your heart! It’s tough enough to the notes on the paper you have in front of your eyes, you have to look for it in yourself, not in the music. What, you look at me? Why? Are you astonished? Do you think I’m crazy? No, no, crazy no, sensitive yes! (extract from Peter Rosen’s videography: Toscanini, the Maestro, ca. 1985).

I am convinced that Toscanini was doing pioneer work to become the conductor of a radio orchestra 75 years ago, and he was right. He put up with a much less than ideal acoustic in the room because he knew it was good for the microphone and he kept making more records. Also, he was more willing to deal with what was then not a very true to life sound on records, because he felt he could reach more people. He must of have a need to open up and try to share his life experience, his thoughts and also his feelings, with anyone bright enough to grasp it. (James Levine from Toscanini: The Maestro)

FOREWORD

A NOTHER BIOGRAPHY OF the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini is long overdue. It has been thirty-five years since Harvey Sachs published, what is the most widely available one published in English. Since then, a great deal of material has been rediscovered and two video documentaries have been made and Toscanini’s complete discography has been released by RCA Victor, twice! In today’s world, there has been a tendency to write and publish what writers consider to be a tabloid style of biography which is acceptable for pop singers and second rate movie and television celebrities, but not for a musician of Toscanini’s artistry and stature. Because of his rare and unique genius, there has been a strong tendency especially in the earlier biographies, to treat Maestro like a type of super hero. Many people nowadays would have a very hard time believing his musical accomplishments, that they would think that he was almost super human. In the past, it was quite unacceptable to write about most famous peoples’ affairs, or love life, especially when it comes to the topic of sex. Toscanini is like many pop stars of far lesser talent, in that he had a hard time controlling his sexual urges, and was irresistible to countless women, even in his later years. He was an adulterer, whose worldly sin did have a major impact on his married life. Yet, he was far from a wicked man, His life reads like a movie script. He had the classic, poor and unhappy childhood, being raised by a cold, humorless mother and an alcoholic father who could never forget the military exploits of his youth. His school upbringing sounds like something out of a mystery or horror film, sleeping in filthy, bed-bug infested rooms, being forced to eat nearly rancid fish, denied even use of the bathroom. This was only a small part of it. For minor infractions, misbehaving students at the Parma Conservatory were locked inside their rooms, as if in solitary confinement, then were fed a diet of bread and water, resembling a maximum security prison, not a music school, and included even practicing the piano. The modern tell-all biography applies to Toscanini, but here, I draw the line!

He may have been verbally abusive upon the podium, but was not psychologically disturbed like Joan Crawford was. But, the sleazy type of biographies written by celebrities’ children is hardly applicable here, because Toscanini’s three children and grandchildren did everything they could in order to keep their father and grandfather’s memory alive. If it weren’t for the basement tape-recordings made by both Walter and Walfredo Toscanini, Harvey Sachs biography, this book and the later video documentary, Toscanini in His Own Words, could never have been written or made.

I was indebted to these later biographies and Peter Rosen’s documentary "Toscanini: The Maestro", for many of the quotes in this book, as well as Harvey Sach’s most recent book, The Letters of Arturo Toscanini, which contains masterful English translations of the most familiar, and important of Maestro’s own published letters.

The average Toscanini letter was usually a business letter, the personal ones usually consist of no more than a few lines or maybe a single short and succinct paragraph. Later books include Norman Lebrecht’s "The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in the Pursuit of Power", plus Joseph Horowitz’s Understanding Toscanini. The first gives good explanations about Toscanini’s working methods, as does the more reliable "Reflections on Toscanini" by Harvey Sachs, especially about his difficulties first with the Sicilian mafia, then Mussolini, the Fascists, and Hitler. Horowitzes’ book wanders far off topic, accusing Toscanini about everything from today’s classical recordings, plus the predictable fine arts programming on PBS’ Great Performances Series, which he had no influence on whatsoever.

