Remembering
The Maestro:
Music Master, Anti-Fascist
By Stephen Lendman
12 July, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The term maestro means a "master"
or "teacher" in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. In English
it refers to a distinguished musician or noted figure in any artistic
field. Most often, however, it's a term of respect for an eminent conductor
of classical music. For this writer, the term applies to one great man
above all others, and this year commemorates the 50th anniversary of
his death - the incomparable Arturo Toscanini whose anti-fascism enhanced
his musical prominence and is the reason for this article.
Here's what former New York
Times music critic Olin Downes once wrote about him: "Toscanini
(had) unparalleled qualities as an interpreter. (His performances showed)
profound intuition, abnormal concentration (and) consuming sincerity
which make them what they are, and without a precise equivalent in any
other conductor of which we know....People marvel at such physical as
well as artistic capacity. Toscanini is a physical and mental phenomenon....(The)
supreme....spirit of the sovereign artist....sustains him....Watch him
as he walks slowly to the podium and mounts the stand. Then see what
happens the instant he faces the orchestra, scoreless....taking command
immediately with imperious authority and elan. A rock-ribbed steadfastness
of tempo emanates from the baton....as the music ebbs and flows from
this extraordinary blend of control and release.....Toscanini (is) like
the invincible titan and warrior of the faith. (He's) the great master,
the ageless hero....the incorruptible and consummate artist (creating)
art (that is) greater than man himself....And it is this....which makes
his fellow-man his debtor."
The Maestro was born in Parma,
Italy March 25, 1867. He began his musical career as a cellist and debuted
at age 19 as a conductor in Rio de Janeiro in 1886 when he was unexpectedly
called on to substitute for the regular music director. Amazingly, he
led the orchestra and cast in Verdi's classic Aida from memory without
ever before having done it. It changed his life and the operatic and
symphonic world.
Toscanini was considered
by many critics and fellow musicians the greatest conductor of his era,
or any other, that lasted nearly seven decades from 1886 to his retirement
in 1954 at age 86. His perfectionism was demanding and extraordinary
and was aided by his phenomenal memory. He conducted all his concerts
without scores, remembering every nuance of every note of every performance
until once late in his life his memory faltered on April 4, 1954 at
age 86. In mid-performance, he stopped conducting live on-air. He covered
his eyes and the orchestra, so dependent on his leadership, at first
fell silent. With help, he managed to finish the concert with the well-rehearsed
orchestra leading their Maestro who led them for so many years. Before
the concert's end, Toscanini dropped his baton and left the stage. He
never conducted in public again.
Toscanini's musical genius
had an enormously enriching influence on many, including this writer.
It began a lifelong love for the classics that remains to this day and
is still enjoyed in a large collection of old but very serviceable LP
recordings of his operas and symphonic works.
The first ever bought is
still the one most cherished - his classic 1946 recording of Puccini's
La Boheme with a distinguished cast. It was performed live to a worldwide
audience on NBC Radio on two successive Sundays beginning 50 years and
two days after he premiered it in the Regio Opera House in Turin, Italy
for his friend and composer Giacomo Puccini. In the recorded performance,
as in some others, Toscanini can be heard humming at several dramatic
moments and at one stunning point sighing in an expression of deep emotion.
Some critics said it detracted from the performance. Others, and this
writer, felt it enriched the listening experience, making it special
by glorifying and highlighting it. It made a lasting impact on listeners
still remaining for this one over 60 years later.
Toscanini was more than a
great music master. He was also uncompromisingly anti-fascist at a time
of Mussolini's rise to power in his native Italy in the 1920s followed
by Hitler in 1930s Germany. Though non-political overall, throughout
that period and during WW II, he was distinguished for his views as
a symbol of freedom and humanity when so little of it existed at a time
of global war on three continents. More on that below.
Throughout the late 19th
century, Toscanini slowly built his reputation conducting in various
concert halls throughout Italy. He directed the premiere performances
of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in 1892 and La Boheme in 1896. He also directed
the Italian premieres of Wagner's Gotterdammerung in 1895 and Siegfried
in 1899 at the famed La Scala opera house that first began operating
two years after the United States declared its independence from the
British Crown. During his illustrious career, he conducted throughout
Europe, North and South America and became the principal conductor of
the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1908, remaining there until 1915.
