Toscanini, Arturo

Toscanini, Arturo (1867–1957), conductor.From the 1930s to the 1950s, Toscanini was the undisputed symbol of classical music for a generation of Americans; according to Time magazine, he was as well‐known as Joe DiMaggio. Born in Italy and trained as a cellist, Toscanini led Milan's La Scala Opera from 1898 to 1908 and again in 1914–1929. In America he was principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera (1908–1915), the New York Philharmonic (1926–1936), and the NBC Symphony (1937–1954). His performances were acclaimed for their razor precision, superhuman intensity, and (less accurately) objectivity. His repertoire in the United States centered on Beethoven and other European composers as certifiably supreme as Toscanini himself.

The Toscanini phenomenon coincided with the post‐World War I popularization of high culture. In music the popularizing impulse translated into proliferating orchestras, radio concerts, and “music appreciation” books and courses. For a new generation of culture consumers (significantly including the new middle classes), Toscanini's vaunted superiority, and the superiority of his orchestras, validated American achievement vis‐à‐vis the parent traditions of Europe.

While Toscanini was unquestionably a towering musician, the high praise he engendered also revealed conditions peculiar to the United States. America's impressive symphonic culture had essentially been borrowed from Germany. Self‐made, masculine, an instinctive democrat, Toscanini denounced Hitler and Mussolini. His ostensible textual fidelity rebuffed claims that only Germans could conduct Beethoven.

In retrospect, Toscanini's celebrity was cathartic yet problematic. His reputation eclipsed that of the composers he served. That his 1950 transcontinental tour, hailed as a “a lasting monument to American culture,” excluded American works, excited little comment. Surveying the American musical scene in 1941, Aaron Copland pertinently remarked about the cult of “masterpieces” that Toscanini did so much to foster: “When they are used, unwittingly perhaps, to stifle contemporary effort in our own country, then I am almost tempted to take the most extreme view and say that we should be better off without them.” Toscanini's American career documents a period of high accomplishment and complex provincialism. Within a decade of his death, America no longer needed to flaunt a “world's greatest conductor.”
See also Music: Classical Music; Opera.

Bibliography

B.H. Haggin , The Toscanini Musicians Knew, 1967.
Harvey Sachs , Toscanini, 1978.
Joseph Horowitz , Understanding Toscanini—A Social History of American Concert Life, 1987, reprint 1994.

Joseph Horowitz