The worst and most detested book is Charles Marsh’s Toscanini and the Art of Musical Performance, which was published in 1956, and should no longer be in print (even though it is widely available in the Windy City, because it was written by the long-time music critic for the Chicago Sun Times). One of my reasons for spending three years on this badly needed book was the section reviewing most of Toscanini’s recordings, since Marsh’s book is based on long out of print original pressings of historic NBC Symphony 78’s and LP’s, instead of the compact disc re-releases of RCA’S Complete Toscanini Collection, especially in the occasional complaints about inferior pressings, not being made from the finest of studio sources, let alone many broadcast performances, needed to fill in some of the musical gaps in the collection. The Charles Marsh book should make any Toscanini aficionado angry, because it comes as close to saying, that nearly all of Toscanini’s recordings suck, as was publishable during the 1950’s. Some RCA Victor’s re-releases put out in the 1960’s, have some form of fake reverberation or electronic stereophone re-processing, in which false echo is added to improve Toscanini’s original monophonic recordings, which distort these performances even worse. By removing all of these lousy, electronic falsifications, RCA Victor for the first time since his death, has reissued each of Toscanini’s studio made recordings, in the pristine original versions, which Toscanini had originally approved for commercial release. Of the two oldest available biographies, David Ewen’s 1951 book: The Story of Arturo Toscanini, was written for high school students. The more reliable one was written by Howard Taubman, who was one of the few reporters which Toscanini would even speak to, and his presence on the NBC Symphony’s transcontinental tour in the spring of 1950, brought him in close contact with the Maestro and his son, Walter. For six weeks, Mr. Taubmann was surrounded by the one hundred players of the NBC Symphony. This resulted in "The Maestro: The Life and Times of Arturo Toscanini", which must be considered the finest, incomplete biography, since it was published six years before his death.

The George Marek biography, "Toscanini: A Biography" is confusing to read and strays off topic once in a while, but is not as bad as Joseph Horowitz’s study. Also interesting, for people wanting a study of Toscanini as a musician and a human being is B.H Haggin’s, The Toscanini Musicians Knew which has been published together with his second musicological study, Conversations with Toscanini, and was written a decade later. Mention should be made of the superb contributions made by the musicians and biographers who wrote the program notes to the original "Arturo Toscanini Collection, put out by RCA Victor Gold Seal in the early 1990’s. Unfortunately, these superb program notes were omitted and were not reissued in July, 2012 with the fully remastered 82 compact disc set, and their absence is my major complaint as a composer, music teacher and biographer towards this highly commendable, plus and long awaited re-release of these historic recordings. Two other books, I must mention, are among the earliest and least important, Toscanini: An Intimate Portrait" by Samuel Chotzinoff, who was the brother-in-law of the legendary violin virtuoso, Jascha Heifetz. Except for several long-winded stories, it is only remarkable, if one is primarily interested in Maestro’s love of practical jokes and how he acted after he accepted an invitation to a high society dinner party. Samuel Antek’s ‘This Was Toscanini’, is a huge coffee table style book which is filled with hundreds of Robert Hupka’s now classic photographs, and written by a violinist, who had performed under Toscanini’s direction for all seventeen years which the NBC Symphony Orchestra was in existence. It is the only book that lists every single composition, which Maestro performed during the twenty-eight years that he concertized in the United States, and is known to survive in recorded form. In England, Spike Hughes published a book, called ‘The Toscanini Companion’, which lists every metronomic marking that Toscanini used in his classic recordings of the Beethoven symphonies, as well as his seven operatic recordings. For music lovers who love Brahms or Wagner, this book shall be a disappointment, because Mr. Hughes practically blows both composers off, allotting Toscanini’s performances of their music to only a handful of pages and reveals, that he is also no fan of either composer’s music. Antek’s book is more professionally written, and more revealing for those readers, who want to know about the man Toscanini really was, and not another recanting of the myths about the tyrannical Maestro, who was best known for decades after his death, for his dreadful temper, for swearing and putting his musicians down, while breaking his batons and pocket watches, or tearing his suit coats and rare musical scores, and kicked piano legs until they snapped, breaking every music stand in sight! But he was the most generous of musicians, frequently donating his experience, his time, and talents to charity. He often asked to receive no payment… all for the cause of great music!

