Arturo Toscanini: The First Recordings 1920 - 1926

Description

Of all the great conductors who were active during the 20th century, none left a greater recorded legacy than Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) – a man whom many regard as the greatest conductor of them all. His career was catapulted by being called upon, as a teenaged cellist in the orchestra, to conduct that evening’s performance of Verdi’s Aida – which he did, from memory. From that point, Toscanini’s career was never in doubt; before World War I he had been appointed to the Metropolitan Opera, New York and after the War was over in 1920-21, he brought the orchestra of La Scala Opera, Milan, to the United States for an extended tour. The impact was sensational and the Victor company, which had begun making orchestral recordings a year or so before in America, lost no time in securing the Maestro’s services and that of his orchestra. These acoustic recordings may seem archaic but such was the mastery of those early Victor engineers that it would be wrong to dismiss them. In this collection, which brings together all the recordings made during that tour, we hear music which Toscanini never again committed to disc.