Toscanini: Musician of Conscience - Rilegato

Sachs, Harvey

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1631492713 ISBN 13: 9781631492716

Casa editrice: Liveright Pub Corp, 2017

Riassunto

It may be difficult to imagine today, but Arturo Toscanini—recognized widely as the most celebrated conductor of the twentieth century—was once one of the most famous people in the world. Like Einstein in science or Picasso in art, Toscanini (1867–1957) transcended his own field, becoming a figure of such renown that it was often impossible not to see some mention of the maestro in the daily headlines.Acclaimed music historian Harvey Sachs has long been fascinated with Toscanini’s extraordinary story. Drawn not only to his illustrious sixty-eight-year career but also to his countless expressions of political courage in an age of tyrants, and to a private existence torn between love of family and erotic restlessness, Sachs produced a biography of Toscanini in 1978. Yet as archives continued to open and Sachs was able to interview an ever-expanding list of relatives and associates, he came to realize that this remarkable life demanded a completely new work, and the result is Toscanini—an utterly absorbing story of a man who was incapable of separating his spectacular career from the call of his conscience.Famed for his fierce dedication but also for his explosive temper, Toscanini conducted the world premieres of many Italian operas, including Pagliacci, La Boheme, and Turandot, as well as the Italian premieres of works by Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy. In time, as Sachs chronicles, he would dominate not only La Scala in his native Italy but also the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He also collaborated with dozens of star singers, among them Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin, as well as the great sopranos Rosina Storchio, Geraldine Farrar, and Lotte Lehmann, with whom he had affairs.While this consuming passion constantly blurred the distinction between professional and personal, it did forge within him a steadfast opposition to totalitarianism and a personal bravery that would make him a model for artists of conscience. As early as 1922, Toscanini refused to allow his La Scala orchestra to play the Fascist anthem, "Giovinezza," even when threatened by Mussolini’s goons. And when tens of thousands of desperate Jewish refugees poured into Palestine in the late 1930s, he journeyed there at his own expense to establish an orchestra comprised of refugee musicians, and his travels were followed like that of a king.Thanks to unprecedented access to family archives, Toscanini becomes not only the definitive biography of the conductor, but a work that soars in its exploration of musical genius and moral conscience, taking its place among the great musical biographies of our time.

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Recensione:

"Drawing on a wide range of new evidence, including unknown letters and the archives of many of the opera houses that Arturo Toscanini worked with, including La Scala, Harvey Sachs has written a weighty and highly enjoyable account of one of the greatest conductors, a man still renowned for his pursuit of perfection."

--Books of the Year 2017, The Economist

"...[a] magnificent biography...there will surely be no need for another..."

--The Spectator

"Considering the great impact Arturo Toscanini had on my family--and certainly my father, Carmine Coppola, his first chair flute during the '40s--I would say that Toscanini's powerful personality brought a unity to his conducting...He was the music he was conducting, the interpretive being...I am reminded of all of this in reading Harvey Sachs's comprehensive new biography, which dramatically re-creates both the conductor's musical genius and the politics of a distant age."

--Francis Ford Coppola

"Harvey Sachs has provided a compendious chronicle of Toscanini's astonishing achievement across almost a century, and it makes for compelling reading."

--Times Literary Supplement

"Harvey Sachs has written the definitive biography of this great, and colourful, character...Mr Sachs's writing style is precise, fluent and gripping. And one can dip in and out of the book, since Mr Sachs helpfully offers reminders of important characters and explains basic concepts. As a study of the life and times of one of the greatest conductors of all time, this book will not soon be bettered."

--The Economist

"...marvellously researched and continually fascinating...[a] superb book..."

--The Oldie

"Sachs' mammoth biography of Toscanini is a tour de force; impressive in almost every respect. It's well written, hugely detailed and impeccably researched."

--Tribune Magazine

"Sachs has written a readable, fascinating and definitive book brought to life with the many letters and extracts from recordings of one of the great men of the 20th century."

--Up Beat

"Sachs' own dedication to this force of nature has been fulfilled in a book which ranks among the best of 2017."

--Classical Music Magazine

"It is without doubt the most engaging, the best-written and certainly the most comprehensive Toscanini biography yet to be written."

--Gramophone Magazine

L'autore:

Harvey Sachs, author and music historian, has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, Times Literary Supplement, and many other publications. He is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Liveright Pub Corp
• Data di pubblicazione: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1631492713
• ISBN 13: 9781631492716
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 923