Post by Matthew B. Tepperletters to be typed in news:c096eae7-2650-406b-b0e4-627e50909b05
Post by Matthew B. TepperIt may not be so complicated with cross-rhythms, but Toscanini made a
brilliant job of Act II of "Die Meistersinger" in Salzburg. Remember
also that he conducted the Italian premiere after Franco Faccio gave up
on it.
Exactly. I have a hard time believing that AT did not conduct Bartok
(or Le Sacre) because he could not. It seems much easier to believe
that he just didn't care for the music.
While I don't think Horowitz has it right in blaming AT for virtually
everything that's wrong with classical music, I do think it's fair to
criticize Toscanini on the basis that he was not always a good judge of
contemporary composers. Though many have shared that failing, it is
particularly unfortunate, given his influence, that Toscanini didn't like
Bartok. Imagine how much easier the composer's life would have been with
AT's imprimatur. And we might dream of having a Toscanini broadcast of,
say, Nielsen 4 or DLVDE. But this is surely one of those situations in
which it is better to notice the full half of the glass.
Toscanini did support contemporary composers, such as Debussy, Ravel,
Sibelius, and Richard Strauss. If you mean that you wish he had done more
with Stravinsky (imagine a Toscanini-conducted "Pulcinella"!) and others,
rather than the crappy Italian ones such as Bolzoni and Martucci, well, I
won't argue with you there.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!!
Read about "Proty" here:http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/proty.html
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Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers.
A note about Toscanini and Hindemith's and Bartok's music:
Haggin wrote, in "Conversations with Toscanini" the following:
"I believe that in a letter to Toscanini at this time I included the
question about whether I might attend Cantelli's rehearsals; and when
he telephoned he said: 'Yes, come to rehearsal. You must hear this
young conductor.' I had missed the first rehearsal, but got to the
second, at which Cantelli worked with the orchestra on Hindemith's
'Mathis der Maler'. He did so under several handicaps, one of which
was the awareness of Toscanini himself listening in the sixth row
behind him. But if this contributed to Cantelli's nervousness and
tenseness, it also was a help: the demands of a high-string,
fanatically dedicated person, the fact that he was a young man facing
the orchestra of the world's most celebrated conductor, his handicap
of not knowing a word of English - all these created not only
tenseness in Cantelli but tense situations with the orchestra, which
Toscanini's presence prevented from developing into anything worse.
Toscanini's presence also provided the orchestra with amusement. At
the first rehearsal he had been given the score of 'Mathis', which he
soon knew by memory; and therafter, completely unconscious of what he
was doing, he sat conducting the piece - beating time, signaling
entrances, and all the rest. And the same thing happened a week later
at the rehearsals of Bartok's 'Concerto for Orchestra'."
There was a thread about "Toscanini's Conducting Technique" here back
in January of 2009 which might be of interest. In that discussion I
quoted Robert Craft who wrote that "Toscanini's performance of
Petrushka in Rome in 1916, noisily acclaimed by Marinetti and the
Futurists, had been a milestone in [Stravinsky's] life."
Craft also wrote that:
"Today's audience,accustomed to high jumping, bottom wiggling,
artfully
mussed hair and sprayed-on perspiration, eye mugging and the grimaces
intended to convey the conductor's feelings about the music and how
everyone should feel, can scarcely imagine the focal force of
Toscanini's Archimedean wrist. Not to have seen him, to know him
exclusively from recordings, is an inestimable handicap to a full
appreciation of the technical side of his art."
I added then that "We're very, very lucky to have these kinescope
films. When I show them
to musicians, they usually comment with amazement that Toscanini shows
almost EVERYTHING with just the baton!" - and of course the facial
expression, eyes, and all the rest.
In this regard, Milton Katims wrote, in 'The Toscanini Musicians
Knew":
"When we did 'Aida', I was in charge of the off-stage chorus and band.
It was ... televised. I asked the producer for a T.V. monitor back
where I was. 'When I'm to conduct,' I said, 'you turn the camera on
Toscanini, even though he doesn't conduct in that part. I'm positive
he'll be moving with the subtle rubato he wants from my chorus.' So
the producer did and I followed Toscanini precisely. Afterwards he was
amazed. I never told him how I'd done it."
With best regards from over here,
David Mendes