Toscanini (1978)

Harvey Sachs

Toscanini

Lippincott, Hardback, 1978.
8vo. [xiv]+380 pp.

First published in 1978.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Notes and Acknowledgments

Foreword
1. Parma and Rio de Janeiro
2. Journeyman
3. La Scala
4. The Metropolitan
5. Milan and New York
6. To Dare To Say 'No'
7. The Phenomenon
8. Last Years
Some Observations

Notes
Appendix I
Appendix II
Bibliography
Index

=============================================

Harvey Sachs' Toscanini is widely regarded as the definitive biography of the legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867 - 1957). I suppose it deserves its fame; it is meticulously researched and written with spectacular imitation of objectivity. Also, it must have been a difficult book to write. Arturo Toscanini had a conducting career of almost 70 (!) years and became a legend in his own life. To say that he was a maniac with a passion for music is a gross understatement; he actually was more like a fanatic with a sacred mission. He was the first modern conductor, namely the first to establish new standards of unheard-of before precision and textual fidelity. He was the first Italian conductor to be world renowned for his interpretations of Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner, as well as the first non-German one invited to the Wagner festival in Bayreuth. His recording legacy is colossal and so was his repertoire, arguably one of the largest in musical history: about 600 different works by about 190 composers, according to Mr Sachs. His tempestuous character and violent outbursts were no less legendary than the immense vitality and vigour of his performances, matched perhaps only by his fiery anti-fascism and fabulous philandering. Even more than 50 years after his death, Arturo Toscanini still stands as one of the greatest conductors of the last century. Some 30 years ago, when Toscanini was first published, that was even more so; and Mr Sachs' task must have been even harder.

It is somewhat ironic that Harvey Sachs should have mentioned in the very first paragraph of his excellent Foreword that biographies of performing musicians are often in danger to sound like travelogue/who's who - because this is precisely how his book sounds a little bit too often. It is downright hilarious that in the same paragraph the author also mentions something about such books rarely been anything more than entertainment. Mr Sachs rarely if ever has any problems with lucidity, his prose is clear, well-structured and unaffected; overall his book is surely readable, but hardly absorbing, much less entertaining. From time to time there are whole pages that are nothing else but reviews of music critics and endless lists of works Toscanini conducted this season or in that opera house; it does get a bit tedious. What is worse, however, is that rarely can I perceive something of Toscanini's personality and that's what chiefly interests me in a great artist and a man who obviously possessed genius. If anything, Toscanini must have been a fascinating personality, just like pretty much any of his recordings in which this very personality is no doubt fully expressed. All facts and figures of his life, I daresay, are here and there is no reason to suppose that they could have been better researched, but both Toscanini the man and Toscanini the musician are to my mind almost completely lost amidst tons of unimportant reviews and such like.

Occasionally, Mr Sachs has some fascinating and stimulating reflections about the Maestro, but they are all too rare, alas. Still, the amount of biographical data is so overwhelming that the reader can easily create a vivid, if sketchy, image of the great conductor. It is very much to Mr Sachs' credit that he aims first and foremost at objectivity and is never afraid of looking from different points of view to any of the many scandals that were created almost everywhere where the Maestro appeared - the Milan La Scala, the New York Metropoliten, or the Wagner festival in Bayreuth, to name but a few. Nor does he discuss Toscanini's notorious extramarital adventures more than it is necessary, and that too is highly commendable. On the whole, it must be admitted, that Harvey Sachs certainly manages to convey something of the magic of Arturo Toscanini, a far more complicated personality and a far deeper musician than the popular monster of raging outbursts and fast tempos that was, and still continues to be, created by men who probably neither bother to read something else than yellow journalism, nor to listen carefully to the Maestro's recordings.

Despite all its drawbacks, though it leaves something to be desired in terms of depth, the book is of course well worth reading if one is interested in the great conductor. To the best of my belief, it still remains the most thorough account of the Maestro's tempestuous life and career. In his Foreword Mr Sachs makes no bones about previous attempts in that direction and without mincing words digs out a good many skeletons from the cupboards of a number of other writers about Toscanini. With a rather charming frankness Mr Sachs tells us that his biography is the first one to be written by somebody who had never heard Toscanini live, which is of course a great disadvantage, but it is also the first book about the great conductor written by somebody who knows something about the conductor's craft; Mr Sachs, it should be noted, is a trained if not exactly world famous conductor. He is also a competent writer, warts and all, and by all means a very fine researcher. Perhaps it is not irrelevant to mention that Mr Sachs, who's been living in Italy for years, is also fluent in Italian and personally responsible for all translations from that language in the book (and from at least six other languages, for that matter). It should be kept in mind, however, that Toscanini is no discography of the great conductor and it is such by design; so a great many of the Maestro's recordings are skipped, which is quite natural since his recording legacy is so prodigious that it does require a book of its own. So those who look for any musical analyses of any recordings of the Maestro, should look elsewhere.

On a more mundane side, the books contains a fine bibliography and an index (of course), as well as two Appendixes not without interest; the first is just one page and shows Toscanini's favourite orchestral arrangement, and the second is a list of his repertoire, surely incomplete but still of immense proportions. In conclusion, Toscanini by Harvey Sachs is a worth reading and a worth having book for every admirer of Arturo Toscanini. It also is an excellent way for one to start the exploration of that legendary artist and a truly fascinating personality. Despite its shortcomings, the book is stimulating enough to have a look at the other two volumes by Mr Sachs dedicated to the Maestro: Reflections on Toscanini and a collection of letters by the famous conductor. ( )