Chapter One

THE TOSCANINI

LEGEND BEGINS

T HE LARGE AUDIENCE had bought their tickets months, even years in advance. The auditorium lights lower to let people know that the concert is ready to begin. The anxious wait is worse than the huge effort it took to even be able to purchase a single, let alone a pair of tickets with a decent view of the podium. Backstage a door opens, and he emerges, a small moustached man of slight build who walks very steadily through the first violin section without showing the slightest hint of the fifty years he had spent before the opera houses and concert halls of five continents. Most people have gathered to hear this legendary artist, but only know him from his radio broadcasts and the limited and highly specialized repertoire which he chose to issue on his highly prized record albums. The music, which he often performed, he had been conducting since he gave his first series of orchestral concerts in his native country, shortly before the close of the 19 th century. A long, narrow baton he holds tight in his hand, right below head level. This small man does not speak a single word. He doesn’t give any pre-concert lectures, or teaches his craft at any university. Breathlessly, music lovers wait for the precise moment when he mounts the podium and lifts his elegant baton in order to give the first downbeat. A bold, fiery sound quickly fills the auditorium. The piece he is conducting is rather familiar, but somehow sounds completely different-more dramatic, passionate and sensual than it ever sounded before.

No matter how familiar it may be, it sounds new, as if were its world premiere performance. Can this be the horrible tyrant, the raging lunatic one had always read about? The maniac that broke piano legs tore up scores and ripped up handkerchiefs, plus his own suits to shreds? The one who smashed violin bows over stands any left opera houses looking as if an F-5 tornado just destroyed the place? Can this be the gentle looking old man, who never put himself on display or put on a choreographic show for large audiences be the legendary MAESTRO ARTURO TOSCANINI? But, who was this conductor named Arturo Toscanini? The amazing thing is that his great reputation for being either a brutal, savage beast or a musical saint has survived in the subconscious mind of music lovers for more than fifty-five years after his death. And then, there were all those intellectual snobs who always found some fault with him to expose and nit-pick about. Sure, his repertoire was stuck in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was widely famed for his performances of the symphonies of Brahms and Beethoven. He was responsible for conducting one of the first recorded cycles of the complete symphonies of both composers. His interpretations of Wagner and other pieces in his huge repertory were unanimously praised throughout Europe, the Middle-East and most of North and South America.

He wasn’t much of a conductor of the pre-Beethovian repertoire. He like most musicians of his age had little interest or knowledge of performing the music of the baroque period, which was considered boring and dull by most music lovers and concert goers of the time. It had yet to invade record stores as a form of high class Muzak. He choose only to include a few of the symphonies of Joseph Haydn and Mozart, and then only gave a couple performances of the few he had in his repertoire. He often programmed the music of his native Italians, much to the dismay of his fans and listeners, who often found it dull and uninspired, if not insipid! Some of the more bombastic symphonic warhorses, he gave far too often for some music lovers’ comfort. He rarely performed the great piano and violin concertos, because few of the famous virtuosos would put up with his demanding views that usually differed widely from their interpretations. Beloved composers such as Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Rachmaninoff, were seldom performed by him, and the few pieces of theirs which he had in his repertory, he would over-perform. Then there were other pieces which Toscanini rarely conducted and sometimes, never at all.

Way too much speculative writing has been published about Toscanini’s selective choice of musical repertoire. The most revealing truth is that he conducted those pieces that he thought were the greatest, and best suited to his musical gifts. He championed the work of those composers both living and dead that were considered to be the greatest and most influential, and appealed highly to his refined tastes and temperament. Toscanini was 70 years old when the NBC Symphony was formed exclusively for him. One most listens to those composers who were born during his generation to understand where his musical sensitivities laid. His interpretations of the few Debussy works were highly sympathetic and well chosen to illustrate his musical gifts to the fullest. Richard Strauss’ symphonic poems were orchestral showpieces that were ideally suited to his talents and temperament, and to a lesser extent, Toscanini also championed the dark and moody music of the great Scandinavian composer, Sibelius.

