Toscanini: Musician of Conscience [Paperback]

Harvey Sachss monumental (Alex Ross) biography recounts the sixty-eight-year career of conductor Arturo Toscanini (18671957), an artist celebrated for his fierce dedication, photographic memory, explosive temper, impassioned performances, and uncompromising work ethic. Toscanini collaborated with Verdi, Puccini, Debussy, and Richard Strauss; undertook major reforms at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera; and eventually pioneered the radio and television broadcasts of the NBC Symphony. His monumental achievements inspired generations, while his opposition to Nazism and fascism made him a model for artists of conscience. In this persuasive and compelling new biography, Sachs illuminates the crucialthe centralrole Toscanini played in our musical culture for well over 60 years (Extraordinary . . . . Indeed, I cannot think of another biography of a classical musician to which it can be compared: in its breadth, scope, and encyclopedic command of factual detail it reminds me of nothing so much as Robert A. Caros[A] monumental new Toscanini biography. The most riveting pages are devoted to the nineteen-thirties and forties, when the conductor converted his favorite repertoryBeethoven, Verdi, and Wagnerinto emblems of the fight against Fascism. I couldnt help wondering: What would Toscanini have done if he had been confronted by geomusical snarl in Hamburg? He might have had something to say.Without doubt the most engaging, the best-written and certainly the most comprehensive Toscanini yet to be published.A very engaging and at times gripping chronicle of music and society, all of it devoted to the unending drive and conscientiousness that made Toscaninis performances so rivetingand, to some, so repellent. . . . What comes through in Sachss long chronicle is the extent of Toscaninis role, witting and unwitting, in transforming the way that classical music was produced and consumed in the twentieth century.Sachss account is persuasive and compellil3œ