“La Traviata - Prelude to Act 1” by Giuseppe Verdi [1853] performed by Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic [1929]
Random Music History Song of the Day
Arturo Toscanini was arguably the most effective conductor and orchestra leader in the world for over 60 years. Toscanini led definitive performances of many works by many composers, but his grasp of four composers in particular led to masterful performances. Any conversation about the best performance or recording of works by Beethoven, Brahms, Verdi, or Wagner starts with a Toscanini-led orchestra. Granted, he led some of the most talented orchestras ever assembled, but the resulting performances were still more the the sum of their parts.
Toscanini had a unique relationship with the works of Giuseppe Verdi. Toscanini’s conducting debut came in 1886 at the age of 19. After a very rough start to a run of Verdi’s Aida in Rio de Janeiro - two replacement conductors were booed off the stage after the musicians forced out the original conductor for his lack of knowledge - Toscanini, then chair of the cello section, led a performance of the two-and-a-half hour opera without a score. The following year he played cello in the debut of Otello in Milan, conducted by Verdi himself. In 1954 at the age of 87, Toscanini’s final recordings were, of course, parts of two Verdi operas.
With the worldwide acclaim that followed his debut, Toscanini took the baton for, among others, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and finally the NBC Symphony Orhcestra, a hand-picked group of musicians in an orchestra created solely for Toscanini to lead. Equally talented with operatic and symphonic music, his first serious attempt to record came in 1929 with the New York Philharmonic. (While he had first recorded in 1920 and added a few pieces in 1926, those were not part of a drawn out plan to record numerous works like his ‘29 and ‘36 recordings).
To tie this whole thing together… Posted above is Toscanini leading the subtle, flowing “Prelude to Act 1” from Verdi’s 1853 opera La Traviatta, recorded March 18, 1929, in Carnegie Hall. Despite the poor recording quality (this is 1929!) his command of the orchestra is obvious in the sweeping dynamic shifts and perfect timing throughout the piece.
Amen!
