"More Peppy Here"

Arturo Toscanini, 85, had his summer all mapped out, and the map called for a long rest in Italy. A methodical man, Conductor Toscanini settled down to it three months ago : he spent most of his time in his beloved Milan, varying his routine with short visits to his villa on cool Lake Maggiore. Last week -- summer plans drastically revised-- Toscanini was back in Manhattan and at work.

Why? Toscanini offered no explanation, but Samuel Chotzinoff, NBC's musical director and the Maestro's longtime friend, made an authoritative guess: "Frankly, I think he was bored. Most of his old friends in Italy are dead now. And he missed TV; he loves to watch prizefights and all the shows and concerts. It's just a more peppy life here. Then, I think he sort of missed the amenities of living in America. Over there, things are apt to go wrong. Here, everything works smoothly-- the phones and the radio and everything . . . But most of all, I think he just missed working." At week's end, the Maestro was back on his own podium, leading the NBC Summer Symphony in the Dance of the Hours and a couple of other old Toscanini favorites which he seldom, if ever, gets a chance to conduct in regular season.

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