World’s Tribute To Toscanini

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28179, 18 January 1957, Page 11

World’s Tribute To Toscanini

(N.2 fresi Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 17. Arturo Toscanini, who for 60 years'had been one of the world’s greatest symphony and opera conductors, died in New York last night. He was 89, and since before his thirtieth birthday his had been one of the most distinguished and best-loved names in music. His body will lie in state in New York until Saturday, when a solemn Requiem Mass will be offered in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Toscanini was the last survivor of the “Golden Age” conductors, a man who had known as an equal most of the leading musical figures of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Commenting on the death of Toscanini, the “New York Times” said today: “Arturo Toscanini’s death marks the end of an era. It is as though something precious has gone out of our lives. There are not many men of his passionate ardour and dedication in any age.

“Our mourning is assuaged only by the thought that he lived a gloriously abundant life. He has done his work, and for generations we shall be the richer because he dwelt among us.”

The New York “Herald Tribune” said: “We in America can take pride that Artu.ro Toscanini spent so many years here as a musician and that in his last years he chose to make his home among us. We can be grateful, too, that he lived in an era when radio and television enabled many millions to know his wprk.” Mourning in Milan

La Scala, Milan, the opera house where Toscanini had some of his greatest triumphs, closed its main doors today in mourning.

Beniamino Gigli, the worldfamous tenor who retired some time ago, said: “The death of the maestro is an immense loss to the world of music.” Milan newspapers printed special editions carrying the news of Toscanini’s death.

Toscanini conducted his last concert in public on April 4, 1954, in Carnegie Hall. He led the National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra, which had been created for him, through the “Die Meistersinger” overture. After a visit to Italy he came back to New York in 1955 to work more easily on polishing up recordings and to be near the friends he had made in his years as conductor of the Metropolitan Opera Company, the New York Philharmonic Symphony and the N.B.C. Symphony. Radio Orchestra

In 1937, the National Broadcasting Company invited him to assemble and conduct a symphony orchestra solely for radio broadcasting. More than 700 leading musicians in the United States. Europe, and South America applied for positions in the orchestra.

The orchestra made its debut on Christmas Night, 1937. Since that time, the orchestra has been heard in a weekly one-hour radio concert, mainly of music by the great nineteenth century composers.

Born in Parma, Italy, in 1867, the youngest child and only son of a poor tailor, Claudio Toscanini, who had been a follower of Garibaldi, Toscanini entered the conservatory of Parma when he was nine. He was enrolled as a ’cello student, but his real love was opera. His classmates called him a genius. He often sold his meat coupons to buy musical scores. At 18 he was graduated from the conservatory with honours. Began as ’Cellist While touring as a ’cellist for an opera company in ' South America, Toscanini was unexpectedly asked to conduct a Rio de Janeiro performance of “Aida.’’ Wearing a frock coat too large for him, he mounted the podium and opened the score at the first page. At the end of the performance he received an ovation. His score was still open at page one. Toscanini later conducted every opera and symphony in his repertoire from memory. He was known for his long and minute study ot scores and his meticulous interpretations.

His memory was phenomenal. He kept in his head the scores of more than 100 operas and many scores of symphonies. He first appeared at La Scala in 1896 and was associated with that opera house periodically for the next 30 years. He introduced Wagner’s “Gotterdammerung” and “Siegfried” to Italy in 1896 and the next year directed the world premiere of Puccini’s “La Boheme.”

again in 1921 as conductor of an Italian orchestra. He made his debut on phonograph records at that time. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra hired him as its conductor in 1926. paying him the highest salary (80.000 dollars a year) it has ever paid. He took the Philharmonic on a tour of Europe in 1930 and was conductor until he retired in 1936. Political Freedom Toscanini believed in political and individual freedom. He denounced Mussolini when he marched on Rome. In 1931 ne was attacked on the streets of Bologna for refusing to play the Fascist anthem. In 1937, because of his hatred of Hitler. Toscanini stopped going to the music festivals in Bayreuth, Salzburg, and Vienna. He conducted the first performance of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra at Tel Aviv in December. 1936. partly out of protest against Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Toscanini’s seven years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1908 have been called The Golden Age in the Metropolitan’s history. American opera-goers then heard Enrico Caruso, Nellie Melba. Antonio Scotti. Emmy Destinn, and Marcella Sembrirh. He came to the United States