Word: toscanini
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...audience clapped for five minutes. But Toscanini barricaded himself in his dressing room, did not return for his bows...
...hissed for quiet and another called "Silenzio!" The musicians watched tensely as their 87-year-old conductor passed through the silence, leaning heavily on the arm of his son. Out in the hall, many of the audience who had come to witness the season's last Toscanini concert also guessed that it might be Arturo Toscanini's last stand with the NBC-and perhaps with any orchestra...
...evening's concert proved to be unlike any Toscanini had ever conducted before. Until two weeks ago, the Maestro's performances held the fire, vigor and precision for which he is famous. But at the final rehearsal he was upset, and walked out on the orchestra. At the concert-excerpts from his beloved Wagner operas-Toscanini's mind seemed to be far away. There were passages when his beat was robust as of old. There were other times when he almost stopped conducting, seeming to stand aside, listening to the music. Then the incredible happened: during...
That night the papers carried the news which for a week had been kept a strict secret even from his own musicians: Arturo Toscanini, the greatest performing musician alive today, had retired. For almost a fortnight, his letter of resignation to RCA Board Chairman David Sarnoff had rested, unsigned, on his desk. Abruptly, on his 87th birthday, Toscanini made his decision, ran upstairs and signed it. Excerpt: "And now the sad time has come when I must reluctantly lay aside my baton and say goodbye to my orchestra ... I shall carry with me rich memories of these years of music...
This week's broadcast by Munch was his introduction to NBC's 200-station audience. Next week's NBC broadcast will be Arturo Toscanini's farewell, at least for the 1953-54 season...