His subdued and emotionally turbulent music showed a deeper, frailer and more sensitive side to his art. His broadcasts of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony (that was underperformed and seldom recorded, because many thought it was too gloomy and depressing) is a very strong case in point. So what if Toscanini could not be persuaded to record potentially best selling interpretations of Tchaikovsky and countless other Russian showpieces such as the ‘1812’ Overture. He had little sympathy for Russian music and disliked Scheherazade, and eventually dropped both A Night on Bald Mountain and the Polovetsian Dances of Borodin from his repertoire. Yet, he gave the world premiere of Shostakovich’s bombastic and overlong ‘Leningrad’ Symphony, dropping it from his repertoire because he thought the same way about it. He was an Italian, so he had little grasp of popular American music mediums as ragtime and jazz, but he enjoyed attending all smash Broadway musicals. In his interpretations of Rhapsody in Blue and "An American in Paris", he clearly sympathizes with the music of Gershwin and another American composer, which he had no problem understanding and performing, was John Philip Sousa.

Some other points of Toscanini’s repertoire should be made here. He was among the first conductors to scale back the size of the orchestra’s string section in order to perform pre-Romantic or even 18th century repertoire. He was one of the first conductors to use critical editions of scores printed before the mid-19th century. Popular operatic overtures, especially those by Rossini had extra brass and percussion parts added to them in order to thicken (or actually coarsen) their textures, in order to please listeners who were more accustomed to denser, more Germanic orchestration. Early 19th-century composers such as Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann were also readily performed by Toscanini, but again only a select handful of their most familiar masterworks made it into Maestro’s repertoire. He was among the first conductors of international stature to realize that Hector Berlioz was an important composer and broadcast both his Harold in Italy and Romeo et Juliette, and also recorded these at a time when these great masterpieces were seldom heard in the concert hall. Later romantic composers fared less well, Wagner he always performed, but Liszt, quite rarely. The French composer, Cesar Franck’s music appeared occasionally on Maestro’s broadcasts, but he recorded only a single, short piece of his. Two of Bruckner’s massive symphonies were dropped from his repertoire after a handful of performances and Saint-Saens was represented by only two works, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak with roughly a half-dozen. The legendary Toscanini-Horowitz interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, were possibly the only performances of that beloved piece which he ever gave.

None of the beloved ballets were ever performed by Toscanini in the theater, and he chose to program only the Manfred and Pathetique Symphonies and the tone poems Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest.

Familiar light works as the Sousa marches and the Strauss waltzes were hardly represented and he only programmed these on the rare occasions when he gave a concert of these lighter, familiar pieces at a fund-raising event. Only a handful of delightful and tuneful overtures are preserved on record for the sake of posterity, including many which have long since disappeared from the opera house and concert hall. Their titles alone would leave many music lovers scratching their heads, so unfamiliar are these composers and their operas to most music lovers. He gave performances and made recordings of many pieces, of which his performance is usually the only known account available on records, and even his championing of them seldom brought them back. Toscanini was responsible for resurrecting any number of works from undo neglect and their composer’s names long absent from concert programs, such as Luigi Cherubini, an Italian composer once admired by composers as great as Beethoven was. Toscanini made the first recordings of his "Requiem Mass in C Minor" and "Symphony in D Major."

What other conductor has made a recording of his opera overtures and those of Cimarosa during the pre-stereophonic era? He made the first recordings of Barber’s "Adagio for Strings, Stostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony", plus three recordings each of Schubert’s "Great C Major Symphony", plus Ludwig van Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, along with "Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey" and other selections by Wagner. He once performed Joseph Joachim’s orchestration of Schubert’s Grand Duo in C Major, which was believed at this time to be the mysterious long lost ‘Gastein’ Symphony.

