Benjamin Ivry

Enlightening Conductor

Toscanini: Musician of Conscience

By

Liveright 944pp £29.99 order from our bookshop

The conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957), the sesquicentennial of whose birth is commemorated this year, combined unsurpassed passion with refinement in musical performance. Despite his renown for fidelity to the written notes, Toscanini always conducted from memory, as he was too myopic to perform without glasses and too vain to wear them in front of audiences. He was also not averse to gingering up scores to achieve what he felt were composers’ real intentions. 

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • From the Archive: Martyn Bedford on Ian McEwan's 'Atonement' ,
    • In 'Silenced Voices' reports the ongoing story of the human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been… ,
    • The mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity has long been agonised over. But what do we know about his victims?… ,
    • A piece of Literary Review history from way back in 1983: John Haffenden talks to the great Iris Murdoch. ,
    • Britain’s only travelling lit fest, the Garden Museum Literary Festival is heading to Houghton Hall, Norfolk, for a… ,
    • 'The 19th-century German sage is not my idea of a pleasant travel companion' goes hiking with Friedr… ,
    • If you want ideas about what to read next, sign up to our free email newsletter, and get book reviews, archive mate… ,
    Follow Us