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This SET of 3 SILVER medals has been minted to commemorate the Italian conductor, Arturo TOSCANINI, 1867 - 1957.
This medal has been designed by the Italian artist, Antonio BERTI.
Arturo
Toscanini (Italian: [arˈtuːro
toskaˈniːni]; March 25, 1867 – January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was
one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century,
renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail
and sonority, and his photographic memory. He was at various
times the music director of La Scala
av. Arturo Toscanini
rv. The musical
motives
diameter – 60 mm, (2⅝ oz)
weight – 3 x ca 150.00 gr, TOTAL ca 450 gr of SILVER
metal – SILVER, hallmark, mint condition
Toscanini
was born in Parma,
Upon
returning to
Gradually,
Toscanini's reputation as an operatic conductor of unusual authority and skill
supplanted his cello career. In the following decade, he consolidated his
career in
Outside
Europe, Toscanini conducted at the Metropolitan
Opera in
During
his career, Toscanini collaborated with such legendary artists as Enrico Caruso, Feodor
Chaliapin, Ezio Pinza, Jussi
Björling, and Geraldine Farrar. Although
he also worked with Wagnerian heldentenor Lauritz Melchior, he would
not work with Melchior's frequent partner Kirsten Flagstad after her
political sympathies became suspect during World War II; it was Helen Traubel who sang
with Melchior instead of Flagstad at the Toscanini concerts.
In
May 1915, Toscanini was set to return to Europe aboard the doomed RMS Lusitania when his
season at
In
1919, Toscanini ran unsuccessfully as a Fascist parliamentary
candidate in
At
a memorial concert for Italian composer Giuseppe Martucci on May 14,
1931 at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Toscanini was
ordered to begin by playing Giovinezza, but he refused, despite the
presence of fascist foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano in the
audience. Afterwards, he was, in his own words, "attacked, injured and
repeatedly hit in the face" by a group of blackshirts.
Mussolini, incensed by the conductor's refusal, had his phone tapped, placed him under
constant surveillance, and
confiscated his passport. The passport was returned only after a world outcry
over Toscanini's treatment. Upon the outbreak of WWII, Toscanini left
Toscanini
returned to the
The
NBC broadcasts were preserved on large transcription discs, recorded at both
78-rpm and 33-1/3 rpm, until NBC began using magnetic tape in 1947. NBC used
special RCA high fidelity microphones both for the broadcasts and for recording
them; these microphones can be seen in some photographs of Toscanini and the
orchestra. Some of Toscanini's recording sessions for RCA Victor were
mastered on sound film in a process developed about 1941, as detailed by RCA
producer Charles O'Connell in his memoirs, On and Off The Record. In
addition, hundreds of hours of Toscanini's rehearsals with the NBC were
preserved and are now housed in the Toscanini Legacy archive at The New York Public Library.
Toscanini
was often criticized for neglecting American music; however, on November 5,
1938, he conducted the world premieres of two orchestral works by Samuel Barber, Adagio
for Strings and Essay for Orchestra. The performance received significant critical acclaim.
In 1945, he led the orchestra in recording sessions of the Grand Canyon
Suite by Ferde Grofé in Carnegie Hall
(supervised by Grofé) and An
American in Paris by George Gershwin in NBC's
Studio 8-H. Both works had earlier been performed in broadcast concerts. He
also conducted broadcast performances of Copland's El Salón
México; Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with
soloists Earl Wild and Benny Goodman and Piano
Concerto in F with pianist Oscar Levant; and music
by other American composers, including marches of John Philip Sousa. He even
wrote his own orchestral arrangement of The
Star-Spangled Banner, which was incorporated into the NBC Symphony's
performances of Verdi's Hymn of the Nations, together with the Soviet Internationale. (Earlier, while
music director of the New York Philharmonic, he conducted music by Abram Chasins, Bernard
Wagenaar, and Howard Hanson.)
In
1940 Toscanini took the orchestra on a "goodwill" tour of South
America, sailing from New York on the ocean liner SS Brazil on 14 May.