Toscanini’s five complete Verdi opera recordings are among the most famous ever made, while his 1946 recording of Puccini’s "La Boheme was given almost fifty years to the day after he conducted the opera’s world premiere performance. Despite their weak casts, these recordings can be revelatory, when it comes to all the bad musical and theatrical traditions that Maestro worked so long and hard to eradicate. His musical sympathies always lay with the composer, and not with the singers or virtuoso instrumentalists. Tradition to him, always meant the last bad performance," which remains the most famous quote attributed to him. Many of his recordings are marred by the inadequate nature of Music City’s once notorious 8-H concert hall, which had a tight cramped sound that didn’t allow the music to achieve the warm and vibrant sound which was a trademark of Toscanini’s impassioned style of music making and was often missed by the studio microphones. Studio 8-H was designed for broadcasting human speech and never music, so the resonance for transmitting music over the airwaves had to be improved for the studio audiences who heard a completely different sound, than people at home did.

Music lovers all take Toscanini’s operatic reforms by granted nowadays, such as the sunken orchestra pit with an unseen conductor, or the vertically opening curtain, auditorium lights that are turned off at performances, allowing nobody to talk to their friends or to read the concert program if bored during the opera. Ladies were made to remove their hats and the programs themselves were printed either on cork or heavy card stock so they would not rustle during performances. Then latecomers and very ill-sounding people were seldom permitted into Toscanini’s broadcast performances. Cough drops were sold in the lobbies. Bathroom visits were not advisable, because one would be locked out if they left the hall and had to remain out in the foyer until the entire piece had been performed. Toscanini seldom directed encores at the close of his best received concerts because he had eradicated all repetitions of beloved arias and choruses at all Italian opera houses. When an ovation went on too long, Toscanini would break off the applause by leaving before it ended and he almost never bowed at the start of any his concerts. He never understood why audiences applauded the conductor at the start of concerts, even before a single note had even been performed. He displayed no outward signs of vanity, but was never a narcissist like some performers, and he despised those who were. He lived only for the composer, whose immortal music he had been given the gift to reinterpret. He became the best known and the most respected conductor in the world, because of his own radical reforms to operatic productions.

Toscanini became the only conductor known well enough to the public, for only his last name to be used on concert posters and record jackets. Maestro only meant one man, Arturo Toscanini. And it was because of his genius and celebrity that he could get away with almost anything. NBC paid all his salary, mortgage, property taxes and household utilities, not to mention all his royalties from the recordings he made for its subsidiary, RCA Victor. He, who was known to break his batons and smash violin bows during the superheated flare-ups of his Krakatoa-like temper, and then resume a rehearsal in a normal tone of voice and in a calm, submissive state, as if nothing had ever happened!

When a musician tried to sue Toscanini once, the judge said that a conductor of his caliber could do whatever they needed to do in order to meet the high quality of musical performance demanded from the men who worked under his direction. The NBC Symphony, as all films and photographs show, were staffed with male musicians only, including the harpists who were traditionally ladies, as can be seen from watching musical films, such as Walt Disney’s animated concert, "Fantasia."

Nothing was beneath him. However, he was unnerved by the task of making phonograph records of his interpretations. Frequently, he gave the downbeat before the red light that indicated that the tape recorders were on, flashed it signal. He ruined countless takes well into a lengthy movement or piece by shouting for the musicians to stop, in order to make a small correction. Often Maestro’s studio sessions were physically exhausting to the players. In two of his famous operatic recordings, La Boheme and La Traviata (and especially in the rehearsal recordings), he can be heard frequently heard indicating tempo changes and dynamic levels, as well as singing along with the singers in his rusty, croaking baritone at times almost turning love duet, La Boheme "O suave fanciulla" into a vocal trio.

