Word: podium
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Pouts & Frowns. The first day's session at Carnegie Hall began as the conductor nervously walked to his podium. The orchestra's applause calmed him down, and in a flash he called, "Duetto!" Soprano Herva Nelli and Tenor Jan Peerce began singing the last-act duet from Un Ballo in Maschera. Here & there the maestro stopped to shout a fiery "Vergogna!" or "Madonna mia!" and the group diligently began again. Finally, everybody managed to get through the duet according to Toscanini's demands, and the piece was recorded...
Strict Secret. But on the stage, the Maestro seemed to take hold of himself. He stepped to the edge of the podium, and, with careful gestures, gradually pulled the music together again. At the end of hfs final selection-the Prelude to Die Meistersinger-he left the podium before the final notes had sounded, and let the baton fall from his hand...
Arturo Toscanini himself is expected to go to Italy for the summer. Whether he will return to the U.S.-or whether he will ever conduct again-nobody knows. But his 68 years on the podium are already a legend. Wrote New York Times Critic Olin Downes: "Should this have been his permanent farewell... his name will remain supreme and his achievement immortally revered. There has never been a more gallant and intrepid champion of great music, or a spirit that flamed higher, or a nobler defender of the faith...
...part broadcasts of Ballo last week and this week, the maestro unobtrusively slipped on his spectacles just before he administered the downbeat. But although his figure was bent with age, it still bent flexibly with the music. His left hand, which he sometimes used to hold the podium rail, stiffly waved, patted and sliced the air while the world's most expressive baton all but drew pictures of the sounds he wanted. The orchestra played its heart out, and the soloists and chorus outdid themselves, actually made the old war horse sound like a Class One opera...
When the cheering audience had left the hall and the musicians had packed their instruments, Toscanini admirers were still marveling at the .conductor's vitality during his grueling hour and a half on the podium. "It's like the Toscanini I knew eleven years ago," said one. As for Arturo Toscanini, he is looking forward to a month of rest and study before he gives his next six concerts...