Monday, Nov. 24, 1930
Lonely & Great
"Come with me to Heaven, but come on wings. Do not climb by a ladder." With this exhortation last week Conductor Arturo Toscanini rehearsed his Philharmonic-Symphony players through the great C Minor Symphony of Johannes Brahms. Tenderly, painstakingly, he molded every phrase and his men, as one, obeyed him. Magnificently he soared through the concluding chorale and even the stodgiest horn-player seemed to find the wings with which to follow. Then the little Italian called a pause, ate a bowl of soup with a raw egg in it before going on with the preparation of his first Manhattan concert of the season.
In Manhattan Toscanini is even more of a god this year than last. After he left last April he won unprecedented triumphs in Paris, Vienna, Leipzig, Berlin, London (TIME, May 19, 26). He conducted Tannhauser and Tristan at Bayreuth, gave new life to the declining Wagner festivals, was asked to take over the artistic direction. But despite his successes he came back last week depressed, lonely. In Bayreuth he was deeply affected by the death of Siegfried Wagner. After his own Philharmonic, the Bayreuth Orchestra was a constant source of displeasure and disappointment to him. And on July 13 large, capable Signora Toscanini lost her wedding ring, the next day broke her leg which has been so long healing that she was unable to go with her husband to the U. S. Without Signora Carla (his name for his wife, who always calls him "Tosca"), without his pretty daughters Wanda and Wally, without his pet griffon Picciu, he is alone save for a valet and Friend Max Smith, onetime musical critic of the New York American. Above all things he hates Manhattan's noise. He lives at the Hotel Astor, presumably because of his friend ship for Owner Frederick Muschenheim.
Last week's concert again suggested that lonely individuals make the greatest music. The Orchestra played the Bach-Beethoven-Brahms program as if completely bewitched by the slight, grey-haired figure, swaying constantly, sometimes singing along in a thin, croaking voice. The smart audience was also hypnotized into perfect behavior. It arrived punctually, never once applauded at the wrong time, saved its coughs for intermissions. After the con cert there gathered backstage Chairman Clarence Hungerford Mackay of the Phil harmonic Board of Directors, Banker Otto Hermann Kahn, Soprano Lucrezia Bori, Packer Charles Henry Swift and his wife Soprano Claire Dux, Pianist Jose Iturbi, Violinist Joseph Szigeti. Hovering benignly about was tall, handsome Bruno Zirato, onetime personal representative of Enrico Caruso, engaged this year to fill the same sort of position for Toscanini.
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