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{"id":19430,"date":"2017-09-15T18:30:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T12:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?p=19430"},"modified":"2017-09-12T02:36:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T20:36:51","slug":"toscanini-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/09\/toscanini-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Toscanini Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cHow is it possible,\u201d asks Terry Teachout<\/a>, \u201cthat a man who made his conducting debut when Grover Cleveland was president should still be sufficiently well known and revered that most of his recordings remain in print to this day?\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachout thinks that Harvey Sachs\u2019s Toscanini: Musician of Conscience<\/a> comes as close to an explanation as we can expect.<\/p>\n

Toscanini\u2019s\u00a0success and endurance can\u2019t be chalked up to technique:\u00a0\u201cwhile his manual gestures, whose effect was heightened by the irresistible force of his piercing gaze, were by all accounts unfailingly communicative, Toscanini\u2019s ability to draw unforgettable performances out of the orchestras that he led had at least as much to do with his natural musical gifts. These included an infallible memory \u2013 he always conducted without a score \u2013 and an eerily exact ear for wrong notes. Such attributes would have impressed orchestra players, a hard-nosed lot, even if they had not been deployed in the service of a personality so galvanizing that most musicians found it all but impossible not to do Toscanini\u2019s musical bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Sachs, Toscanini was conscience-bound to his music as much as to principle. He \u201cbelieved that it was his job \u2013 his duty, if you will \u2013 to perform the classics with note-perfect precision, singing tone, unflagging intensity, and an overall feeling of architectural unity that became his trademark. When an orchestra failed to give of its best, he flew into screaming rages whose verbal violence would likely not be believed were it not for the fact that there were secret tapes made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music-making wasn\u2019t release but passion:\u00a0The rare moments of ecstasy that he experienced on the podium were more than offset by his obsessive struggle to make the mere mortals who sang and played for him realize, as closely as possible, his vision of artistic perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"