In 1926, he debuted with the New York Philharmonic, became its co-conductor
in 1927 and its principal music director in 1929.
While on tour in Bologna,
Italy in 1931, he was assaulted by fascist thugs for his views, authorities
temporarily confiscated his passport, and the Fascist party surrounded
his Milan home with carabinieri. During the same period, he was constantly
attacked by the Fascist press for his uncompromising views. As a result,
Toscanini refused thereafter to conduct in Italy during Mussolini's
reign.
In 1933, he withdrew from
Bayreuth after Hitler became German Chancellor in January that year.
He even sent Hitler a personal telegram stating his views to which the
German dictator responded by banning further sale or performance of
his recordings. That same year his daughter, Wanda, married famed concert
pianist Vladimir Horowitz who performed on-stage and in recordings many
times with his renowned father-in-law. In the 1930s, Toscanini resigned
from the New York Philharmonic to lead the Vienna Philmarmonic, later
withdrawing from the Salzburg Festival in 1938 protesting Hitler's Anschluss
takeover of Austria in March that year.
Beginning with his first
concert on Christmas Day, 1937, he began his association with the NBC
Symphony, many of whose recordings this writer has and treasures as
classics. Company president David Sarnoff created the orchestra expressly
for the Maestro as an inducement for him to return to New York. He did
and remained the orchestra's conductor until his retirement in 1954.
Many critics and classical
musicians regard the 1937 - 1954 17 year era as the golden age of symphonic
music in America when Arturo Toscanini led the NBC Symphony throughout
the period. His weekly concerts were held in NBC's famed Studio 8-H
in New York's Rockefeller Center until the fall of 1950 when they were
moved to Carnegie Hall for its superior acoustics.
A personal note: Live Sunday
evening concerts were broadcast worldwide on NBC Radio, including 10
televised in the US from 1948 - 1952. They were held around the dinner
hour in the 1940s and early 1950s. My mother introduced me to them.
She played classical piano, listened when able, as did I as a young
boy. It began a lifetime love for the classics and the Maestro's incomparable
performances that touched everyone hearing them. Toscanini's uncompromising
standards of excellence and relentless quest for perfection had a profound
effect on his listeners. I'm one of them any time I choose from my large
collection of his recordings. They preserve his music forever that's
as powerful and moving now as when first performed.
One other personal note:
My mother's love of great music was matched by her passion for learning.
She pursued it and received her well-deserved degree along with her
son in the same class of 1956, seven months before Toscanini's death.
It was the first time a mother and son ever graduated together in the
320 year history of the oldest higher institution of learning in the
country. June 14, 1956 was her day. Her son just went along for the
ride.
Toscanini the Anti-Fascist
As a conductor and anti-fascist,
Toscanini was uncompromising. This section covers the political philosophy
of a non-political man who was fiercely democratic. It emerged when
the Maestro publicly denounced Benito Mussolini after he led his National
Fascist Party's march on Rome in October, 1922 declaring himself Il
Duce or supreme leader. Toscanini thereafter refused to play the Fascist
anthem Giovanezza he didn't consider fit music and wanted nothing to
do with the Fascist dictator.
When Italian King Emmanuel
III declared himself Emperor of conquered Ethiopia in 1936, Toscanini
wrote: "Cursed Rome. Mussolini, the Emperor-King, and the Pope.
Pigs, all of them." In a letter to Berlin in 1941, he wrote: "You
are too poisoned by the atmosphere that surrounds you, you are all living
now too much amid shame and dishonor, without showing any sign of rebellion,
to be able to value people like me, who have remained and will remain
above the mud, not to give it a worse name, that is drowning the Italians."
Earlier in 1938, he wrote:
"I've never been and will never be involved in politics; that is,
I became involved only once in '19, and for Mussolini and I repented....I've
never taken part in Societies, either political or artistic....I've
always believed only an individual can be a gentleman....Everyone ought
to express his own opinion honestly and courageously, then dictators,
criminals, wouldn't last so long."