Was this the same man who was a foe of Fascism and a firm detester of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini? The ultimate defender of musical beauty, the legendary interpreter of the creative genius? In a world filled with war and strife, he gave many music lovers courage and hope through the great art which the world so desperately needed. His own great interpretations were often very powerful, direct and uncommonly impassioned, fiery and vibrant in the outer movements, unashamedly tender, sensuous and downright erotic in the slow movements. In colorful, descriptive works as Debussy’s "La Mer" and Respighi’s "The Fountains and The Pines of Rome" could be even more descriptive than the film score to any Academy-award winning epic. The bolder and more vibrant the piece was would result in his performance becoming even more vivid and stunning. One can literally feel the spray and smell the scents of the ocean, as he brought each performance of "La Mer" to its thunderous conclusion. The severe thunderstorms depicted in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and in Grofe’s Cloudburst movement of "The Grand Canyon Suite" are so terrifying in their depiction of wild and untamed nature to the point his performance sends chills up one’s spine. Both Barber’s "Adagio for Strings" and Sibelius’ tone poem The Swan of Tuonela are overladen with grief, and emotes strong feelings of sadness and desolation, and become quite heart wrenching in their play on basic human emotions, being quite intense and gripping in nearly all of Toscanini surviving performances. Here was a genius conductor that went directly to the very heart and soul of the music he choose to play.

The musical intensity seems to grasp one’s soul by the throat and never let go, as long as it takes to perform the piece. Overtures to comic operas were never so bubbly and delightful (as well as droll, humorous works such as Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), as when Toscanini performed these. Yes, after all the glowering Maestro did have a voracious sense of humor evident in his recordings.

This couldn’t be the same man who was pictured in Life Magazine frolicking in the backyard and lying on the grass with his granddaughter, or the grandfather watching his grandchildren play at the beach, happily strolling down the boardwalk without a care in the world, or playing upsy-daisy and horsey in intimate home movies? This man whose virulent temper was supposed to be so brutal that all women and children were banned from his orchestral rehearsals? The person who insulted female and male opera singers alike to their faces, yet enjoyed the charm and companion of the fairer sex, while on tedious ocean and railroad journeys during concert tours? The man who had a vocabulary of swear words, insults and curses that would make Satan blush, and would smash both the cameras and flashbulbs of any newspaper reporters who tried to photograph or interview him without permission?

He never spoke on the radio or hosted a music appreciation course over the air as other conductors of his time did. He never published books about music appreciation, history or those composers whose masterpieces he breathed new life into at concerts all over the world. He never published any articles about his superlative conducting techniques or his own distinctive musical interpretations for later generations of conductors. He never wrote about the many legendary opera stars and the virtuosos he met and worked with over his nearly 70 year career. He seldom talked about the many beloved artists who were his own colleagues or that were die-hard fans of his, ranging from a world dictator to the glamorous movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. He was never interested in preserving his own personal interpretations of his favorite scores on either radio transcription discs or records. This man only thought of himself as an honest musician just doing what God intended him to do. If all this hard work proved unsatisfactory, it upset him very severely and then he would be angry with himself, more than his musicians. But, what other conductor has left us such a glowing musical representation of a spectacular Western sunrise and sunset, not to mention the humorous trek down the canyon slopes as in Toscanini’s superb rendition of The Grand Canyon Suite, or of a rowdy Mexican dance hall, as in his only radio broadcast of Aaron Copland’s El Salon Mexico. One can almost detect The Perfumes of the Night in his legendary recording of Debussy’s Iberia. His interpretations make one want to book the next available flights to Mexico and Spain and take an extended vacation to both countries. His Wagner interpretations can be as lurid, seductive and erotic as the plots of these operas themselves, but he could also bring out all the violent and blood thirsty emotional extremes plus every human frailty and flaw in Verdi’s operatic characters. His recordings of La Boheme and La Traviata restore both the dignity and strength plus human sacrifice back to their heroines, that nearly every third rate production have since lacked. His recordings prove that his vision is of no mere soap opera or a three Kleenex tearjerker, but a moving drama of young, untainted love that is doomed by serious illness and soon will be tragically sacrificed forever by the peaceful intervention of death. Toscanini was no saint. He was a sinner plus a known adulterer and a womanizing Don Juan. He had no sympathy for any dictator, or for the over-controlling Roman Catholic Church. He sometimes broke commandments, but he was known to break off life-long friendships. If he knew that someone obtained a divorce, or were going to be remarried before the two year mourning period stipulated by the church was over. He knew how it was to lose a child, from a nearly always fatal illness, an entire ocean away from home. He grew up in a household where emotional love and parental tenderness were not to be found. His mother once smacked her own sister in the face after she fed her starving nephew, after he was given orders not to ask his aunt for anything to eat. He was at times as cold and unloving to his long-suffering wife, and like so many fathers of his time and was unattached to his three children which lessened up by the time that he became a grandfather. He had no need for religion but believed in its statutes and strongly in basic human morality. He believed every man should remain married to one woman for life, and muddled through his marriage’s countless serious complications rather than obtain a divorce. But a divorce in the Catholic Church at this time could only be granted only when adultery and incest had occurred.