Later that year, Toscanini had a disagreement with NBC management over their
use of his musicians in other NBC broadcasts. This, among other reasons,
resulted in a letter which Toscanini wrote on March 10, 1941 to RCA's David
Sarnoff. He stated that he now wished "to withdraw from the militant scene
of Art" and thus declined to sign a new contract for the up-coming winter season,
but left the door open for an eventual return "if my state of mind, health
and rest will be improved enough". So Leopold Stokowski was
engaged on a three-year contract instead and served as the NBC Symphony's music
director from 1941 until 1944. Toscanini's state of mind soon underwent a
change and he returned as Stokowski's co-conductor for the latter's second and
third seasons resuming full control in 1944.
One
of the more-remarkable broadcasts was in July 1942, when Toscanini conducted
the American premiere of Dmitri
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7. Because of World War II, the score was microfilmed in
the Soviet Union and brought by courier to the
In
the spring of 1950, Toscanini led the orchestra on an extensive
transcontinental tour. It was during that tour that the well-known photograph
of Toscanini riding the ski lift at Sun Valley, Idaho was taken.
Toscanini and the musicians traveled on a special train chartered by NBC.
The
NBC concerts continued in Studio 8-H until 1950. They were then held in
Carnegie Hall, where many of the orchestra's recording sessions had been held,
because of the dry acoustics of Studio 8-H. Toscanini's final broadcast
performance, an all-Wagner program, took
place on April 4, 1954, in Carnegie Hall. That
June, he participated in his final recording sessions, remaking portions of two
Verdi operas so they could be commercially released. Toscanini was 87 years old
when he retired. After his retirement, the NBC Symphony was reorganized as the Symphony of the Air, making regular
performances and recordings, until it was disbanded in 1963. It was heard one
last time (as the NBC Symphony Orchestra) in the 1963 telecast of Gian
Carlo Menotti's Christmas opera for television, Amahl and the Night Visitors.
On
radio, Toscanini conducted seven complete operas, including Fidelio, La bohème, La traviata, and Otello, all of which were
eventually released on records and CD, thus enabling the modern listening
public to have at least some idea of what an opera conducted by Toscanini
sounded like.
With
the help of his son Walter, Toscanini spent his remaining years evaluating and
editing tapes and transcriptions of his performances with the NBC Symphony for
possible future release. Many of these recordings were eventually issued by RCA
Victor.
Sachs
and other biographers have documented the numerous conductors, singers, and
musicians who visited Toscanini during his retirement. He was a big fan of
early television, especially boxing and wrestling telecasts, as well as comedy
programs.
Toscanini
died on January 16, 1957 at the age of 89 at his home in the Riverdale section of
the Bronx in
In
his will, he left his baton to his protégée Herva Nelli, who sang
in the broadcasts of Otello, Aïda, Falstaff, the Verdi
Requiem, and Un ballo in maschera.
Toscanini
was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
Toscanini
married Carla De Martini on June 21, 1897, when she was not yet 20 years old.
Their first child, Walter, was born on March
19, 1898. A daughter, Wally, was born on January 16, 1900. Carla gave birth to
another boy, Giorgio, in September 1901, but he died of diphtheria on June 10, 1906.
Then, that same year (1906), Carla gave birth to their second daughter, Wanda.
Toscanini
worked with many great singers and musicians throughout his career, but few
impressed him as much as Vladimir Horowitz. They
worked together a number of times and recorded Brahms' second piano concerto and Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto with the NBC Symphony for RCA Victor.
Horowitz also became close to Toscanini and his family. In 1933, Wanda
Toscanini married Horowitz, with the conductor's blessings and warnings. It was
Wanda's daughter, Sonia, who was once photographed by Life playing with the
conductor.
During
World War II, Toscanini lived in Wave Hill, a historic home
in Riverdale.
Despite
the reported infidelities revealed in Toscanini's letters documented by Harvey
Sachs, he remained married to Carla until she died on June 23, 1951.