Surprise Treat

Toscanini's temper last week gave the Swiss city of Lucerne an unexpected treat.

Like some 200 other European cities, Lucerne had hopefully asked for a Toscanini concert and had been refused in favor of Paris and London. Then Toscanini, mad at the way Italy was faring at the hands of the Big Four, huffily canceled his dates in Paris and London in protest ("I personally am not in a state of mind to conduct [because of my] sadness for unjust political decisions."). Suddenly the city of Lucerne got word that the Maestro was willing to play two concerts there--the first one five days from date. Toscanini had a sentimental memory of Lucerne: it was the city where he had conducted the night before war was declared in 1939. But sentiment had a rider. Toscanini wanted a guarantee of 90,000 francs ($21,060) to help rebuild Milan's bombed La Scala Opera House.

Swiss tourist offices stayed open 16 hours a day to sell concert tickets; Swiss railroads hurriedly scheduled special late trains to carry concertgoers back to outlying cantons. In the required five days, the opera house was sold out. Toscanini arrived from Milan with the 112-piece La Scala Orchestra for his first European concert outside Italy since the war. Lucerne heard the Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms and Debussy he had prepared for Paris and London.

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