When his own daughter went against her father’s personal beliefs, he nearly went berserk with rage. Maestro did not permit himself any dangerous, self-abusing bad habits except for the occasional glass of champagne and extra-marital love affair. It seems that he was exempt from his own double standards! He never smoked in his entire life and was never a big eater. He was content most of the time with a bowl of minestrone, a little spaghetti and a glass of Chianti. He never permitted himself any alcoholic refreshment except for the acceptable glass of wine with dinner. He loved most parties, except when they became out of control or kinky due to alcohol consumption. When in a dark mood, he mostly liked to be left alone in his study to explore the intricate mysteries of the world’s immortal masterpieces, or just to contemplate the real meaning of life. He never kept a diary and destroyed all personal correspondence because that is how intensely private he was. A voracious reader from early childhood, he had a profound knowledge of poetry and literature which was unknown to most people.

When he could not sleep, he would busy himself by re-reading Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets in the original English, or make Italian translations of them. He read classic novels of all kinds, plus Greek mythology and other intellectual reading material which the intelligentsia would find very trying and ponderous. He read almost everything that he could find about great music, and not only biographies, but also composer’s correspondence and critical reviews, musical and theatrical history textbooks and treatises on music history, orchestration and structure. He had horrid taste in art though, and his wife, children and friends knew that he lined the walls of his study with cheap reproductions of second-rate paintings by second-rate Italian impressionistic artists. He owned many portraits and photographs of composers (sometimes personally signed) in his study which was filled with all sorts of knick-knacks and heirlooms that family and friends often found gaudy and tacky. He was a notorious light sleeper, who often required only a few hours of it a night. He stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to read or study his scores. Remember in the early days of television, most station signed off after ten, during the weekdays and at midnight on the weekends. He would make most of his telephone calls to close lady friends late at night, and for these he demanded privacy. When television was introduced, he got hooked on prize-fighting and wrestling, and would even watch comic variety shows and programs meant for toddlers and young children and whose annoying stupidity often drove the rest of the family out of the house. After all, Toscanini was a human being and all the mythology that has obscured his accomplishments for decades have done more harm than good in painting us a genuine picture of his general character. It is my intention in this book to reveal the artist and the man in a better light. Most of the criticisms and accusations made against him by other musicians, even long after his death need to carefully re-examined. The man was far from perfect, and he never thought that he was himself. He made mistakes, sometimes very seriously ones, but he also learned from them in order to become the superlative artist that he was. When he goofed up during a rehearsal or performance, he would admit it to all of his players: I did something terrible, and should have given myself a good punch in the nose. I am not the great Toscanini, but am the stupid old Toscanini!