In February, 1941 Toscanini
intervened on behalf of fellow Italian and anti-fascist, Claudio Alcorso.
He'd been arrested because of his nationality in allied Australia in
July, 1940 and held for what became a bitter three and a half year confinement.
It was because Australia judged Italians during the war the way the
US viewed Japanese Americans. It made Alcorso believe "a dogmatic
mentality was not the sole prerogative of German and Italian Fascists."
Toscanini's efforts failed despite repeated efforts, though Alcorso
was finally freed after Mussolini and his Fascist party fell in 1943.
While Mussolini ruled as
Italy's dictator, the Maestro refused to perform in his native country
including at the famed Milan La Scala opera house. He publicly stated:
"Never! I refuse to turn La Scala into a market place for Fascist
demonstrations. They have the square outside and also the Galleria nearby
for that, but while I conduct the Scala orchestra, it will remain the
home of opera and never will it become a propaganda platform."
Mussolini gave his brazen response: "Never will my feet cross the
threshold of La Scala until Toscanini, the anti-Fascist, goes from there.
How dare he refuse to play Giovanezza (the Fascist anthem)?"
Toscanini condemned Mussolini
for his comments telling La Scala's directors: "I will conduct
Giovanezza never and for nobody!" He stood resolute by his word.
He deplored dictatorships and never played in Czarist or Stalinist Russia
as well. He was an implacable enemy of tyranny. In Weimar pre-Hitler
Germany, he was the first non-German to appear at the Wagner Festspielhaus
in Bayreuth, but refused to return in 1933 after Hitler came to power.
He denounced the Nazi's treatment of Jewish musicians in protest. He
also refused to conduct at Austria's Salzburg Festival because noted
Jewish conductor Bruno Walter's performances there weren't broadcast
in Germany. Later in 1938 and 1939, he conducted, without compensation,
at a Lucerne, Switzerland festival with an orchestra entirely composed
of musicians who'd fled German persecution.
During WW II, Toscanini said:
"Italy will certainly have a revolution as a result of the current
war; the Allies will either favor and help it, or hinder it. The Allies'
attitude will determine whether the revolution will, or will not, result
in an orderly democratic government...." If he were still living,
Toscanini would be outspoken about today's world and the ugliness Washington
injects in it. He'd denounce fascism's rise in America and the power
of wealth and privilege driving it. He was a democrat and patriot whose
influential views had weight.
Today the Mastro would be
in the artistic forefront leading the struggle for the same freedoms
he believed in when fascism earlier engulfed Europe, Asia and North
Africa in its greatest of all wars. In words and stunning music, he'd
be in the lead to prevent it happening again so the spirit of equity,
social justice and peace on earth could prevail for all above the darkness
of tyranny now threatening everyone in the age of George Bush's America.
Toscanini conducted his last
concert on April 4, 1954 as mentioned above. Always one to surprise
(as he did two and a half months earlier choosing Un Ballo in maschera
over Rigoletto for his final opera performance), he eschewed his native
Italy and chose an all-Wagner program for the occasion. He died of a
stroke at age 89 on January 16, 1957. His extraordinary music and democratic
spirit are sorely missed but not forgotten.
Throughout the year, many
Toscanini commemorative concerts and events were and are still being
held in the US, his native Italy and elsewhere. Most notable was the
New York Public Library's showcase exhibition of rare Library material
on the Maestro's legacy that ran from February 21 through May 25, 2007.
It was called Arturo Toscanini: Homage to the Maestro. It included rare
rehearsal and performance recordings and unique documents on Toscanini's
multifaceted persona. Among items on exhibit were photographs, annotated
scores, letters, and many seldom ever seen unpublished materials donated
by the Toscanini family to the Library's Music Division. Through these
and other documents, the Maestro's memory, spirit and music remains
alive.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site
at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Steve Lendman News and Information
Hour on TheMicroEffect.com Saturdays at noon US central time.
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