The Maestro, despite his undeniable genius was not a super hero, whatever musical miracles which he seemed to perform, occurred after weeks, or perhaps months, of soul-searching and extremely hard work. People who believe that any musical performer (no matter how talented), can just stand up and give a superb performance are all idiots. They don’t realize how much effort, sweat, nervous strain and personal aggravation they have went through in order to give a musical performance before the public. Those who have never watched a band or choral rehearsal cannot realize this fact. Some people think that musical performances occur by means of osmosis. One who has never played an instrument or has never sung in a church or school choir, seldom come to realize how re-creating another person’s music for an audience even comes into being. The lengthy, tedious and frequently boring hours of rehearsal. The agony of making one stupid mistake after another, in order to get the correct rhythm and harmony into one’s memory, then having to find a comfortable tempo and trying to comprehend a poorly edited score, just to discover what the composer’s musical intentions were. Then they have to decide if the musical instructions are those of the composer or by a music publisher’s editor. These are things that a conductor always has to do, and then they must fully understand the circumstances under which a composition was created. Then they must ask themselves questions such as these: "What was the composer’s musical inspiration and what was going on in their life when he was composing this piece? What was the composer’s childhood and private life like at the time of its creation? In what country or culture was he raised? Did certain events influence and affect this music while it was being composed? Why did a composer write in the manner and form they selected for this piece? What kind of person where they? What religion were they raised in and how did its liturgical music influence them? In what type of cultural environment did they learn their craft? These and countless other questions any decent conductor must ask themselves before they even set foot in the rehearsal room? Hans von Bulow’s famous quotation of The conductor must have the scores in his head, not his head in the score holds true more for Toscanini than other conductors.

Chapter Two

THE NBC SYMPHONY TENURE BEGINS

I T IS LATE on a hectic Christmas Day evening in December, 1937. Nearly twenty million radio listeners have their radio dials tuned into their local NBC affiliates. At 10 pm. Eastern Standard Time, a soft spoken commentator announces the start of a symphony concert about to be broadcast live over the air. "Christmas Greetings from Radio City and to listeners throughout the United States and Canada and those in other parts of the world who might be listening by short wave radio. The NBC, or National Broadcasting Company is privileged to present the incomparable conductor, Arturo Toscanini, who tonight conducts for the first time, the National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra in its regular Saturday evening symphony concert. Mr. Toscanini’s program this evening consists of a Concerto Grosso by Vivaldi, the Symphony in G Minor by Mozart and the Symphony No. 1 in C Minor by Brahms." Millions sighed, as they awaited the applause that greeted this most legendary of conductors, as he made his way through the first violin section to the podium. He is a small moustached Italian, now past 70 years old, and with over a half century of experience in both the opera house and concert hall. This new orchestra had been recently created exclusively for him and his phenomenal musical talent. It had been staffed with the most skilled and gifted young virtuoso musicians available following the most grueling talent search and audition period imaginable. Many superb players left first chair positions with other leading orchestras and even nationally known string quartets in order to perform under the magic baton of this most famous and revered of conductors. This was the man who conducted the world premieres of such beloved operas as Pagliacci, La Boheme and Turandot. Here was the man who personally worked with his country’s greatest composer, Giuseppe Verdi and gave the premieres of many works now cemented in the standard repertoire of every great orchestra, plus many which have been forgotten since their dismal failure at their premiere. This concert was unusual in several aspects, because it contained three pieces in dark, dramatic keys and from very different musical time periods. A storm of applause erupts from the audience gathered in Radio City Music Hall’s eighth floor broadcast studio 8-H. Without any introduction, Toscanini lifts his baton to begin a virtually unknown string concerto by Antonio Vivaldi. The very name of Antonio Vivaldi meant almost nothing to concert audiences then. Seeing his name on the program would have left many radio listeners scratching their heads with uniform unfamiliarity. The next two pieces are symphonies. The first is Mozart’s brooding Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, and following the intermission, Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C Minor . Both symphonies were staples in Toscanini’s repertoire and would later be recorded by him twice for RCA Victor during his NBC directorship over the next seventeen years. In many ways, the recordings made during this historic concert and at the rest of Toscanini’s NBC Symphony concerts, were better and more exciting than the edited versions released on record. The fiery, dramatic force in which Toscanini infuses both pieces is uncanny. Every detail in their printed scores can be clearly heard in these performances-each dynamic and expression mark, right down to the smallest spiccato and staccato bowing indication. Each legato phrase is noticeable, along with each ritard, rallantando and diminuendo requested by their genius composers. It is evident in these performances that the fifty years which Toscanini spent in the orchestra pits of countless opera houses around the world, have manifested into performances of remarkable power and accuracy. Toscanini who had only that past summer led his final live operatic performances